Fort Snelling State Park
Encyclopedia
Fort Snelling State Park is a 2931 acres (11.9 km²) state park
of Minnesota
, USA, at the confluence of the Mississippi
and Minnesota
rivers. Its most notable feature is the historic Fort Snelling, which dates from 1820. The fort itself is operated by the Minnesota Historical Society
and requires a separate entrance fee. The bulk of the state park preserves the bottomland forest, rivers, and backwater lakes below the river bluffs. The park was opened in 1962. Both the State Park and Historic Fort are part of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area
, a National Park Service
site.
As of 2005, the park hosts 400,000 visitors annually and contains the restored fort, a visitor center
, 18 miles (29 km) of cross-country skiing
trails, 18 miles (29 km) of hiking
trails, and 5 miles (8 km) of biking trails. These trails connect the park to the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge
, Minnehaha Park
, and regional trail systems like the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway
and the Big Rivers Regional Trail
. Minnesota State Highway 55
crosses over the park on the Mendota Bridge, and many jets taking off and landing at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport
fly directly over the park.
, green ash
, wood nettle
, jewelweed, and willow
. There are also marshes, backwater lakes, and wet meadows. Abundant wildlife includes white-tailed deer
, fox
, woodchuck, badger
, and skunk
. Reptiles include the snapping turtle
, painted turtle
, soft-shelled turtle, and the non-venomous western fox snake
. In 1864 a railroad was built through the area, connecting St. Paul with the riverboat landing.
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 2400 acres (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.
State park
State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the federated state level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, or recreational...
of Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, USA, at the confluence of the Mississippi
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
and Minnesota
Minnesota River
The Minnesota River is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 332 miles long, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It drains a watershed of nearly , in Minnesota and about in South Dakota and Iowa....
rivers. Its most notable feature is the historic Fort Snelling, which dates from 1820. The fort itself is operated by the Minnesota Historical Society
Minnesota Historical Society
The Minnesota Historical Society is a private, non-profit educational and cultural institution dedicated to preserving the history of the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was founded by the territorial legislature in 1849, almost a decade before statehood. The Society is named in the Minnesota...
and requires a separate entrance fee. The bulk of the state park preserves the bottomland forest, rivers, and backwater lakes below the river bluffs. The park was opened in 1962. Both the State Park and Historic Fort are part of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area
Mississippi National River and Recreation Area
The Mississippi National River and Recreation Area protects a and corridor along the Mississippi River from the cities of Dayton and Ramsey, Minnesota to just downstream of Hastings, Minnesota. This includes the stretch of Mississippi River which flows through Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota...
, a National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
site.
As of 2005, the park hosts 400,000 visitors annually and contains the restored fort, a visitor center
Visitor center
A visitor center or centre , visitor information center, tourist information center, is a physical location that provides tourist information to the visitors who tour the place or area locally...
, 18 miles (29 km) of cross-country skiing
Cross-country skiing
Cross-country skiing is a winter sport in which participants propel themselves across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles...
trails, 18 miles (29 km) of hiking
Hiking
Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often in mountainous or other scenic terrain. People often hike on hiking trails. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking...
trails, and 5 miles (8 km) of biking trails. These trails connect the park to the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge
Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge
The Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge is a 14,000 acre National Wildlife Refuge in central Minnesota. There are eight refuge units strung along of the Minnesota River. Located just south of the city of Minneapolis, this is one of only four American national wildlife refuges in an urban...
, Minnehaha Park
Minnehaha Falls
Minnehaha Creek is a tributary of the Mississippi River located in Hennepin County, Minnesota that extends from Lake Minnetonka in the west and flows east for 22 miles through several suburbs west of Minneapolis and then through south Minneapolis. Including Lake Minnetonka, the watershed for the...
, and regional trail systems like the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway
Grand Rounds Scenic Byway
The Grand Rounds Scenic Byway is a linked series of park areas in Minneapolis, Minnesota that takes a roughly circular path through the city. The corridors include roads for automobile traffic plus paths for pedestrians and bicycles, and extend slightly into neighboring cities...
and the Big Rivers Regional Trail
Big Rivers Regional Trail
Big Rivers Regional Trail is a rail trail in Minnesota, in the cities of Lilydale, Mendota, and Mendota Heights.The paved trail occupies an abandoned railroad corridor. It is used for walking, biking and inline skating and is part of the Dakota County park system. The trail follows the...
. Minnesota State Highway 55
Minnesota State Highway 55
Minnesota State Highway 55 is a highway in west-central, central, and east-central Minnesota, which runs from the North Dakota state line near Tenney and continues east and southeast to its eastern terminus at its intersection with U.S...
crosses over the park on the Mendota Bridge, and many jets taking off and landing at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport
Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport
Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport is the largest and busiest airport in the five-state upper Midwest region of Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin.-Overview:...
fly directly over the park.
Landscape
Today the bottomlands of the river confluence boast a floodplain forest of cottonwood, silver mapleSilver Maple
The silver maple —also called creek maple, river maple, silverleaf maple, soft maple, water maple, or white maple—is a species of maple native to eastern North America in the eastern United States and Canada...
, green ash
Green Ash
Fraxinus pennsylvanica is a species of ash native to eastern and central North America, from Nova Scotia west to southeastern Alberta and eastern Colorado, south to northern Florida, and southwest to eastern Texas....
, wood nettle
Nettle
Nettles constitute between 24 and 39 species of flowering plants of the genus Urtica in the family Urticaceae, with a cosmopolitan though mainly temperate distribution. They are mostly herbaceous perennial plants, but some are annual and a few are shrubby...
, jewelweed, and willow
Willow
Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere...
. There are also marshes, backwater lakes, and wet meadows. Abundant wildlife includes white-tailed deer
White-tailed Deer
The white-tailed deer , also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States , Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru...
, fox
Fox
Fox is a common name for many species of omnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail .Members of about 37 species are referred to as foxes, of which only 12 species actually belong to...
, woodchuck, badger
Badger
Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the weasel family, Mustelidae. There are nine species of badger, in three subfamilies : Melinae , Mellivorinae , and Taxideinae...
, and skunk
Skunk
Skunks are mammals best known for their ability to secrete a liquid with a strong, foul odor. General appearance varies from species to species, from black-and-white to brown or cream colored. Skunks belong to the family Mephitidae and to the order Carnivora...
. Reptiles include the snapping turtle
Snapping turtle
The common snapping turtle is a large freshwater turtle of the family Chelydridae. Its natural range extends from southeastern Canada, southwest to the edge of the Rocky Mountains, as far east as Nova Scotia and Florida and as far southwest as northeastern Mexico...
, painted turtle
Painted Turtle
The painted turtle is the most widespread native turtle of North America. It lives in slow-moving fresh waters, from southern Canada to Louisiana and northern Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The turtle is the only species of the genus Chrysemys, which is part of the pond turtle...
, soft-shelled turtle, and the non-venomous western fox snake
Pantherophis vulpina
The Western Fox Snake is a species of non-venomous colubrid snake.-Description:Western Fox Snakes are three to six feet long snakes with a black and yellow checkerboard pattern on their belly. They are usually light golden brown with dark brown spots and a short, flattened snout. Like most North...
. In 1864 a railroad was built through the area, connecting St. Paul with the riverboat landing.
History
At the beginning of historical times, MdewakantonMdewakanton
Mdewakantonwan are one of the sub-tribes of the Isanti Dakota . Their historic home is Mille Lacs Lake in central Minnesota, which in the Dakota language was called mde wakan .As part of the Santee Sioux, their ancestors had migrated from the Southeast of the present-day United States, where the...
Dakota
Sioux
The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
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
Zebulon Pike
Zebulon Montgomery Pike Jr. was an American officer and explorer for whom Pikes Peak in Colorado is named. As a United States Army captain in 1806-1807, he led the Pike Expedition to explore and document the southern portion of the Louisiana Purchase and to find the headwaters of the Red River,...
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
Fort Snelling, Minnesota
Fort Snelling, originally known as Fort Saint Anthony, was a military fortification located at the confluence of the Minnesota River and Mississippi River in Hennepin County, Minnesota...
, 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
Dakota War of 1862
The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, was an armed conflict between the United States and several bands of the eastern Sioux. It began on August 17, 1862, along the Minnesota River in southwest Minnesota...
, 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
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
. 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
Minnesota Historical Society
The Minnesota Historical Society is a private, non-profit educational and cultural institution dedicated to preserving the history of the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was founded by the territorial legislature in 1849, almost a decade before statehood. The Society is named in the Minnesota...
, 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 2400 acres (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.
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
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
and the Webb Publishing Company. Eventually, the remaining half of the fort, which had been occupied by the Department of Veterans Affairs
United States Department of Veterans Affairs
The United States Department of Veterans Affairs is a government-run military veteran benefit system with Cabinet-level status. It is the United States government’s second largest department, after the United States Department of Defense...
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
Tuckpointing
Tuckpointing is a way of using two contrasting colours of mortar in brickwork, one colour matching the bricks themselves, to give an artificial impression that very fine joints have been made.-History:...
of the original stone blocks. Controversially, WPA
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
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.
Recreation
- Bicycling: 5 miles (8 km) of paved trail, connecting to regional paved trails. 10 miles (16.1 km) of gravel trails.
- Boating: Public boat ramp on Minnesota River by picnic area. Canoe access to lakes and rivers.
- Cross-country skiing: 12 miles (19.3 km) of groomed ski trails in the park.
- Fishing: Lake and river fishing. Fishing pier on Snelling Lake.
- Hiking: 18 miles (29 km) of hiking trails in the park.
- Interpretation:
- Thomas C. Savage Visitor Center with exhibits and year-round programs, operated by the Minnesota Department of Natural ResourcesMinnesota Department of Natural ResourcesThe Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is the agency of the U.S. state of Minnesota charged with conserving and managing the state's natural resources. The agency maintains areas such as state parks, state forests, recreational trails, and recreation areas as well as managing minerals,...
. - Tours of historic Fort Snelling (separate fee), operated by the Minnesota Historical Society.
- Thomas C. Savage Visitor Center with exhibits and year-round programs, operated by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
- Sports:
- Minneapolis Parks and Recreation operates a nine-hole golf course and a sports field west of the fort, on its historic polo ground.
- 2 playgrounds, by beach and by picnic area.
- Park office lends beach volleyball equipment.
- Swimming: Beach on Snelling Lake.
- Weddings and funerals: The Fort Snelling Memorial Chapel, built in 1926, is reservable.
- No camping. The park is day-use only, open from 8am to 10pm.
See also
- Fort Snelling, MinnesotaFort Snelling, MinnesotaFort Snelling, originally known as Fort Saint Anthony, was a military fortification located at the confluence of the Minnesota River and Mississippi River in Hennepin County, Minnesota...
- Mississippi National River and Recreation AreaMississippi National River and Recreation AreaThe Mississippi National River and Recreation Area protects a and corridor along the Mississippi River from the cities of Dayton and Ramsey, Minnesota to just downstream of Hastings, Minnesota. This includes the stretch of Mississippi River which flows through Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota...
- Minnesota Valley National Wildlife RefugeMinnesota Valley National Wildlife RefugeThe Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge is a 14,000 acre National Wildlife Refuge in central Minnesota. There are eight refuge units strung along of the Minnesota River. Located just south of the city of Minneapolis, this is one of only four American national wildlife refuges in an urban...
External links
- Fort Snelling State Park @ Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
- Fort Snelling State Park @ National Park Service
- Historic Fort Snelling @ Minnesota Historical Society
- The Records of the Fort Snelling State Park Association are available for research use at the Minnesota Historical Society.