Editing Akeley, Minnesota (section)

==History==
[[File:Akeley Paul Bunyan Historical Museum-closeup.jpg|thumb|left|Akeley Paul Bunyan Historical Museum]]The city of Akeley was incorporated on December 30, 1916. It was largely developed by a partnership between [[lumber]] magnate [[T. B. Walker]] and Healy C. Akeley, who formed the Red River Lumber Company in 1893.<ref name=MNHS>{{cite web|author=Peterson, David B. (processor)|url=http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00093.xml#a2|title=Biographies of the Walker Family in T. B. Walker and Family Papers|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society|accessdate=November 2, 2007<!-- November 26, 2009 -->|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081121122855/http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00093.xml#a2|archive-date=November 21, 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/stream/sketchesoflifeof00walk#page/n29/mode/2up Sketches of the life of Honorable T. B. Walker. A compilation of biographical sketches<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> General settlement of Akeley began in 1895. After Walker built a sawmill in 1902, Akeley's development skyrocketed. The mill was once the largest in the state of Minnesota.<ref name="akeleyminnesota.com">{{Cite web |url=http://www.akeleyminnesota.com/organizations/museum/museum.htm |title=Akeley Paul Bunyan Historical Society Museum<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=June 14, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609215052/http://www.akeleyminnesota.com/organizations/museum/museum.htm |archive-date=June 9, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Thomas B. Walker had intended to build the mill in what would later become [[Walker, Minnesota]], but chose Akeley instead because of his wife's disapproval of the bars and brothels in the Walker area.<ref>[[Walker, Minnesota]]</ref>

Because of the mill, and the train depot built in 1899, Akeley became a [[boomtown]].<ref>[http://www.lakesnwoods.com/Akeley.htm Akeley, Minnesota City Guide<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Lumberjacks came and went on every freight train. The population swelled from 2,000 to over 3,500 between 1907 and 1908.<ref name="akeleyminnesota.com"/> Now the town has fewer than 500 residents.