Historic Fort Snelling
National Historic Landmark · Saint Paul, Minnesota
A stone fort on the bluff where the Minnesota River meets the Mississippi, built by the US Army between 1820 and 1825 to control the fur trade and the western frontier. The ground beneath it is Bdote, a place of origin in Dakota belief, and the fort's history runs directly through the darkest passages of the state's: Dred and Harriet Scott were held here as enslaved people in the 1830s, and after the US-Dakota War of 1862 around 1,600 Dakota people, mostly women and children, were confined in an internment camp below these walls through a winter in which hundreds died. A major reinterpretation reopened the site in 2022 telling all of it.
200 Tower Avenue, Saint Paul, Minnesota, 55111, United States
Seasonal. Generally open daily in summer, reduced to weekends in spring and autumn, and largely closed in winter apart from scheduled events — check before travelling. Admission is charged by the Minnesota Historical Society. NOTE that Fort Snelling State Park below the bluff is a separate DNR site with its own entrance and vehicle permit; the historic site and the state park are not the same ticket.
Historic Fort Snelling on Spottos · Explore more places on Spottos