FAIRFAX — History doesn’t mean much until it’s interpreted, a Minnesota Historical Society director told a gathering at Ft. Ridgely State Park Sunday.

The event was the opening of the new interpretive center in the old fort commissary that was rebuilt 30years ago by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Donn Coddington, supervisor of the field services, historic sites and archaeology division of the Historical Society, told a group of more than 200 people scattered across the grass by the commissary that establishment of an interpretive center is considered a final step in development of a historical site.

The new center is similar to one at the Lower Sioux Agency near Morton,with historical artifacts, an audio-visual presentation, and art-work and various media depicting the history of the Sioux Indian war that originated in the area of the fort in 1862.

INCLUDED in the display is a 9-by 9-foot replica of the fort as it looked in those days-a model that may be followed if a Historical Society feasibility study is positive and state funding is extended for a renovation project as an extension of the Fort Snelling project.

Richard Dunsworth of the Historical Society, key speaker at the dedication, suggested a piecemeal approach. Dunsworth is an authority on the history of the fort.

“My idea is to do one building at a time,” he said. “It’s not necessary to do all of the buildings; just something to give a feeling of what a prairie fort was like in those days.”

The importance of Fort Ridgely,he noted, is that it marked the beginning of a U.S. war against the Sioux that was “merciless.”

New Ulm Daily Journal

June 2, 1975