Before Fort Snelling?
Fort Snelling is the center of Minnesota history education. Hundreds of stories are told about the people who lived there and the events that conspired to create the state of Minnesota. We can visit and explore the quarters where the soldiers through the eras called home and imagine their daily lives. But do you know what you almost never hear anyone talk about? Where did the soldiers live while Fort Snelling was being built? Did they live in tents? Take over fur trade cabins? Teepees?
Cantonment New Hope
When Lieutenant Colonel Henry Leavenworth and the Fifth Infantry arrived in 1819 at the spot picked out in 1805 by Lieutenant Pike they had been struggling up the Mississippi for months, dragging their loaded keel boats through shallow waters. Under strong sunshine, immersed in the river water, and exhausted from the exertion, the soldiers were demoralized and done. To give them a little reassurance, Leavenworth named their new home, Cantonment New Hope. He chose a spot (a place we now call Picnic Island) and they began to build their new home.
Unfortunately, “new hope” didn’t quite fit. The location of the log fort, in the low valley, on the river, in August, meant mosquitoes. Malaria took over the camp. Over the first winter, they also ran out of food and scurvy set in. At least forty soldiers died that winter.
In the Spring, when the river rose to flood the shores and a tornado took the roof off of the fort, Leavenworth gave up and sought a fresh start and fresh, clean water.
Camp Coldwater
On higher ground and around a natural spring, Camp Coldwater was much more successful. After building huts of wood and bark, they spent the spring and summer plowing and planting over 90 acres of corn, potatoes, and other fruits and vegetables.
While this location may have been good for the military, it was an imposition on the Dakota. The spring, a spiritual place for the tribe, was a traditional gathering place. The camp displaced the Native Americans and conflict over the spring would continue for decades.
An entire year passed from the military’s arrival and Leavenworth still hadn’t succeeded in even picking a permanent site for the future outpost. In the fall of 1820, Colonel Josiah Snelling arrived to take over with a fresh perspective, strong leadership and renewed energy. Two weeks later, the cornerstone of Fort Saint Anthony was laid.
Since Leavenworth had already used up all of the nails and other hardware that had been brought building the two wooden forts at New Hope and Coldwater, Snelling made the decision to use the cheap, abundant and available limestone to build the fort. It was another four long years living in the “temporary” forts before the stone citadel was complete.
In 1824, a general visited the finished outpost and understood the enormous effort that it had taken to complete. He proposed the encampment be renamed in honor of the man that finally made it happen - Fort Snelling.
Buried in the Past
After the completion of the Fort, the soldiers, families, and support staff migrated to their new home. The old log forts and outbuildings at New Hope were abandoned and Coldwater Spring morphed into a little town. Both sites have experienced evolutions worthy of their own explorations.
