From Gunflints to Moon Rocks: History of the Bureau of Mines Twin Cities Research Center
A Confluence of Histories
Minnesota’s First Settlement
Water for 100 Years
On June 8, 1857, the U.S. Army sold Fort Snelling to Franklin Steele for $90,000 but bought it back only four years later with the start of the Civil War. Soldiers from Fort Snelling located initially at Coldwater Spring in 1820 for the fresh water supply.
From Deep in the Earth to High on the Moon
A New Chapter
Landscape renderings were created in 2011, showing plans to restore the landscape to an oak savanna prairie and turn it into a public park.