Watercolor of old Fort Ripley by Minnesota artist Paul S. Kramer (1919–2012). Painted in 1989 as a study for a larger oil painting that hangs in Camp Ripley’s post headquarters.

Remains of the Fort Ripley powder magazine, 2005.

Fort Ripley powder magazine, 1926. Made of bricks and stone, it was the only building to survive into the early twentieth century.

Abandoned Fort Ripley, c.1895. Ruins of the laundry and ordnance room are in the foreground, next to the long enlisted barracks.

Abandoned Fort Ripley, c.1895. The southeast blockhouse stands as a lonely sentinel on the river.

Abandoned Fort Ripley as seen from the east side of the Mississippi River, c.1895.

Abandoned Fort Ripley, c.1895. On the left is one of the original officers’ quarters; in the foreground is the hospital and headquarters built to replace the original structure that had burned down in July 1870.

Map of Fort Ripley as surveyed in 1874, showing the ninety square miles of reservation land on the east side of the river and one square mile for the actual post on the west side. The sale of parcels on the east side in 1857, and subsequent annulment of the sale, created legal problems that took twenty years to untangle. (From 46 Congress, 2 session, Senate Reports, no. 196, serial 1893.)

Fort Ripley in the early 1870s. The somewhat taller structure to the rear left is the newly built hospital and headquarters, which replaced the one that burned down in July 1870. The fort’s three six-pounder brass cannons are pointed at the river.

Fort Ripley view from the north, 1864. Pen and wash drawing by Corporal August Harfeldt, Third Battery, Minnesota Light Artillery.