Fort Snelling

The War's Aftermath & Fort Snelling Today

After the trials, those Dakota that survived the harsh conditions of the camp and who were not convicted or sentenced to death were released. The fort shifted back to acting as a military garrison during the American Civil War and continued to do so through World War II. In fact, during the Second World War, the U.S. War Department selected Fort Snelling as the location for the Military Intelligence Service Language School where intelligence officers in the Army were taught Japanese. After the war, the fort was decommissioned by the government in October of 1946. In 1960, it was designated as a National Historic Landmark. In the decades that followed, a military cemetery was also established on the property that rests the bodies of deceased Minnesota soldiers and members of the U.S. Armed Forces as well as their families. In 1966, the Minnesota Historical Society (MHS) began restorations on the fort to improve its fading condition and preserve what was left of the site. Soon after these renovations, MHS converted the fort into an educational establishment that acts as an interpretive site to this day.

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