Fort Snelling

Bdóte ('where two rivers meet') is considered the "center of the earth" to the Mdewakanton Dakota. The confluence was a place of importance, where Native Americans would sign more treaties once Fort Snelling was built: the St. Peter's Treaty 1837 and the St.Peter's Treaty 1851 also known as the Treaty of Mendota.

Fort Snelling by Colonel Seth Eastman

Camp New Hope 1819

In 1805, on behalf of the United States, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike made the Pike's Purchase (Treaty of St Peters 1805) with the Dakota people for 100,000 acres (400 km²) of land in the area:

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."[6]

As late as 1856 there were questions about the validity of the 1805 treaty. There were seven Dakota leaders present, but only two signed the document and there is no record it ever went before a US president. Pike wrote in his journal he thought the U.S. should pay $200,000 while Congress approved $2,000. Pike Island below the fort is named for Lt. Pike. It was where Pike and the Dakota made their agreement.[7] Significant Anglo-European settlement began in the late-1810s. Following the War of 1812, the United States Department of War built a chain of forts and installed Indian agents from Lake Michigan to the Missouri River in South Dakota. These forts were intended to extend the United States presence into the northwest territories following the Treaty of Ghent and the demarcation of the 49th parallel. The treaty restricted British-Canadian traders from operating in the US and the forts were intended to enforce that as well as keep Indian lands free of white settlement until permitted by treaty. The forts were seen as the embodiment of federal authority representing law, order, for the protection of pioneers and traders. The Fort Snelling garrison also attempted to keep the peace among the Dakota and other tribes .[8] Also built on army land was the St. Peter's Indian Agency at Mendota.[9] The Anglo-Europeans called the Minnesota River the St. Peter and the Indian Agency would a 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. Col. 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.[10] The new camp was near a spring closer to the fortification he was constructing. That spring would be the source of drinking water to the fort throughout the 19th century. The spring held a spiritual significance to the native Sioux. The post surgeon began recording meteorological observations at the fort in January 1820. The U.S. Army Surgeon General had made the recording of four weather readings every day a duty of the surgeon at every Army post.[11] Fort Snelling has one of the longest near-continuous weather records in the country.[12] 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. That did not last long as it was changed by General Winfield Scott to Fort Snelling in recognition of the fort's architect commander.

From construction in 1820 to closure in 1858, four army units would garrison the fort, the 1st,[13] 5th,[14] 6th,[15] 10th Regiments.[16] plus a company from the 1st Dragoons. In 1827 the 5th Infantry would be replaced by the 1st Infantry for ten years with the 5th returning in 1837.[10] The 5th would garrison the fort until the 1st relieved them again in 1840. In 1848 the 6th Infantry became the garrison.[10] The garrison would change again in November 1855. The 10th commanded by Col. C.F. Smith assumed duty. Smith would go 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 the first post office in Minnesota started at Fort Snelling with most mail forwarded from Prairie du Chien.[17]

Colonel Zachary Taylor assumed command in 1828. He observed that the "buffalo 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".[18] While posted to Fort Snelling Col. Taylor had eight adult slaves die as well as several minors.[18] 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 develop the Sioux alphabet and compile a Sioux dictionary.[19] Taliaferro also served as the Territorial Justice of Peace until 1838 when the Governor of Iowa named Henry Sibley his replacement.[20] 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.[21] Both Fort Snelling and Fort Ripley provided this civil service for internment of criminals until the territory developed the civil infrastructure needed.[21] Major Taliaferro owned 21 slaves one of whom was Harriet Robinson.[22] She married Dread Scott with Major 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 Sioux compiling a dictionary of the dialect used by the Mendota tribe. He had studied medicine at Harvard without earning a degree. He continued his studies under the tutelage of the fort's physician, Dr. Purcell. However, Purcell died before he completed the coursework and March moved west.[23] Major Plympton became post commander in August 1837. He made determining the actual boundaries of the fort's land a priority, doing two surveys. After the second he sent troops to evict Pigs-eye Parrant from Fountain Cave down river. Pigseye's tavern there was the first commercial venture in what became St. Paul. Parrant gained notoriety for his bootleg liquor business with both the Sioux and the soldiers causing issues for the fort commander.[24] The eviction coincided with the arrival of the Catholic missionary Lucian Galtier. That year also brought the arrival of Pierre Bottineau, the Kit Carson of the Northwest.[25] He would serve the fort as a guide and interpreter. He could speak French and English, Sioux, Chippewa, Cree, Mandan and Winnebago.[25]

Lieutenant Colonel Seth Eastman was commander of the fort twice in the 1840s.[26][27] Eastman was an artist. He has been recognized for his extensive work recording the Dakota.[28] His skill was such that he was commissioned by Congress to illustrate the six-volume study of Indian Tribes of the United States by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft. The set was published 1851–1857 with hundreds of his works.[29]

Bridge linking Ft. Snelling with St. Paul, 1880–1912

• In 1848 A Co of the 6th U.S. Infantry was dispatched from Fort Snelling to build Fort Ripley.[15]
• In 1848 the Fort's Military Reservation was declared too big, with the lands east of the Mississippi detached and sold. That land created much of what became St. Paul.[30]
• In the summer of 1849, D Company 1st Dragoons escorted Maj. Woods of the 6th Infantry at Fort Snelling, to mark a northern boundary line and select a site for a future fortification near Pembina.[31]
• In 1850 E Co of the 6th Infantry was sent south to build Fort Dodge and would garrison the fort until the army closed it and sent E Co. to help construct Fort Ridgely.[15]
• In 1850 Alexander Ramsey requested Congress fund five military roads in the Territory. Two ran from Mendota at Fort Snelling. One followed the Mississippi to Wabasha and the Iowa border. The other headed west to the Big Sioux River confluence with the Missouri.
• In 1853 C, E, and K Companies of the 6th Infantry were tasked with the construction of Fort Ridgely.[32]
• Also in 1853, congress authorized money specifically to "mount" E Company of the 3rd Artillery to be stationed at Fort Snelling and Fort Ridgely until May 1861.[33]
• 1856 Major Edward Canby was fort commander. He became a general. The only one killed in the Indian wars. The town of Canby is named for him.
• 1857-1861 G,I, and L Companies 2nd Artillery were variously posted to northern forts Snelling, Ridgely, Ripley.
• 1864-65 The Minnesota Valley Railroad completed line from St. Paul to Minneapolis crossing the river at Mendota that passed beneath the Fort. Pilings remain of the line's river crossing.

As the towns of 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.[16] With the departure of the 10th Infantry, Fort Snelling was designated surplus government property. In 1858, when Minnesota became a state, the army sold it to Franklin Steele for $90,000. Steele operated the two ferrys 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.[34][30] At that time the fort sat on 8000 acres (32 km²). A small portion of that land was later annexed into south Minneapolis).[35] 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),[36] Minnesota Veterans Home (53 acres), Coldwater Spring National Park (29 acres),[37] the Upper Post Veterans Home, Minneapolis St Paul International Airport and the Minneapolis-St Paul Joint Air Reserve Station (2,930 acres).

• Fort Snelling watercolor by Lt. Sully October 1855.[38]

When Fort Snelling was built in 1820, fur traders and officers at the post, including Colonel Snelling, employed slave labor for cooking, cleaning, and other domestic chores. Although slavery was a violation of both the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and the Missouri Compromise of 1820, an estimated 15–30 Africans worked as slaves at the fort.[39] US Army officers submitted pay vouchers to cover the expenses of retaining slaves. From 1855–1857, nine individuals 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.[40]

Two women that had lived as slaves at Fort Snelling sued for their freedom and were set free in 1836. One, named Rachel, was a slave to a Lieutenant Thomas Stockton at Fort Snelling from 1830–1831, then at Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien until 1834. When Rachel and her son were sold in St. Louis, she sued, claiming that 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 other enslaved woman from Fort Snelling was named Courtney (and her son William) were also freed at the same time.[40] Courtney had another son named Godfrey that remained in Minnesota when she was sent to a slave market in St. Louis.[41] He is the only known "Minnesota runaway slave" that ran away from the fort and was taken in by the Sioux.[41] He was involved in the Sioux uprising and was the first defendant on the docket of the military tribunal for hanging.[41]

The fort surgeon, Dr. John Emerson, purchased Dred Scott at a slave market in Saint Louis, Missouri, where slavery was legal. Emerson was posted to Fort Snelling during the 1830s and brought Dred north with him.[39] There Dred meet and married Harriet and had two children as slaves at Fort Snelling from 1836–1840. Dr. Emerson's wife Irene, returned to St. Louis taking the Scotts and their children in 1840. In 1843 Dred sued for his family's freedom for illegally being indentured in free territory. Although he lost that first trial, he appealed and in 1850 his family was given their 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 United Stated citizens. This case garnered national attention and pushed political tensions towards the Civil War.[40][39]

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 Taney ruled that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and that Africans had no standing under the constitution, so could not sue for freedom. The decision increased sectional tensions between the North and South.

Dakota internment camp, Pike Island, winter 1862

Hanging of Little Six and Medicine Bottle November 11, 1865, Ft Snelling

Memorial honoring the Dakota people interned and died at Fort Snelling

The Wokiksuye K'a Woyuonihan memorial site at Fort Snelling, with a pipestone encased in the center, surrounded by bundles of the four sacred medicines: sage, cedar, tobacco, and sweetgrass.

When the American Civil War broke out the Government commandeered the fort for the War Department as an induction station. At the time Steele was in arrears, having made only one payment.[30] When Governor Ramsey offered President Lincoln 1000 troops to fight the South the volunteers he got were organized at Fort Snelling into a regiment, the 1st Minnesota. More than 24,000 recruits were trained there.[42]

Minnesota units mustered in at Fort Snelling:

• 1st Minnesota April 1861 (today 2nd Battalion 135th Infantry)
• 2nd Minnesota June–July 1861
• 3rd Minnesota Oct–Nov 1861
• 4th Minnesota Oct–Nov 1861
• 5th Minnesota Mar–Apr 1862
• 6th Minnesota Sep–Nov 1862
• 7th Minnesota Aug–Oct 1862
• 8th Minnesota Jun–Sep 1862
• 9th Minnesota Aug–Oct 1862
• 10th Minnesota Aug–Nov 1862
• 11th Minnesota Aug–Sep 1864
• 1st Minnesota Infantry Battalion Aug–Sep 1864
• 1st Minnesota Sharpshooters Company Apr 1864
• 2nd Minnesota Sharpshooters Company Jan 1862
• 1st Minnesota Heavy Artillery Nov 1864 (today 151st Field Artillery)
• 1st Minnesota Light Artillery Battery Nov 1861
• 2nd Minnesota Light Artillery Battery Mar 1862
• 3rd Minnesota Light Artillery Battery Feb 1863
• 1st Minnesota Cavalry Oct–Dec 1862
• 2nd Minnesota Cavalry Regiment Dec 1863
• 1st Minnesota Light Cavalry(Bracket's Battalion) Sep–Nov 1861
• Minnesota Independent Cavalry Battalion (Hatch's Battalion) Jul 1863
• During the civil war, slightly over 100 African Americans approached Fort Snelling to volunteer for military service.[42] Minnesota did not have an African American population large enough to field a "colored" unit as US Infantry units were segregated. Those volunteers were put on riverboats to Iowa and Missouri, states that had "colored" units: 1st Iowa Infantry Colored, 18th United States Colored Infantry Regiment, and the 68th United States Colored Infantry.[42] The navy had a few volunteers also.[43]
  • In 1830 Fort Snelling was the birthplace of John Taylor Wood. He served on the Merrimack at the Battle of Hampton Roads during the civil war.[44]

In 1860 and 1863 the Minnesota State Fair was held at the fort.[45]

• In 1865 the Minnesota Central Railroad completed rail line from Northfield to Mendota. There the line crossed the river to Fort Snelling, continuing on to Minneapolis.[46] [47]

• In June of 1865 the 10th US Infantry Hq, D, and F Companies returned to the 10th's pre-war post at Fort Snelling.[16] B and H Companies went to Fort Ridgely while A and I Companies went to Fort Ripley.

With the war over Steele submitted a claim of $162,000 for the forts use during the war. He hoped to gain the money's 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.[30]

When the Dakota War of 1862 broke out on 17 August, the fort did not belong to the US Government it had been commandeered for the War Department and garrisoned by regiments of the State of Minnesota. To deal with the uprising the War Department created the Department of the Northwest, headquartered at Fort Snelling commanded by Major General John Pope. Gen. Pope immediately sent requests to the Governors of Iowa and Wisconsin for additional troops. The 25th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment arrived at Fort Snelling on September 22. They would be joined by the 27th Iowa Infantry Regiment.[48] The fort was under the command of Col. Crooks of the 6th Minnesota Volunteers. Governor Ramsey had placed a $25.00 per scalp bounty on Dakota males.[49][50] Governor Ramsey's successor, Henry A. Swift raised it to $200.00.[49] When the hostilities ceased the Dakota men surrendered and 1,658 women, children, and elders turned themselves in to the Lower Sioux Agency. Minnesota troops collected them and escorted them to Fort Snelling where an encampment was created below the fort on Pike Island. Shortly after they arrived, soldiers raped one of the women.[51] Col. Crooks had a palisade erected around the encampment as much as to contain the Dakota as to protect them.[51] They wintered there in 1862–1863. Between 100–300 died due to the harsh conditions, lack of food, measles and cholera.[52] The following May, 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.[53] The descendants of the displaced Dakota reside there today. A memorial is outside the Fort Snelling State Park visitor center commemorating all the native Americans who died during this period.[54] Because of the prevailing attitudes towards all "Indians" the Ho-Chunk people a.k.a. Winnebago that were living outside Mankato were also sent to Fort Snelling.[55] There, they too were put on riverboats for Crow Creek. They lost 500 along the way and once there, they and the Sioux would lose another 1,300 to starvation. In October 1863 Major E.A.C. Hatch and his Battalion were ordered from Fort Snelling to retrieve Sioux leaders who had crossed into Canada.[56] 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 Sioux at St. Joseph in the Northwest Territory.[56] At Fort Gerry two Souix leaders were drugged, kidnapped and taken to Major Hatch for a bounty. The killings at St. Joseph caused almost 400 Sioux to turn themselves in to Hatch as well.[56] When conditions allowed, his Cavalry took the prisoners back to Fort Snelling. The two chiefs were hanged at the fort.[57] They were Little Six (Taoyteduta Shakopee) and Medicine Bottle (Wakanozanzan).[58] Chief Little Leaf managed to evade capture.[56] The next year four companies of the 30th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment arrived at Fort Snelling with three of them moving forward to Camp Ridgely enroute to Sulley's Dakota campaign [59]

• During the Dakota war the 6th, 7th, and 10th Minnesota Regiments did garrison duty at Fort Snelling.

Steele had made plans and plotted his purchase to build the City of Fort Snelling.[60] Steele, however, failed to make payments as agreed causing the government to revoke the sale and repossess the fort lands.[61] 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.[61] The next year the headquarters of the department moved to St. Paul. The HQ returned to the fort in 1879 and would remain until 1886 when it went back to St. Paul.[61] After the Civil war Minneapolis began to expand into the fort's surroundings.[62]

In March of 1869 the 20th Regiment was transferred from Louisiana to the Department of Dakota. Headquarters, band and E Company were posted to Fort Snelling.

The United States Army assigned the 7th Infantry to garrison the fort in 1878 and six companies arrived in September.[63] 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.[64] The following October 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 Utes at White River, Colorado. They returned to Fort Snelling in 1880.[63] In November the 7th was relieved by the 25th Infantry (colored).[65] The 25th's HQ, band and four companies would garrison the fort until 1888 when they were relieved by the 3rd Infantry. During the 1880s, companies of the 7th Cavalry would be at the fort.[10] The 3rd Regiment would remain until 1898. Some of the garrison were sent to Cuba and fought in the Spanish–American War of 1898.[8] 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, Sgt. William Butler, and Privates Edward Lowe, John Olmstead (Onstead), John Schwolenstocker (aka Daniel F. Schwalenstocker), and Albert Ziebel. Those men were buried at north end of the post.[66] Ten others were wounded in the battle. Among them were five Minnesotans: Privates George Wicker, Charles Turner, Edward Brown, Jes Jensen, and Gottfried Ziegler.[67] Pvt. Oscar Burkard would receive 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 through 1905 Congress would spend $2,000,000 on the Fort Snelling upper post.[61]

In 1901 the 14th Infantry became the garrison followed by the 28th in 1904.[61] From 1905–1911 squadrons of the 3rd, 2nd, and 4th Cavalry Regiments were the occupants of the new cavalry barracks on the upper post.[68]

In June 1916 President Wilson had General Pershing in Mexico on the trail of Poncho Villa. To provide border security Minnesota's entire National Guard was activated at Fort Snelling, comprising three Infantry Regiments and one Artillery. A camp was created on the upper post named Camp Bobleter for organizing 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.

• Sgt. Charles H. Welch was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Little Big Horn in 1876. His award lists his home as Fort Snelling. Welch enlisted in the Army on June 8, 1873 at Fort Snelling, and was assigned to D Company 7th U.S. Cavalry.[69]

41st Infantry Regiment insignia with Fort Snelling's round tower emblazoned center

Once the United States entered the war the fort became a recruit processing station. For WWI the 41st Infantry was constituted at the fort in May of 1917 and inactivated in September 1921. The army established an officer training school which closed when the war ended.[70] At that time the only building seeing use was the base hospital. It was expanded to 1200 beds and designated General Hospital 29. During the 1918 influenza pandemic it saw extensive use.[70] That hospital would be the forerunner of the VA Hospital at Fort Snelling now. Between wars, the 14th Field Artillery and the 7th Tank Battalion were assigned to Fort Snelling while the base was considered the "Country Club of the U. S. Army".[70]

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 arriving at Fort Snelling. The following June the 1st Battalion was inactivated only for a short time. The regiment would remain at Fort Snelling until 1941.

During the 1930s the Works Progress Administration(WPA) established a supply depot at Fort Snelling to support the Middle West Region 8 CCC camps.

Military Railroad Service insignia

During WWII the Fort Snelling military reservation served both the army and navy. The army had an enlistment center there that processed 300,000 enlistees. The War Department chose the base to be the site of the army's Military Railroad Service(MRS) HQ in 1942 and a winter warfare program later. The MRS was closely linked to commercial railroading with multiple Minnesota railroads sponsoring MRS Railroad Operating Battalions.[71] In January of 1943 the 701st Railway Grand Division, sponsored by the New York Central Railroad, was stood up at Fort Snelling.[72] 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.[64][35] The language school was relocated to Monterey, California, in June 1946.[73]

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.

The War Department decommissioned Fort Snelling a second time on 14 October 1946. Various federal agencies were allowed to request land parcels from the land that made up Fort Snelling Unorganized Territory. Since the army departed, the majority of the structures fell into disrepair. In 1960, the fort itself was listed as a National Historic Landmark, citing its importance as the first major military post in the region, and its later history in the development of the United States Army.[2][74]

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 94 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.

Fort Snelling Administration Building on the Upper Post, built 1878

Neglected barracks in the Upper Post last used during World War II

Reenactors firing a cannon at the fort.

The fort has been reconstructed to replicate its original appearance starting in 1965.[75] 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.[75] 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.

In May 2006, the National Trust for Historic Preservation added Upper Post of Fort Snelling to its list of "America's Most Endangered Places". Some restoration on historic Fort Snelling continues. Crews removed the flagpole from the iconic round tower and installed it in the ground, a change since its opening as a historic fort. Pending funding, the historic fort has planned a massive renovation project for the year 2020.