Fort Snelling State Park

About Fort Snelling State Park

Located in the heart of the Twin Cities, the park offers extensive hiking, biking and skiing tours conducted by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MNDNR) and Minnesota State Parks. Play golf, canoe on Gun Club Lake, swim in Snelling Lake and hike to Pike Island, where the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers meet.

Visitors will be provided with interpretative exhibits and films presented at the Thomas C. Savage Visitor Centre. Camping is possible, but only for days in the park and costs $5 per person per night. Visitors can also explore historic Fort Snelling for a glimpse into military life in the 1820s.

Most of the park is along the Minnesota River, but some parks are located in the St. Croix River National Forest, such as Fort Snelling State Park. Some parks are within a few miles of other state parks in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The river landscape is bordered to the north by the St. Croix River National Forest, the Minnesota River and Fort Snelling State Park.

During the last ice age, the retreating glaciers in this area left thick moraine deposits in the rocks. As the glaciers melted, torrential meltwater penetrated the deposits, forming what is now the Minnesota, Mississippi and St. Croix rivers.

The forest floor and the swamps are planted with wild animals, which consist of deer, elk, wolves, coyotes, foxes, wild boars and other wild animals. Visitors could also encounter a fox snake that looks almost identical but is not venomous.

Snapping, soft-shelled and painted turtles can be seen in the sun along the river and in one of the lakes. Before the Europeans arrived, generations of Dakota people lived in a village on the Mississippi River in Minnesota, which meets Fort Snelling State Park. The confluence of rivers is considered the origin and center of the earth.

Europeans visited the area at the end of the 16th century, and the historic Fort Snelling was built to control exploration, trade and settlement along the waterways.

In 1962 the area was established as a national park, and in 1997 a new visitor centre was opened. The beach, which was added in the 1970s, is still a popular leisure attraction in the park. Take the Post Road exit off Highway 5 and follow the signs to the entrance to Fort Snelling State Park on the south side of the road.