Fort Snelling

Historic site and former military post, in Hennepin County, east-central Minnesota. Fort Snelling lies immediately south of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St Paul, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. In the 19th century, it became the administrative centre of the Territory of Minnesota, and formed the nucleus of the city of St Paul.

When built by Josiah Snelling in around 1819, the fort (originally named Fort St Anthony) was the most northwesterly US army post; up to the 1850s, it was the only fort in Minnesota. The slave Dred Scott (see Dred Scott Decision), whose legal bid for freedom was one of the factors leading to the Civil War, was resident here in 1836-38. As westward expansion progressed, explorers, travellers, and settlers congregated at Fort Snelling; the state's first school was established here. Fort Snelling later declined in importance, serving as a supply depot and Civil War training camp. Today, the fort has been restored, and is a State Historic Site.