Fort Ridgely State Park is a

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

, USA, on the

Minnesota River The Minnesota River ( dak, Mnísota Wakpá) is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 332 miles (534 km) long, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It drains a watershed of in Minnesota and about in South Dakota and Iowa. It ris ...

south of Fairfax. It preserves

Fort Ridgely Fort Ridgely was a frontier United States Army outpost from 1851 to 1867, built 1853–1854 in Minnesota Territory. The Sioux called it Esa Tonka. It was located overlooking the Minnesota river southwest of Fairfax, Minnesota. Half of the ...

, site of the

Battle of Fort Ridgely The Battle of Fort Ridgely was an early battle in the Dakota War of 1862. Built between 1853–1855 in the southern part of what was then the territory of Minnesota, Fort Ridgely was the only military post between the Dakota Reservation a ...

during the

Dakota War of 1862 The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, the Dakota Uprising, the Sioux Outbreak of 1862, the Dakota Conflict, the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, or Little Crow's War, was an armed conflict between the United States and several ban ...

. It was the only Minnesota state park with a 9-hole

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...

, which overlooks the Minnesota River and goes along Fort Ridgely Creek. The park was established in 1911. The

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

Rustic Style buildings within the state park, built between 1934 and 1936, are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. In September 2016, the golf course was closed due to declining revenue. A group of local residents launched a campaign hoping to raise enough money to lease the course from the

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, or Minnesota DNR, is the agency of the U.S. state of Minnesota charged with conserving and managing the state's natural resources. The agency maintains areas such as state parks, state forests, recre ...

(DNR) and re-open it. However the group failed to win the support of the Fairfax City Council. The DNR plans to plow the course under and restore it to native prairie.

References

External links

Fort Ridgely State Park
1911 establishments in Minnesota Battlefields of the wars between the United States and Native Americans Buildings and structures completed in 1936 Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota Park buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Protected areas established in 1911 Protected areas of Nicollet County, Minnesota Protected areas of Renville County, Minnesota Rustic architecture in Minnesota State parks of Minnesota Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota National Register of Historic Places in Renville County, Minnesota {{Minnesota-NRHP-stub