US-2482 Fort Snelling State Park

For many centuries, the area of the modern park has been of importance to the Mdewakanton Dakota people who consider it the center of the Earth. The state park, which opened in 1962, is named for the historic Fort Snelling, which dates from 1820. The fort structure is maintained and operated by the Minnesota Historical Society. The bulk of the state park preserves the bottomland forest, rivers, and backwater lakes below the river bluffs. Both the state and historic fort structure are part of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, a National Park Service site.

At the beginning of historical times, Mdewakanton 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.[2]

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, it is estimated that between 130 and 300 Dakota prisoners died due to malnutrition, disease, and exposure.[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Snelling_State_Park

See US-3381 Mississippi River National Recreation Area

My Hunter Log

19:23 2025-03-28 KC0OIO 59 59 MN 14 20m SSB US-2482

18:45 2025-05-03 NR0T 599 599 MN 14.068 20m CW US-2482
18:45 2025-05-03 NR0T 599 599 MN 14.068 20m CW US-2482

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