Seeing an opportunity, Ammi W. Wright and Charles Davis, loggers by trade, thought the location would be ideal for a logging base camp and railroad terminus.
Though most of the timber near the river had already been cut by 1890, the two solved the problem by constructing a railroad up into the high elevation timberlands of the Gardner and Hibbing areas.
The railroad was built with all the modern equipment, including telegraph lines connecting the various stops.
The Swan River Logging Company built a board fence around the cemetery.
People living outside of the town had to go down the Mississippi River a distance of two miles to connect with a steamboat.