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Fort Snelling is a former military fortification and National Historic Landmark in the U.S. state of Minnesota on the bluffs overlooking the confluence of the Minnesota River and Mississippi Rivers. The military site was initially named Fort Saint Anthony, but it was renamed Fort Snelling when its construction was completed in 1825.
Before the American Civil War, the U.S. Army supported slavery at the fort by allowing its soldiers to bring their personal enslaved people. These included African Americans Dred Scott and Harriet Robinson Scott, who lived at the fort in the 1830s. In the 1840s, the Scotts sued for their freedom, arguing that having lived in "free territory" made them free, leading to the landmark United States Supreme Court case Dred Scott v. Sandford. Slavery ended at the fort just before Minnesota statehood in 1858.
The fort served as the primary center for U.S. government forces during the Dakota War of 1862. It also was the site of the concentration camp The US-Dakota War of 1862, Historic Fort Snelling, MNHS where Dakota people and Ho-Chunk non-combatants awaited riverboat transport in their forced removal from Minnesota when hostilities ceased. The fort served as a recruiting station during the Civil War, Spanish–American War, and both World Wars before being decommissioned a second time in 1946. It then fell into a state of disrepair until the lower post was restored to its original appearance in 1965. At that time, all that remained of the original lower post were the round and hexagonal towers. Many of the upper post's important buildings remain today, with some still in disrepair.
The historic fort is in the unorganized territory of Fort Snelling within Hennepin County, bordering Ramsey and Dakota counties.
Multiple government agencies now own portions of the former fort, with the Minnesota Historical Society administering the Historic Fort Snelling site. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources administers Fort Snelling State Park at the bottom of the bluff. Fort Snelling once encompassed the park's land. It has been cited as a "National Treasure" by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The historic fort is in the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, a National Park Service unit.
The confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers also became a place where Native Americans signed treaties with the United States: the 1805 Treaty of St. Peters signed by the Mdewakanton, the 1837 White Pine Treaty signed by several Ojibwe bands, and the 1851 Treaty of Mendota signed by representatives of the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute Dakota.
Article One — That the Sioux nation grants unto the United States for the purpose of establishment of military posts, nine miles square at the mouth of river St. Croix, also from below the confluence of the Mississippi and St. Peters, up the Mississippi to Include the falls of St. Anthony, extending nine miles on each side of the river.Government relations with the Dakota Sioux (1851–1876), University of Montana Dissertation, Kenneth Burton Moore, 1937Legal scholars, historians, and the Dakota have long raised questions about the 1805 treaty's validity. Although Pike was an army officer, he was not authorized to sign a treaty on behalf of the United States, nor were there any formal witnesses. Pike represented the treaty as having been agreed to by the entire Sioux nation, but in reality it was signed only by representatives of two Mdewakanton villages.target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[2]
From a legal point of view, the land the signers intended to Conveyancing was inadequately described. No consideration, or payment terms, were in the treaty. Pike wrote in his journal he thought the land was worth US$200,000, but within the treaty itself he left the payment amount blank, letting Congress determine the final amount. On April 16, 1808, when the U.S. Senate ratified the treaty, it approved payment to the Dakota of only $2,000.
In 1819, payment for the ceded lands arrived when the United States Department of War sent Major Thomas Forsyth to distribute goods worth approximately $2,000. In 1838, Indian agent Lawrence Taliaferro paid a further $4,000 to try to settle the matter with the other Dakota band. The issue was raised in treaty negotiations in the 1850s. In 1863, Congress passed an act that "abrogated and annulled" all treaties with the Dakota people. The moral legitimacy of the land title is still disputed.
Pike Island, at the mouth of the Minnesota River, was later named after Zebulon Pike.
The forts were seen as the embodiment of federal authority, representing law and order, and protected pioneers and traders. The Fort Snelling garrison also attempted to keep the peace among the Dakota people and other tribes. Also built on army land was the St. Peter's Indian Agency at Mendota.St. Peters Indian Agency (Minnesota), Family Search, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, March 2015 [3] The Anglo-Europeans called the Minnesota River the St. Peter's and the Indian Agency was part of Fort Snelling from 1820 to 1853.
Lieutenant Colonel Henry Leavenworth commanded the expedition of 5th Infantry that built the initial outpost in 1819. That cantonment was called "New Hope" and was on the river flats along the Minnesota River. Leavenworth lost 40 men to scurvy that winter and moved his encampment to Camp Coldwater because he felt the riverside location contributed to the outbreak.Old Fort Snelling 1819–1858, The Project Gutenberg Ebook, Marcus L. Hansen, September 2007, pp. 21–28 [4] The new camp was near a spring closer to the fortification he was constructing. That spring was the fort's source of drinking water throughout the 19th century. It held spiritual significance for the Sioux.
The post surgeon began recording meteorological observations at the fort in January 1820. The U.S. Army Surgeon General made the recording of four weather readings every day a duty of the surgeon at every Army post.History of Weather Observations, Fort Ripley Minnesota, 1849–1990, Minnesota State Climatology Office DNR-Division of Waters, St Paul, Mn, Peter Boulay, 2006, pp. 9–10 [5] Fort Snelling has one of the nation's longest near-continuous weather records.Annual Climatolocial Summary, Fort Snelling MN, Year 1820, MN DNR webpage, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, 500 Lafayette Road, Saint Paul, MN [6]
In 1820, Colonel Josiah Snelling took command of the outpost and the fort's construction. Upon completion in 1824, he christened his work "Fort St. Anthony" for the waterfalls just upriver. General Winfield Scott changed the name to Fort Snelling in recognition of the fort's architect commander.
From construction in 1820 to closure in 1858, four army units garrisoned the fort—the 1st,The First Regiment of Infantry, The Army of the US Historical Sketches of the Line and Staff with Portraits of the Generals in Chief, Lt. Charles Byrne, New York Maynard, Merrill and Company, 1896, p. 401, U.S Army Center of Military History website [7] 5th,The Fifth Regiment of Infantry, The Army of the US Historical Sketches of the Line and Staff with Portraits of the Generals in Chief, Lt. Charles Byrne, New York Maynard, Merrill and Company, 1896, p. 480, U.S Army Center of Military History website [8] 6th, and 10th Regiments— as did a company from the 1st Dragoons. In 1827 the 5th Infantry was replaced by the 1st Infantry for ten years, with the 5th returning in 1837. The 5th garrisoned the fort until the 1st relieved it again in 1840. In 1848 the 6th Infantry became the garrison. The garrison changed again in November 1855. The 10th, commanded by Colonel C.F. Smith, assumed duty. Smith went on to become a major general.
Colonel Snelling was recalled to Washington, leaving Fort Snelling in September 1827. He died the next summer from complications of dysentery and a "brain fever".
In 1827, Minnesota's first post office opened at Fort Snelling, with most mail forwarded from Fort Crawford.The Post Office in Early Minnesota, Minnesota History Vol. 40 No.2, Summer 1966, J. W. Patterson, p. 78, MHS website [9]
Colonel Zachary Taylor assumed command in 1828. He observed that the "Bison are entirely gone and bear and deer are scarcely seen." He also wrote that the "Indians subsist principally on fish, water fowl and wild rice".Zachary Taylor and Minnesota, Minnesota History Vol. 30, June 1949, Holman Hamilton p. 101, MHS website [10] While Taylor was posted to Fort Snelling, eight adult enslaved people with him died, as did several minors.
Along with the construction of the fort, an Indian Agency was constructed on the military reservation opposite the fort at Mendota. It was administered by Major Lawrence Taliaferro. In 1834 Taliaferro and the fort commandant, Major Bliss, assisted missionaries Gideon and Samuel W. Pond in developing the Dakota alphabet and compiling a Dakota dictionary.1834, A Fort Snelling Calendar, Minnesota History, Fall 1970, Marilyn Ziebarth, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, Mn [11] Taliaferro also served as the Territorial Justice of Peace until 1838, when the governor of Iowa named Henry Sibley as his replacement.
The Agency was used to hold court, and those incarcerated were sent to Fort Snelling's round tower. The town of St. Paul also sent its criminals to the tower until it built its first jail in 1851. Both Fort Snelling and Fort Ripley provided this civil service for internment of criminals until the territory developed the necessary civil infrastructure.The Original Saint Paul Jail, Saint Paul Police Historical Society webpage, Edward J. Steenberg, 2020 There were 21 enslaved people with Taliaferro, one of whom was Harriet Robinson. She married Dred Scott, with Taliaferro officiating, at Mendota.
John Marsh arrived at the fort during the early 1820s. He started the first school in the Territory for the officers' children. Marsh developed a relationship with the Dakota, and compiled a dictionary of the Mendota tribe's dialect. He had studied medicine at Harvard without earning a degree. He continued his studies under the tutelage of the fort's physician, Dr. Purcell, but Purcell died before he completed the coursework, and Marsh moved west. Colbruno, Michael "Lives of the Dead: Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland." December 12, 2009. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
Major Plympton became the post commander in August 1837. He prioritized determining the actual boundaries of the fort's land, doing two surveys. After the second, he sent troops to evict "Pig's Eye" Pierre Parrant from Fountain Cave downriver. Parrant's tavern there was the first commercial venture in what became St. Paul. Parrant was a notorious bootleg liquor doing business with the Dakota and the soldiers, causing trouble for the fort commander.This date in Minnesota History, Pig's Eye Parrant, Minnesota Historical Society Society Archives, St. Paul, MN [13]
After his eviction, Parrant's cave remained a popular place for Fort Snelling'
Accessed 6 Oct. 2025. The eviction coincided with the arrival of the Catholic missionary Lucian Galtier. That year also saw the arrival of Pierre Bottineau, who served the fort as a guide and interpreter.
Lieutenant Colonel Seth Eastman was commander of the fort twice in the 1840s. Patricia Condon Johnston, "Seth Eastman: The Soldier Artist", PBS, accessed 11 December 2008 Eastman was an artist. He has been recognized for his extensive work recording the Dakota. "Seth Eastman", Library: History Topics, Minnesota Historical Society, 2011, accessed 3 February 2011 His skill was such that Congress commissioned him to illustrate Henry Rowe Schoolcraft's six-volume study Indian Tribes of the United States. The set was published between 1851 and 1857 with hundreds of his works. " West Point, New York by Seth Eastman", with bio, US Senate, accessed 29 September 2009
From 1833 to 1836 the surgeon Nathan Sturges Jarvis was stationed at Fort Snelling.The Jarvis Collection of Native American Plains Art, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn New York,[17] During that time he acquired a notable collection of northern plains Native American artifacts now housed at the Brooklyn Museum.
As Minneapolis and St. Paul grew and with Minnesota statehood before Congress, the need for a forward frontier military post had ceased. In 1857, with the fort's deactivation looming, the garrison was sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to join the other units being sent to Utah for what became known as the Utah War.The Tenth Regiment of Infantry, The Army of the US Historical Sketches of the Line and Staff with Portraits of the Generals in Chief, Lt. S.Y. Seyburn, New York Maynard, Merrill and Company, 1896, p. 531, U.S Army Center of Military History website [22] With the departure of the 10th Infantry, Fort Snelling was designated as surplus government property.
In 1858, when Minnesota became a state, the army sold it to Franklin Steele for $90,000. Steele operated the two ferries serving the fort across both rivers at the same time he was the sutler to the fort. He also was a friend of the sitting president, James Buchanan. At that time the fort sat on . A small portion of that was later annexed into south Minneapolis. ()
The balance of that original land is now broken into Historic Fort Snelling Interpretive Center (300 acres), Fort Snelling State Park (2,931 acres), Fort Snelling National Cemetery (436 acres), Fort Snelling VA Hospital (160 acres),Our History, Minneapolis VA Health Care System, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, June 2015 [23] Minnesota Veterans Home (53 acres), the Coldwater Spring unit of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (29 acres),Friends of Coldwater Green Museum initiative, Friends of Coldwater webpage [24] the Upper Post Veterans Home, and Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport and the Minneapolis-St Paul Joint Air Reserve Station (2,930 acres).
US Army officers submitted pay vouchers to cover the expenses of retaining enslaved persons. From 1855 to 1857, nine people were enslaved at Fort Snelling. The last slave-holding unit was the 10th Infantry. Slavery was made unconstitutional in Minnesota when the state constitution was ratified in 1858.
Two women who had lived enslaved at Fort Snelling sued for their freedom and were set free in 1836. One, Rachel, was enslaved by Lieutenant Thomas Stockton at Fort Snelling from 1830 to 1831, then at Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien until 1834. When Rachel and her son were sold in St. Louis, she sued, claiming she had been illegally enslaved in the Minnesota Territory. In 1836 the Missouri Supreme Court ruled in her favor, making her a free person. The second woman, Courtney, also sued for freedom in St. Louis. When the Missouri Supreme Court ruled in Rachel's favor, Courtney's enslaver conceded her case as well, and freed Courtney and her son William.
Courtney had another son, Joseph Godfrey, who remained in Minnesota when she was sent to a slave market in St. Louis. He is the only known "Minnesota runaway slave" who ran away from the fort and was taken in by the Dakota.Slavery and Freedom on the Minnesota Territory Frontier: The Strange Saga of Joseph Godfrey, Black Past web site, Walt Bachman, August 2013 [26] He was involved in the Dakota War and was the first defendant on the docket of the military tribunal for hanging. James Thompson was also enslaved around the same time at Fort Snelling, first by a sutler and then by military officer William Day; his freedom was purchased by Methodist missionary Alfred Brunson
The fort surgeon, John Emerson, purchased Dred Scott at a slave market in St. Louis, where slavery was legal. Emerson was posted to Fort Snelling during the 1830s and brought Scott north with him. There Scott met and married Harriet and had two children as slaves at Fort Snelling from 1836 to 1840. In 1840, Emerson's wife, Irene, returned to St. Louis, taking the Scotts and their children. In 1843, Scott sued for his family's freedom for illegally being indentured in free territory. Although he lost the first trial, he appealed and in 1850 his family was given its freedom.
In 1852, Emerson appealed and the Scotts were again enslaved. Dred Scott appealed that decision and in 1857 the US Supreme Court decided that the Scotts would stay enslaved. Dred Scott v. Sandford was a landmark case that held that neither enslaved nor free Africans were meant to hold the privileges or constitutional rights of U.S. citizens. This case garnered national attention and pushed political tensions toward the Civil War.
A longstanding precedent in freedom suits of "once free, always free" was overturned in this case. (The cases were combined under Dred Scott's name.) It was appealed to the United States Supreme Court. In Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and that enslaved Africans had no standing under the constitution, and so could not sue for freedom. The decision increased sectional tensions between the North and South.
Minnesota units mustered in at Fort Snelling:
In 1860 and 1863 the Minnesota State Fair was held at the fort.
In 1865 the Minnesota Central Railroad completed a rail line from Northfield to Mendota. There the line crossed the river to Fort Snelling, continuing to Minneapolis. Minnehaha Depot, Minnehaha DepotRailroads and the Minneapolis Milling District, Minnesota History, Summer 2009, Don L. Hofsommer, Minnesota Historical Society website [29] In June 1865 the 10th US Infantry Hq, D, and F Companies returned to the 10th's prewar post at Fort Snelling. B and H Companies went to Fort Ridgely while A and I Companies went to Fort Ripley.
After the war, Steele submitted a claim of $162,000 for the fort's use during the war. He hoped to gain the money he still owed from the 1857 purchase. In 1873, an agreement was reached giving the Army the fort. In exchange, his debt was cleared and Steele was given title to 6,395 acres of the original Fort Snelling Reservation.Sale of Fort Snelling Reservation. Letter from the Secretary of War, transmitting papers relative to the sale of the Fort Snelling Reservation, 12-10-1868, University of Oklahoma College of Law University of Oklahoma College of Law Digital Commons, American Indian and Alaskan Native Documents in the Congressional Serial Set: 1817–1899, p. 107, University of Oklahoma, 300 Timberdell Road, Norman, OK [30]
The fort became the rendezvous point for the state and federal military forces during the Dakota War of 1862. During the war, the 6th, 7th, and 10th Minnesota Regiments did garrison duty at Fort Snelling.
To deal with the uprising, the United States Department of War created the Department of the Northwest, headquartered at St. Paul and commanded by Major General John Pope. Pope arrived in St. Paul on 15 September, and sent requests to the governors of Iowa and Wisconsin for additional troops. The 25th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment arrived at Fort Snelling on 22 September, the day before the decisive Battle of Wood Lake, and were sent immediately to Mankato and Paynesville. The 27th Iowa Infantry Regiment arrived at Fort Snelling in October, well after the war. Four companies stayed at Fort Snelling, while the other six marched north to Mille Lacs and returned to Fort Snelling on 4 November; three days later they were sent to Cairo, Illinois.Neighbors to the Rescue: Wisconsin and Iowa, Minnesota History Winter 1979, Edward Noyes, Minnesota Historical Society, St Paul, Mn, p. 312 [31]
In November 1862, 1,658 Dakota, all innocent non-combatants, were moved from the Lower Sioux Agency to Fort Snelling, escorted by 300 soldiers under Lieutenant Colonel William Rainey Marshall.Corinne L. Monjeau-Marz (2026). 097727182X, Prairie Smoke Press. 097727182X They were mostly Dakota women and children. They included 22 Franco-Dakota and Anglo-Dakota men who had not been tried, as well as Christian and farmer Dakota such as Taopi, Chief Wabasha III, Joseph Kawanke, Paul Mazakutemani, Lorenzo Lawrence, John Other Day and Snana, who had opposed Little Crow and the "hostile" faction during the war. (1988). 9780873512169, Minnesota Historical Society Press. ISBN 9780873512169
An encampment was created below the fort on Pike Island. The Dakota had brought their own tipis and household goods with them, and set up more than 200 tipis. The military leaders had a palisade erected around the encampment to protect the Dakota from angry settlers, some of whom had attacked the women and children as they passed through Henderson en route to Fort Snelling. Shortly after they arrived, soldiers raped one of the Dakota women.U.S.-Dakota War's aftermath a ‘dark moment’ in Fort Snelling history, Pioneer Press, Nick Woltman, May 2019 [32] The Dakota wintered there in 1862–63. An estimated 102 to 300 Dakota died due to the harsh conditions, lack of food, measles, and cholera.
In May 1863, the Dakota who survived were loaded on two steamboats and taken down the Mississippi and up the Missouri River to Crow Creek by the Great Sioux Reservation. Three hundred more died on the way and three to four a day for weeks after they arrived. Some of the Dakota who made it to Crow Creek were forced to move again three years later to the Santee Sioux Reservation in Nebraska. For the women it was an extended period of hardship and degradation.Survival At Crow Creek, 1863–66, Minnesota History 61:4, Winter 2008–9 Colette A. Hyman, Minnesota Historical Society website, pp. 148–60 [33]
The descendants of the displaced Dakota reside there today. A memorial outside the Fort Snelling State Park visitor center commemorates the Native Americans who died during this period.Referenced from the photo Wokiksuye K'a Woyuonihan on the right hand side of the page Because of the prevailing attitudes towards all "Indians", the Ho-Chunk living outside Mankato were also sent to Fort Snelling.The REMOVAL from MINNESOTA of the Sioux and Winnebago Indians, The Record(Mankato), William E. Lass, November 8, 1862, Minnesota State Historical Society web site, St. Paul, Mn, Minnesota History [34]. There, they too were put on riverboats for Crow Creek. They lost 500 along the way and once there, they and the Dakota lost another 1,300 to starvation.
In October 1863, Major E. A. C. Hatch and his battalion were ordered from Fort Snelling to retrieve Dakota leaders who had crossed into Canada.History of Fort Pembina 1870–1875, University of North Dakota Thesis, 8–1968, William D. Thomson [35] Winter set in before they reached Pembina in Dakota Territory. Hatch made an encampment at Pembina, sending 20 men across the border. They encountered and killed Minnesota Dakota at St. Joseph in the Northwest Territory. At Fort Gerry, two Dakota leaders were drugged, kidnapped, and taken to Major Hatch for a bounty. The killings at St. Joseph caused almost 400 Dakota to turn themselves in to Hatch as well.
When conditions allowed, Hatch's cavalry took the prisoners back to Fort Snelling. The two chiefs, Little Six (Shakopee III) and Medicine Bottle (Wakanozanzan), were hanged at the fort.This Week in History, March 3, 1968, Manitoba Provincial Historical Society, newsgov.mb.caThe United States Dakota War Trials, A Study in Military Injustice, Stanford Law Review Vol. 43:13, November 1990, University of Minnesota Law School Scholarship Repository, Carol Chomsky [36] Chief Little Leaf evaded capture.
The next year four companies of the 30th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment arrived at Fort Snelling with three of them moving on to Camp Ridgely en route to Alfred Sully's Dakota campaign.30th Wisconsin Infantry, Wisconsin in the Civil War, Wisconsin Historical Society Historical essay, Charles E. Estabrook (1914), pp. 789–792 [37]
target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[39] Placing the Department of the Northwest at Fort Snelling led to the fort's further development in 1866 when the department transitioned to the Department of Dakota. In 1867, the department headquarters moved to St. Paul. The HQ returned to the fort in 1879 and remained there until 1886, when it returned to St. Paul. After the Civil War, Minneapolis began to expand into the fort's surroundings.
In March 1869 the 20th Regiment was transferred from Louisiana to the Department of Dakota. Headquarters, band and E Company were posted to Fort Snelling.
In 1878, the United States Army assigned the 7th Infantry to garrison the fort. Six companies arrived in September.The Seventh Regiment of Infantry, The Army of the US Historical Sketches of the Line and Staff with Portraits of the Generals in Chief, Lt. A.B. Johnson, New York Maynard, Merrill and Company, 1896, p. 498, U.S Army Center of Military History website [40] That year Congress approved $100,000 to be spent on the Department of Dakota and the old fort's walls were torn down for reuse in the new construction.New fort Snelling Visitor Center, prepared by Minnesota Historical Society, Nov 2009, p. 9
target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[41] In October 1879, the remaining four companies of the 7th Infantry arrived and took over garrison duties. The six companies that had been the garrison departed to fight the Ute people at White River, Colorado. They returned to Fort Snelling in 1880.
In November 1882, the 7th was relieved by the 25th Infantry (colored).The Twenty Fifth Regiment of Infantry, The Army of the US Historical Sketches of the Line and Staff with Portraits of the Generals in Chief, Lt. Charles Byrne, New York Maynard, Merrill and Company, 1896, p. 698, U.S Army Center of Military History website [42] The 25th's HQ, band and four companies garrisoned the fort until 1888, when they were relieved by the 3rd Infantry. During the 1880s, companies of the 7th Cavalry were at the fort. The 3rd Regiment remained until 1898. Some of the garrison were sent to Cuba and fought in the Spanish–American War of 1898.
During one of the last battles of the Indian Wars, six soldiers of the 3rd Infantry were killed at the Battle of Leech Lake October 5, 1898. Those killed were Major Wilkinson, Sergeant William Butler, and Privates Edward Lowe, John Olmstead (Onstead), John Schwolenstocker (aka Daniel F. Schwalenstocker), and Albert Ziebel. They were buried at the post's north end.Obituaries, St Paul Globe October 9, 1898. p. 3: Wilkinson Section; Lowe Section; Onstead Section; Schwalenstocker Section and Ziebel Section in the National Cemetery. Butler was reburied at Palmyra, Michigan, Minnesota Historical Society, St Paul, Mn
Ten others were wounded in the battle. Among them were five Minnesotans: Privates George Wicker, Charles Turner, Edward Brown, Jes Jensen, and Gottfried Ziegler.See Holbrook, Franklin F., Minnesota War Records, 1923 & The Deteriorating Upper Post of Ft. Snelling, http://celticfringe.net/history/upper_post.htm Private Oscar Burkard received the last Medal of Honor awarded during the Indian wars for his action on 5 October 1898 at Leech Lake with the 3rd Infantry. He was also from Minnesota.
In 1895, General E. C. Mason, post commandant, called for the preservation of what remained of the old fort, having realized something had been lost with the dismantling of the walls. Nothing came of the preservation proposal, but from 1901 to 1905 Congress spent $2,000,000 on the Fort Snelling upper post.
In 1901, the 14th Infantry became the garrison, followed by the 28th in 1904. From 1905 to 1911 squadrons of the 3rd, 2nd, and 4th Cavalry Regiments were the occupants of the new cavalry barracks on the upper post.Cavalry Barracks, Buildings 17 & 18 Study, State Historic Preservation Office, Thomas R. Zahn, 1993
target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[43]
In June 1916, President Woodrow Wilson had General Pershing in Mexico on the trail of Pancho Villa. To provide border security, Minnesota's entire National Guard was activated at Fort Snelling, comprising three Infantry Regiments and one Artillery. Camp Bobleter was created on the upper post to organize the activation. Upon returning to Minnesota, the 1st Infantry Regiment was redesignated the 135th Infantry. It is the direct descendant of the 1st Minnesota formed at the fort in 1862.
In 1921, the 3rd Infantry was in Ohio and ordered to report to Fort Snelling with no designated transport. They marched the 940 miles only to have the 2nd and 3rd Battalions inactivated upon arrival. In June 2022, the 1st Battalion was inactivated only for a short time. The regiment remained at Fort Snelling until 1941. Also in 1921 the US Army created the 88th Divisional area in Iowa, Minnesota, and North Dakota.
Fort Snelling became a Citizens Military Training Camp (CMTC) for the 351st Infantry Regiment of the 88th Division. The unit's officers worked with the CCC program at Fort Snelling. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the regiment's officers were immediately activated for active duty units, so that when the 351st was called up it had very few officers to meet the call.
The 1st MRS Division was activated at Fort Snelling (as the 701st) from where it deployed to Italy, Southern France, and North Africa. It was commanded by Brig. Gen. Carl R. Gray Jr. of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway. Gen. Gray was responsible for creating a Commendation for Meritorious Service(MRS Certificate of Merit) specific to railroading troops.American Rails in 8 Countries, The story of the 1st Railroad Service, Transportation Corps, Special and Information Section, Headquarters, Southern Line of Communication, European Theater of Operations, United States Army, p. 33 [47] In January 1943, the 701st Railway Grand Division, sponsored by the New York Central Railroad, was stood up at Fort Snelling.Railroaders in Olive Drab: The Military Railway Service in WWII, The Army Historical Foundation, National Museum of the United States Army, 1775 Liberty Dr, Fort Belvoir, VA [48]
Minnesota Railroads sponsored multiple Railroad Operating Battalions(ROB)s with the Great Northern sponsoring the 732nd ROB.The Saga of the 732nd Railway Operation Battalion Subject Report Activity Feb–Apr 1945:, Angelfire website [49] Even though sponsored by the Great Northern, the 732nd trained at Fort Sam Houston. It landed in France and was one of two ROBs. The 732nd operated in support of Gen. George Patton's 3rd Armored Division and went into Germany with them.
During the Battle of the Bulge Patton's armor went to the 732nds trains to refuel. The Army positioned field Artillery directly adjacent to the rail lines so that the 732nd delivered ammo directly to the guns. The 757th Railroad Shop Battalion, sponsored by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, set up operations at Cherbourg. The Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway sponsored the 714th ROB in the Territory of Alaska.
In 1944, the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) for Japanese language had outgrown its facilities at Camp Savage and it relocated to Fort Snelling. With the move the curriculum was expanded with Chinese. It had 125 classrooms, 160 instructors, and 3000 students. June 1946 would see the fort's 21st and last commencement at the school. The War Department constructed scores of buildings at the fort for housing and teaching during the war. The language school was relocated to Monterey, California, in June 1946.Yamashita, Jeffrey T. "Fort Snelling" Densho Encyclopedia. Retrieved on July 3, 2014.
In 1943, the navy opened an air station on the north side of Wold-Chamberlain Field that existed until 1970. That area is now used by reserve units and the Minnesota Air National Guard. WWII Fort Snelling facilities covered 1,521 acres at war's end.
Many acres of fort land have been lost to roads. Construction of the Mendota Bridge ran a state highway across old fort land. More fort land was lost when an Interstate 494 interchange was added as well as access roads to the International Airport, National Cemetery, VA Hospital and bridge into St. Paul.
In 1963, Fort Snelling became headquarters of United States Army Reserve 205th Infantry Brigade, that had units throughout the upper Midwest. In 1994 that ended as a part of force-structure eliminations.
The fort has been reconstructed to replicate its original appearance starting in 1965.Reconstructing old Fort Snelling, Loren Johnson. Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, Mn [51] Time and use had been hard on the original fort. The walls, barracks and buildings had been removed. There was archaeological work done at the site in 1957–1958 and again in 1966–1967. At that time all that remained of the original fort were the round and hexagonal towers. State archaeologists located the foundations of all that had been demolished allowing them to pin point the structures they reconstructed.
The Minnesota Historical Society has since made the original walled fort or "Lower Post" into an interactive interpretive center. It has been staffed from spring to early fall with personnel attired in period costumes. Although restoring the original fort assured its survival, many of the buildings constructed later, composing the "Upper Post", suffered serious disrepair and neglect. Many of them have been demolished.
On Jan. 13, the Oglala Sioux Tribe said four homeless tribal members had been arrested by ICE and three were held in detention at Fort Snelling.Eduardo Cuevas, "Native Americans detained in Trump's Minnesota ICE raids.", USA TODAY, Jan. 14, 2026 In a memorandum, the Oglala Sioux Tribe said the detentions violate "tribal treaties, statutory law and constitutional rights of sovereign people."
Fort Snelling (LSD-30) was laid down on 17 August 1953 by Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp., Pascagoula, Miss.; launched on 16 July 1954, sponsored by Mrs. Robert P. Briscoe, wife of Vice Admiral Briscoe; and commissioned on 24 January 1955, Commander H. Marvin-Smith in command.
File:upper post-6-15-06j.jpg|Neglected barracks in the Upper Post, last used during World War II File:FortSnelling.jpg|The round tower at Fort Snelling with US flag. File:FiringCannonFortSnelling.jpg|Minnesota Historical Society Historic Interpreters firing a cannon at the fort.
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