page_title: Fort Snelling
section_title: Frontier post
hierarchical_section_title: Fort Snelling / History / Frontier post
caption_attribution_description: Camp New Hope Cantonment part of Fort Snelling in Dakota County, MN This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 66000401 More images
context_page_description: Fort Saint Anthony was renamed Fort Snelling once its construction was completed in 1825. It is a former United States Army fortification that was designated a Military Reservation on the bluffs overlooking the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers. That designation placed fort lands outside territorial administration or jurisdiction. Over time the location was part of the Louisiana Purchase and was included in the Missouri Territory. When Missouri became a state in 1812 the land not included became an Unorganized Territory which included Minnesota west of the Mississippi. When the Wisconsin Territory was formed Minnesota and Fort Snelling were included in the new Territory. When Wisconsin gained statehood in 1848 the Minnesota Territory was formed. By an an
  Act of Congress the Military Reservation was reduced in size on 26 August 1852. It was again reduced on 4 Janurary 1871. Today, the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area a National Park Service unit, includes historic Fort Snelling as well as other portions of old fort lands as part of their operations.
context_section_description: The Army at the northwestern frontier outposts tried: to restrict commercial use of the rivers to United States citizens (after the War of 1812 the US banned British-Canadian traders from operating in the US), keep Indian lands free of white settlement until permitted by treaties, enforce law and order, and protect legitimate travelers and traders.  At Fort Snelling, the garrison also attempted to keep the peace among the Dakota people.  Also built on Army land was the St. Peter's Indian Agency.  The Anglo-Euorpeans called the Minnesta River the St. Peter and the Indian Agency would a part of Fort Snelling from 1820-53.
  Colonel Snelling suffered from chronic dysentery, and bouts of the illness made him susceptible to anger.  Recalled to Washington, he left Fort Snelling in September 1827.  Colonel Snelling died in summer 1828 from complications due to dysentery and a "brain fever".
  John Marsh, a native of Danvers, Massachusetts, came to the fort during the early 1820s. There, he set up the first school in the Northwest Territory, 
  for the children of the officers.  He developed a good relationship with the local Dakota people. He compiled a dictionary for the Dakota language. He had studied medicine at Harvard for two years before leaving without earning a degree. He continued his medical studies under the tutelage of the Fort's physician, Dr. Purcell. The physician died before Marsh completed the two-year course, so he still had no medical degree. 
  Marsh eventually went west to California.
  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.
  Career army officer and artist Lieutenant Colonel Seth Eastman did two tours at Fort Snelling. He commanded the fort during the second in the 1840s. He completed many paintings and drawings of the Dakota while there, recording their customs and lives. He was commissioned by Congress to illustrate the six-volume study of Indian Tribes of the United States by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, which was published 1851-1857 with hundreds of his works.
  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.  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 was a former sutler of the fort and friend of the sitting President, James Buchanan.  At that time the fort sat on 8000 acres (32 km²).  A small portion of that land was later annexed into south Minneapolis.)  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), Minnesota Veterans Home(53 acres), Coldwater Spring National 
  Park(29 acres), the  Upper Post Veterans Home, Minneapolis St Paul International Airport and the Minneapolis-St Paul Joint Air Reserve Station(2,930 acres).
caption: Camp New Hope 1819
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