The Easy Trail That Might As Well Be The River Capital Of Minnesota
By Trent Jonas|Published September 27, 2023
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Trent Jonas
Author
Trent Jonas came to Minnesota to attend college - and never left. He's a Twin Cities-based writer with a BA in English and a MFA in creative writing, a Minnesota Master Naturalist, and the proud father of two adult children. With more than a decade of freelance writing experience under his belt, Trent is often out exploring his favorite topics: Minnesota's woods, lakes, and trails. Rhubarb pie is his weakness, so discovering new diners is also a passion.
Fort Snelling State Park is the premier state park unit in the Twin Cities Metro, and it sits at the confluence of two of the state’s longest rivers – the Mississippi and the Minnesota. Long before this land was settled by European-Americans, the Dakota people and their predecessors referred to this spot as Bdote – the place where two waters come together. The confluence is sacred in Dakota creation history and was long a place where the people of this region would hold council and meet with other peoples. Today, visitors can walk an easy footpath around Pike Island – Wita Tanka – which lies at the very point of Bdote, in Fort Snelling State Park. This Minnesota river trail will lead visitors along the state’s two most historically significant rivers, at a historically significant place, through a landscape that, even in the heart of the Metro, typifies the natural beauty that can be found in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
Fort Snelling State Park is located on the border of Minneapolis and St. Paul, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers.
This unique environment is a habitat that a wide variety of wildlife - from eagles and egrets, bullfrongs and beavers, to snapping turtles, deer, owls, and river otters - calls home.
This place has a long natural and native history. However, by 1820, the United States had built a military outpost at Bdote that eventually came to be known as Fort Snelling.
In fact, the Round Tower at Fort Snelling is the oldest extant building in Minnesota. It's located within the Minnesota Historical Society site surrounded by the park - Historic Fort Snelling at Bdote.
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Over the last two centuries, the intertwined histories of the peoples who have occupied this place, and the rivers that form it, have made it, perhaps, the most historically significant slice of landscape in Minnesota.
Given its location at this site of crucial historical significance and along the shorelines of the state’s two greatest waterways, this Minnesota river trail highlights one of the state’s most important river environments. You can read more about the trail, see pictures, and read reviews on AllTrails Plus.
Have you hiked the Pike Island Loop at Fort Snelling State Park/Bdote? Let us know in the comments.
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