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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings
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FORT SNELLING
Minnesota
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Location: Hennepin County, adjacent to the
junction of Minn. 5 and Minn. 55, South Minneapolis.
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Founded in 1819, this fort was for many years the
most northwesterly military base in the United States; a key bastion on
the upper Mississippi; and the northern outpost on the "Permanent Indian
Frontier," which extended as far south as Fort Jesup, La. The post
protected settlers from Indians, cleared the way for the settlement of
the old Northwest, and promoted the growth of the fur trade. Later, from
1861 until 1946, it was essentially a training installation.
After the War of 1812 the Army, seeking to extend
U.S. control over the upper Mississippi Valley, planned a fort at the
confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers, a site that had been
well known to French traders, on land that Lt. Zebulon M. Pike had
purchased for a pittance in 1805 from the Sioux Indians. In 1819 Lt.
Col. Henry Leavenworth led a detachment up the Mississippi from Prairie
du Chien, Wis., to build the fort and wintered near an Indian village at
the site of Mendota, Minn. The camp, known as Camp New Hope, consisted
of log cabins and a stockade. In 1820 the troops moved across the
Mississippi and established Camp Goldwater just north of the mouth of
the Minnesota. That same year Col. Josiah Snelling succeeded Leavenworth
and began constructing a permanent fort on a 100-foot-high bluff
overlooking the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers. The
fort, completed in 1823 and named Fort St. Anthony, became Fort Snelling
2 years later. Of log and stone, it was constructed in the shape of a
diamond and was surrounded by a limestone wall. More medieval in
appearance than most forts, it had towers commanding the four
corners.
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Fort Snelling in 1844, by J. C.
Wild. (Minnesota Historical Society) |
The fort, a quarter mile east of an Indian agency,
guarded the region between the Great Lakes and the Missouri River. The
officers cooperated with Indian Agent Lawrence Taliaferro, who served
between 1819 and 1839, in preventing clashes between the Sioux and
Chippewas. Later the garrison kept other Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin
Indians on their reservations. It also policed the Canadian border to
prevent the incursions of Métis and French-Canadian
buffalo hunters.
Once the frontier advanced to the Great Plains, Fort
Snelling's importance declined and it became mainly a supply base. In
1857 the Army abandoned it. Reactivated in 1861 as a training center for
Civil War troops, it also was instrumental in putting down the 1862
Sioux uprising in the Minnesota River Valley. The focus of conflict
between Indians and soldiers subsequently shifted West, to the Dakotas,
and later to Montana and Wyoming. Playing a supporting role in these
operations, in 1881 the fort became headquarters of the Department of
Dakota (Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Montana). In later years it was
mainly a training center. In 1946 the Army departed and deeded it to the
Veterans' Administration.
Modern bridges, highways, and urban expansion have
impaired the historical scene. The Veterans' Administration, other
Government Agencies, and the State have jurisdiction over various parts
of the modern Fort Snelling reservation. The Minnesota Historical
Society has long been active in preserving and interpreting the old
fort. In 1957-58 excavations uncovered the foundations of several
structures, including the powder magazine, schoolhouse, sutler's store,
hospital, shops, cisterns, and a portion of the original walls. At that
time, two of the original 16 buildings, constructed in the early 1820's,
were still standing: a hexagonal stone tower, only slightly altered; and
a round stone tower, considered the oldest building in Minnesota.
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The Minnesota Historical Society
is carrying out an extensive restoration-reconstruction program at Fort
Snelling. The round tower, background, is one of the structures that has
been restored. (Minnesota Historical Society) |
In October 1969 the State acquired from the Veterans'
Administration for inclusion in Fort Snelling State Park the old fort
area, a 21.25-acre tract lying to the east and north of the adjacent
freeway and surrounded on three sides by the modern Fort Snelling
installation. Four years before, with the permission of the Veterans'
Administration, the State historical society had begun a large-scale
reconstruction-restoration program. By April of 1970, it had
reconstructed the guard complex, a building consisting of separate rooms
that served a wide variety of functions and were separated by interior
walls; pentagonal tower; 560 feet of the original wall; schoolhouse;
powder magazine; sutler's store; and well house. Restorations included
the old round and hexagonal towers. The society plans to furnish all the
buildings in period style. When this volume went to press, it was still
seeking title to a 141.39-acre tract comprising the later fort area, to
the west and south of the freeway.
NHL Designation: 12/19/60
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/soldier-brave/siteb12.htm
Last Updated: 19-Aug-2005
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