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

  • 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.
  • 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:

  • Colonel Snelling and the 5th Regiment
    One of our costumed History Players, Colonel Snelling, will journey from Fort Snelling to discuss his early military career, including being taken a prisoner during the War of 1812, and later his assignment to establish a fort at the confluence of the Mississippi and St. Peters (later the Minnesota) rivers. Learn about his family and their lives at the fort, and discover the challenges of constructing and commanding a military post.
  • Charlotte Ouisconsin Clark Van Cleve
    Meet one of our costumed History Players portraying Charlotte Ouisconsin Clark Van Cleve (1819-1907), the daughter of a U.S. Army officer who was with the first group of soldiers sent to establish Fort St. Anthony in 1819, later known as Fort Snelling. She married an army officer who served with the Second Minnesota during the Civil War, and settled in Minneapolis where she became a prominent figure in the community, took up the cause of women’s right to vote, and helped to establish the Bethany Home. Her book, Three Score Years and Ten, has given us insight into life at the Fort in its early years.
  • Dred & Harriet Scott
    One of our trained staff will arrive to talk about Dred Scott, who was born into slavery in 1799, in Virginia. Scott was eventually moved to Missouri, a slave state, where he was sold to Dr. John Emerson, a military doctor, who took Dred with him to places where slavery was prohibited, such as Fort Snelling. At the fort, Dred met and married another slave, Harriet Robinson. After being moved back to St. Louis, Dred and Harriet began their eleven-year fight for their freedom based on their years of residency in free states. The landmark case made its way to the US Supreme Court, where the “Dred Scott Decision” pushed the nation further towards civil war.
  • "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!

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.