Historic Fort Snelling

Vision:

The vision for a revitalized Historic Fort Snelling is to provide a place to learn, share, and connect to all of the complex stories that shape our history in Minnesota.

About Us:

The story of Fort Snelling is the story of the development of the U.S. Northwest. While surrounded today by freeways and a large urban population, Fort Snelling was once a lonely symbol of American ambition in the wilderness.

The United States gained control over the Upper Mississippi Valley through the Revolutionary War with Great Britain and later Louisiana Purchase from France. This vast territory inhabited by fur traders and Indians still loyal to the British in Canada lay well beyond American settlement. After the War of 1812, the government took physical possession of the valuable Northwest frontier by establishing a chain of Indian agencies and supporting forts from Lake Michigan to the Missouri River.