Fort Ripley

Fort Ripley was a nineteenth century army outpost located on the upper Mississippi River in north-central Minnesota. It was situated near government agencies for the Ho-Chunk and Ojibwe. By its very presence, however, the fort spurred immigration into the area by whites.

Fort Ripley typified remote army posts during the mid-nineteenth century. The buildings were wooden, facing a quadrangle. It was on a navigable river and an important supply route. It was geographically remote from European-American population centers, but American Indians lived nearby.

The Fort was built because the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) had been moved from northeastern Iowa to a new reservation near Long Prairie, necessitating a military post nearby to guard the reservation and administer annuity payments. The government also hoped that the Ho-Chunk, and the fort, would serve as a buffer between the warring Eastern Dakota and Ojibwe. Construction began in November 1848. In April 1849, Company A of the Sixth United States Infantry arrived to take up quarters under the command of Captain John B. Todd. The post, initially named Fort Marcy, was briefly renamed Fort Gaines and in 1850 was renamed again after Brigadier General Eleazar W. Ripley, a distinguished soldier from the War of 1812.

With occasional exceptions, daily life at Fort Ripley was uneventful. The geographic isolation, summer mosquitoes, and long, cold winters challenged everyone on post. Twice each year, the soldiers marched to the Long Prairie Agency to supervise government annuity payments of money and goods to the Ho-Chunk and then did the same for the Ojibwe at the Crow Wing Agency.

In 1855, the Ho-Chunk were moved again—this time to a reservation in Blue Earth County. Thinking the post was no longer needed, the army withdrew the garrison in 1857. Almost immediately, disturbances broke out between white immigrants and some Ojibwe, prompting reactivation of the fort.

Typical of nineteenth century army posts, Fort Ripley’s military reservation was huge. It encompassed nearly ninety square miles on the east side of the Mississippi, plus only a single square mile on the west side to house the garrison. This unusual configuration, chosen because the Ho-Chunk reservation abutted the west side of the river, caused much agitation among those who wanted the unused east side opened to homesteaders. The army agreed in 1857 to sell it in public auction, but local farmers, by mutual pact, underbid the property. The Secretary of War annulled the sale. In the meantime, however, many purchasers had begun to build homes and farm the land. The resulting confusion and litigation took twenty years to untangle.

Military activity on the post intensified during the Civil War (1861–1865). Army regulars—sent south to fight Confederates—were replaced by companies detached from Minnesota’s volunteer regiments.

Despite an undercurrent of mistrust, relations between European-Americans and Ojibwes had largely been peaceful in Minnesota. That nearly changed when the U.S.–Dakota War of 1862 broke out. Seizing upon that conflict as an opportunity to gain power and leverage for redress of grievances, Ojibwe leader Bagone-giizhig (Hole-in-the Day II) threatened to launch a simultaneous war in northern Minnesota. Fearful whites in the area flocked to Fort Ripley for protection. Additional soldiers were rushed in and the post was readied for battle.

The threat was defused, thanks to cool-headed negotiating and the garrison’s strengthened defenses. For the next three years Fort Ripley became a base for western military campaigns that came on the heels of the U.S.-Dakota War. Activity reached its peak during the winter of 1863–1864, when four hundred cavalry troops and five hundred horses were quartered at the fort.

On a sub-zero night in January 1877, fire destroyed three buildings. Believing the post had outlived its purpose, the War Department decided to permanently close it rather than rebuild. The troops moved out that summer. The buildings stood abandoned for many years. By 1910, the ruins of the powder magazine, built of stone, were all that remained.

In 1929, the State of Minnesota announced that a new National Guard training site would be built in central Minnesota. The land had to be purchased and, purely by coincidence, the remains of old Fort Ripley were within the proposed boundaries. The new post—Camp Ripley—took its name from the old.