In 1840 Brown, a former soldier, Indian trader, promoter, and Justice of the Peace set up a small warehouse at the head of Lake St. Croix to supply his upriver fur trading operations.

Several of Brown’s relatives, including his half-sister Lydia Ann and her husband, Paul Carli, moved into a house built of tamarack logs.

In an effort to reduce water temperatures for the benefit of trout, a dike was constructed to separate the stream from the lake and return the flow back to Brown's Creek.

[4] Brown's Creek has been listed as impaired since 2002 by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency because of low indices of biological integrity (IBI) for fish and macroinvertebrates.

Factors (all likely related to runoff) which harm fish and invertebrates include total suspended solids (TSS), high temperature, low dissolved oxygen (DO) and two pollutants: copper and nitrate-nitrite (NOx).