The area where Fort Snelling, Minnesota, was built has been inhabited for 9,000-12,000 years by people who likely followed herds of game animals. About 1,000 years ago, people living here at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers used the waterways for transportation and food and developed extensive trade relationships with other Native peoples. By the 1600s, two main groups lived in present-day Minnesota, the Dakota and the Ojibwe. The river confluence was believed to be the place of origin and center of the earth by the bands of Mde-wa-kan-ton-wan Dakota, the “Dwellers by Mystic Lake.” By the end of the 1600s, Europeans had arrived in the region and began a long, complex relationship with American Indians.

The site was also the crossroads of two major river highways of the fur trade, where traders exchanged manufactured goods with American Indian nations for valuable furs. Following the American Revolution, the U.S. competed fiercely with Great Britain to dominate the North American fur trade.

Soldiers at northwestern frontier outposts tried to restrict commercial use of the rivers to United States citizens, keep American Indian lands free of white settlement until treaties permitted it, enforce law and order, and protect legitimate travelers and traders. At Fort Snelling, the garrison also attempted to keep the peace between the Ojibwe and Dakota Sioux tribes.

By the 1840s, the fur trade had declined dramatically in the Minnesota region, partly because of changing fashion tastes, the availability of cheaper materials for hat-making, and treaties with the U.S. government that reduced Dakota and Ojibwe hunting grounds. Many fur traders took the opportunity to become land speculators, and the region’s economy changed forever; for many Dakota and Ojibwe people, who had by this time become increasingly dependent on the trade, exchanging land to pay off debts claimed by traders became a matter of survival.

As the towns of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, developed in the area and grew in population, the need for a forward frontier military post in the region decreased. The Army sold Fort Snelling, including 8000 acres later annexed into South Minneapolis, to Franklin Steele in 1858 for $90,000.

During the Civil War, Franklin Steele leased Fort Snelling to the War Department for an induction station. More than 24,000 Minnesota recruits trained here. During the Dakota War of 1862, the Army used it as the base of a concentration camp, holding hundreds of Dakota women, children, and elders as captives on the river flats below the fort through the Winter of 1862–63. Hundreds died there. After the war, Steele leased the land around Fort Snelling to settlers, and Minneapolis began to expand into the fort’s surroundings.

The United States Army assigned a garrison to Fort Snelling. The fort dispatched forces to protect the interests of frontier colonizers from the Dakota people westward to the Rocky Mountains. Soldiers from Fort Snelling. Soldiers from the fort fought in the Indian Wars and the Spanish-American War of 1898.

During World War II, the War Department chose Fort Snelling as the site of the Military Intelligence Service Language School, which taught Japanese to Army personnel. The War Department constructed several buildings for housing and teaching, and the school processed 300,000 soldiers. The school was relocated to Monterey, California, after the war, in June 1946.

The War Department decommissioned Fort Snelling on October 14, 1946, and various federal agencies took parcels from the old fort grounds. The majority of the structures fell into disrepair. In 1960, it was listed as a National Historic Landmark, citing its importance as the region’s first major military post and its later role in the development of the United States Army.

Though decommissioned, Fort Snelling continued to serve as the headquarters of the United States Army Reserve 205th Infantry Brigade and supporting units throughout the Upper Midwest. The Department of Defense deactivated this role in 1994. Over the decades, the Army interred many deceased Minnesotan soldiers and other United States Armed Forces members at Fort Snelling National Cemetery. Some military facilities still operate around the site of the old Fort Snelling.

Meanwhile, the Minnesota Historical Society converted the area of the original walled fort into an educational establishment, rebuilding it to resemble its original appearance. Over time, the Minnesota Historical Society restored other buildings to their 1820s-1830s appearance. The Minnesota Historical Society now runs the fort.