A restored 19th-century military fort on the bluffs above the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers, about 8 km north of Bloomington. The Minnesota Historical Society operates the fort as a living history site with costumed interpreters, demonstrations, and exhibits covering the full, unvarnished history of the place — including its role in the US-Dakota War. The surrounding Fort Snelling State Park offers excellent riverside hiking and good birdwatching at the river confluence. Open spring through autumn; combined fort and park visit takes a full half-day.
Historic Fort Snelling
19th-century military fort at the junction of two great rivers
A story
Fort Snelling was built between 1820 and 1825 at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers — a strategically commanding position that had been inhabited by the Dakota people for centuries before. The fort's history includes chapters that are actively contested: enslaved African Americans were held here, and during the US-Dakota War of 1862, over 1,600 Dakota women, children, and elderly men were imprisoned in a concentration camp below the fort walls, where hundreds died.