Featured Programs

School Tour Programs

Visit our Educational Field Trips page for more information.

Special Events

Historic Fort Snelling has many special events throughout the season. Our calendar of events has all the details!

In-depth Programs

Historic Fort Snelling offers in-depth classes to learn about life in the early days of the Fort.
Class Schedule

  • Bread Baking Class: Learn the secrets of baking fresh bread in a wood heated brick oven and in an iron bake kettle.
  • Blacksmith for Day: Join the skilled craftsmen to try your hand at blacksmithing, cabinet making, woodturning and more. After a brief orientation, use period tools to learn long-forgotten skills.
  • Ladies Tea: Take 19th century tea with Mrs. Snelling in one of Minnesota’s most historic buildings.
  • Hearth Baking: Help prepare a meal in the basement kitchen of the Commandant's house using the brick hearth and wall over. Then, take your seat at the Commandant's table to enjoy your hard work.

Reservations and prepayment required.

Programs can be scheduled for groups of four or more. Please call 612-725-1171 for information or to schedule.

Historic Fort Snelling Traveling Programs

Let us bring part of Historic Fort Snelling to your door! One of our engaging costumed interpreters will present a program at your facility. Each program is 1 hour in length; start times are flexible. Cost is $125/program. Each program is available from November through March. Call 612-726-1171 for scheduling information.

Program choices include:

  • "Mrs. Snelling Makes a Social Call "
    Join us as we turn the calendar back to 1827 and receive Mrs. Snelling, wife of Fort Snelling’s commanding officer, to tea. Discover what life was like in the early 1800s at a wilderness post over 700 miles from the closest town. Learn about clothing styles, food, etiquette and socializing. Step back in time as we put the kettle on and host Mrs. Snelling for tea.
  • "The Post Surgeon Makes a House Call"
    Suffering from a catarrh or the ague? Bothered by chilblains? Join us as Major McMahon, Fort Snelling’s doctor in 1827, makes a house call to physic you for these and other ailments. Doctor McMahon practices the most modern medicine but you’ll have to decide if the cure sounds worse than the malady!
  • "A Musician Plays Early American Favorites"
    What was music like when the American Revolution was still a living memory when the signers of our Declaration of Independence still lived and when the United States was 50 years old? Be transported by the airs, dance music, hymns and marches of early America.
  • The Selkirk People
    The unique and all but forgotten story of the refugees from the Red River settlement as told by Mr. Perry. He is one of the illegal squatters who lives near Fort Snelling in 1827 and among those who eventually helped found St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Dr. Harold Deutsch World War II History Round Table Lectures

Free evening public lectures feature noted historians and actual participants in the great events of the Second World War. Scheduled the second Thursday of each month September through May.