05/27/2020
We're heading to Fort Ridgely today on our tour of National Register of Historic Places - NPS locations in Nicollet County, added to the registry in December of 1970. Built in 1853 as American settlers poured into the former Dakota lands, the fort was completed in 1855. Upon its completion the main grouping of structures included the commandant's and surgeon's homes, stone barracks, officer's quarters, a bakery, a laundry, and the commissary; all were grouped around an approximately 300 square foot parade ground. Outside the main grouping were stables, a hospital, small log residences for non-commissioned officers and civilians, two powder magazines, among various other structures. The original plan of the fort called for a stockade, but this was never built.
Fort Ridgely withstood several attacks in the US-Dakota War of 1862, and was later a training ground for Civil War recruits. However, its use as a fort was short lived. An 1865 fire destroyed the headquarters/surgeon's quarters building, and by 1867 the volunteers who replaced Civil War troops were withdrawn. Ordnance Sergeant William Howard, left in charge of unused building at the fort, was withdrawn by the Army in 1871. With his removal, Fort Ridgely was left unprotected from nearby settlers in need of building materials for their homes and farms.
By 1936, only a log powder magazine and the stone commissary remained, with the latter structure in ruins. An excavation undertaken that same year would reveal the foundations of eight buildings. Today the location is a museum and interpretive center managed by the Nicollet County Historical Society for the Minnesota Historical Society and is within the boundaries of Fort Ridgely State Park.
https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/AssetDetail?assetID=5701daea-8996-427a-ac99-e497c22f87c8
