Fort Ridgely Historic Site

Brief Timeline of Fort Ridgely

Period Sketches of Fort Ridgely

Contemporary Sketch

Famous Faces - Who Served at the Fort and Lived in the Area?

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Welcome to a frontier outpost once surrounded by prairie grasses and sparse trees. U.S. regular soldiers established Fort Ridgely in 1853 following the Traverse des Sioux and Mendota Treaties to keep peace between Dakota inhabitants and homesteading settlers. The fort functioned as a training ground for infantry and artillery before and during the American Civil War. Training would soon become a reality for the soldiers stationed there in the early 1860s.
In the late summer months of 1862, the peace would not last. Volunteers had replaced regular soldiers by this time and they would soon find themselves in battle.
At Acton in Meeker County, five settlers were killed by four Dakota hunters. Soon discontent spread throughout the Minnesota River Valley and surrounding areas and an armed conflict began. The fighting found Dakota groups and settlers at odds through sudden and desperate struggles. While both fought for the defense of their homes and the existence of their cultures, others risked death to protect friends and strangers alike from harm. Personalities like John Otherday and Lorenzo Lawrence are still remembered today for saving settler lives and speaking out against the war among their own people. Those who escaped immediate conflict sought shelter at places like Fort Ridgely. Others protected themselves in fortified homesteads or remained hidden in the outdoors.
Among the Dakota there existed a divide - in many ways another civil war among the people - of those who were eager for war and others that longed for peace. Some groups carried out swift and sudden attacks that felled whole families. At the same time actions by leaders like Big Eagle and Little Crow demonstrated an interest in military gains as opposed to the general conflict favored by other Dakota participants. Atrocities occurred on both sides and the results of this desperate period defines Minnesota to this day.

At Fort Ridgely Historic Site, the visitor will find a great deal about this conflict and beyond.

Today, Fort Ridgely and the surrounding State Park is a place with a mingling sense of peace and unease. There are narratives of dress parades on the grounds and the dressing of wounds, the deafening roar of battle and the silence that followed. Pause for a moment and reflect on what occurred here, and know that it is a place remembered.