Fort Abercrombie State Historic Site

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Winter Hours: Buildings Closed Site grounds with outdoor interpretive signs open year-round. When the Red River Valley was the western frontier, Fort Abercrombie was the gateway to the West and the spearpoint of the army’s advance into the northern plains. The original guardhouse and the reconstructed blockhouses and stockade attest to the bloody conflict that spilled into the Dakotas from Minnesota in 1862. During this conflict Fort Abercrombie was besieged by Dakota warriors for almost six weeks. After the fort was abandoned in 1877, fort buildings were sold and removed from the site. A Works Progress Administration (WPA) project in 1939-1940 reconstructed three blockhouses and the stockade and returned the original military guardhouse to the site. Major portions of the WPA project have been refurbished and the site reinterpreted.Winter Hours: Buildings Closed Site grounds with outdoor interpretive signs open year-round. When the Red River Valley was the western frontier, Fort Abercrombie was the gateway to the West and the spearpoint of the army’s advance into the northern plains. The original guardhouse and the reconstructed blockhouses and stockade attest to the bloody conflict that spilled into the Dakotas from Minnesota in 1862. During this conflict Fort Abercrombie was besieged by Dakota warriors for almost six weeks. After the fort was abandoned in 1877, fort buildings were sold and removed from the site. A Works Progress Administration (WPA) project in 1939-1940 reconstructed three blockhouses and the stockade and returned the original military guardhouse to the site. Major portions of the WPA project have been refurbished and the site reinterpreted.