The first post office was established on June 18, 1894 at the Carson Trading Post on the south shore of Lake Bemidji. It was supplied from Park Rapids, just 46 miles to the southwest. The nearest other post office was about 80 miles to the southeast at Leech Lake. At first the mail came twice a week on the stage run by William Bartletson. The stage made the trip from Bemidji to Park Rapids, a distance of fifty miles, in one day by changing teams at Lake George. When the documents were signed on June 16, 1894, the population to be served was 150. The post office was described as sixty rods from the Mississippi River, on the south side of it and two miles from the nearest creek on the east. The general location is known but never pin pointed. In 1903, the Crookston Lumber Company built a saw mill, and the area where the Carson Trading Post stood was leveled off and used as a lumber yard. After the fire at the mill and lumber yard in 1924, U. S. Highway #2 was rerouted and constructed along the south shore of Lake Bemidji and some more fill and leveling of ground destroyed all evidence of any buildings being there. Sixty rods from the river would bring it just beyond where the Standard Lumber Company was located on Midway Drive, since renamed Paul Bunyan Drive.
Exploring the Rich History of the Bemidji Area