Fort Ripley
United States · Americas
About
Fort Ripley was a United States Army outpost on the upper Mississippi River, in mid-central Minnesota from 1848 to 1877. It was situated a few miles from the Indian agencies for the Ho-Chunk (and later with the new Crow Wing Chippewa Agency in the 1850s Ojibwe) in Iowa Territory and then the Minnesota Territory. It was still under construction when the Ho-Chunk arrived in summer 1848. In time, its presence spurred immigration into the area on the eastern (ceded) side of the Mississippi and the trading settlement of Crow Wing developed into a town on an island on the Crow Wing River approximately 6.75 miles (10.86 km) north of the fort when the agency for the Ojibwe was finally established there. Military protection had been stipulated in the 1846 treaty agreement with the Ho-Chunk and the Ojibwe agency was called for in the Ojibwe 1847 treaties at Fond du Lac and Leech Lake. The Ojibwe had been talked into making land available for the Ho-Chunk who had been temporarily removed from Wisconsin to the Neutral Ground of northern Iowa under the assumption that only Indians would live there, not whites. The second cession in 1847 was designated for the Menomonie and the Stockbridge-Oneida and small bands of other "New York Indians" (all of whom who refused to remove from eastern Wisconsin).
The military post was initially named Fort Marcy. It then was renamed Fort Gaines and in 1850 was renamed again for distinguished Brigadier General Eleazer Wheelock Ripley of the War of 1812. It was the second major military reservation established in what would become Minnesota. A report in 1850 by General Pope also called for a third military installation to protect the Red River region of the large Territory that extended to the Missouri River, but Fort Abercrombie would not be built until the late 1850s.
In 1971 Fort Ripley was listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its state-level significance in the historical archaeology and military history categories. It was nominated for its status as Minnesota's second major military post and for its role in maintaining peace and enabling pioneer settlement in Central Minnesota.
Camp Ripley, a training facility of the Minnesota National Guard, was established in 1929. It includes the historic site of Fort Ripley and was named in its honor. The nearby city of Fort Ripley, Minnesota, was also named for the old outpost.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.