Fort Snelling State Park - History

History

At the beginning of historical times, Mdewakanton Dakota lived in this area. The confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers was to them the center of the world. In 1805 Lieutenant Zebulon Pike met with the Mdewakanton on the island between the two rivers and negotiated the purchase of land along the blufftops. The treaty site is now known as Pike Island. Details of Fort Snelling, which was built between 1820 and 1825 on the land Pike acquired, are contained in its own entry.

The soldiers from Fort Snelling had gardens, livestock, bakery, and boat storage sheds in the low river valley. After the Dakota War of 1862, over 1600 Dakota men, women, and children were forcibly confined in a camp in this area through the winter of 1862–1863, before being expelled to Nebraska. Over the winter, approximately 300 died due to malnutrition, disease, and exposure.

During the 1950s, the state government had planned to build a freeway interchange and bridge over the site of the fort, prompting concerned locals and Russell W. Fridley, director of the Minnesota Historical Society, to call a meeting to examine how to preserve the fort. Eventually, the state agreed to build a tunnel underneath the fort, thus preserving the old structures. In 1960, A.R. Nichols, a landscape architect, submitted plans for a 2,400-acre (9.7 km2) park on the site. Based on a much earlier plan, this design would become the basis for the final form of the park. Interested citizens organized the Fort Snelling State Park Association, putting money and public relations effort into the promotion of the park's establishment. While there was widespread support for preserving the old fortifications, some local landowners were not enthused about plans to purchase additional lands, claiming that the price the government proposed to pay was not adequate. In response, the Park Association began to raise funds privately to buy out at least some of the owners. A second consideration was whether or not the federal government would grant the actual fort property to the state as surplus land.

On the last day of the 1961 legislative session, a $65,000 appropriation was made and the park's boundaries were set (on a much smaller scale than can be seen today) so as to acquire the federal land. On October 29, the federal government donated 320 acres (1.3 km2) of land, including portions of the fort, to the State of Minnesota under the 1944 Surplus Property Act. The park was officially opened on June 3, 1962.

The restoration of the fort had begun as early as 1957, and with the establishment of the park, such efforts received new momentum. Old plans were found in the National Archives and the state legislature granted regular appropriations to fund the project until 1979. Limestone to match the original building material was taken from lands owned by the City of Saint Paul and the Webb Publishing Company. Eventually, the remaining half of the fort, which had been occupied by the Department of Veterans Affairs was also donated to the park and restoration of the entire fort could proceed. Structures including walls, the round tower, barracks, the commandant's house, gatehouse, magazine, school, and others were either restored or rebuilt to 19th-century condition. Workers went so far as to recreate the rough trowel tuckpointing of the original stone blocks. Controversially, WPA murals from the 1930s were removed from the interior of the tower.

In 1970 a swimming beach was opened in the park and visitation increased 75%. An interpretive center was opened in 1974, the first year-round interpretive center in the Minnesota state park system. Even without a campground, this is the most visited state park in Minnesota most years.