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Fort Totten State Historic Site facts for kids

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Fort Totten
Fort Totten barracks.jpg
Barracks at Fort Totten
Fort Totten State Historic Site is located in North Dakota
Fort Totten State Historic Site
Location in North Dakota
Fort Totten State Historic Site is located in the United States
Fort Totten State Historic Site
Location in the United States
Location South of Fort Totten off ND 57
Nearest city Fort Totten, North Dakota
Area less than one acre
Built 1868
NRHP reference No. 71000629
Added to NRHP December 09, 1971

Fort Totten State Historic Site is a historic site in Fort Totten, North Dakota.

Farny 14
Fort Totten trail, by Henry Farny

History

Established on July 17, 1867, the fort was first built to watch over the surrounding Spirit Lake Tribe (known then as the Devils Lake Reservation) after a group of the Dakota tribe moved to the area after 1867. The soldiers were stationed to enforce the peace and guard transportation routes. The Fort was also the gathering point for an expedition to survey the border between the United States and British Canada in the 1870s. The fort was decommissioned in 1890. It was then turned over to the Bureau of Indian Affairs where until 1959 it was used as a Native American boarding school. Fort Totten became a North Dakota State Historic Site in 1960 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

It was named for United States Army Corps of Engineers head Joseph Gilbert Totten, who also has forts named for him in Washington, D.C. (now Fort Totten Park) and Queens, New York (now a park and reserve military installation).

Today

Visitors can access an interpretive center, take a walking tour of 16 original buildings, visit the Pioneer Daughter's Museum, take in a show at the Fort Totten Little Theatre, and stay at the Totten Trail Historic Inn bed and breakfast. School children often attend the "Fort Totten Living History Field Day" in September.

  • Barnes, Jeff. Forts of the Northern Plains: Guide to Historic Military Posts of the Plains Indian Wars. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2008.

Images for kids

  • The Fort Totten Little Theater

    The Fort Totten Little Theater

  • The Totten Trail Inn at The Historic Fort Totten offers guests the opportunity to immerse themselves in the ambiance of a bygone era

    Original First Lieutenant's quarters, now the Totten Trail Historic Inn

  • Fort Totten Historic Site

    Fort Totten Historic Site marker

  • Northern Plains Overland Trails 1866-1877 map on display at the Fort Totten Historic Site

    Northern Plains Overland Trails 1866-1877 map on display at the Fort Totten Historic Site

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