Wood Lake Battlefield Preservation Association

Welcome to the Wood Lake Battlefield Preservation Association website. Thank you for your interest.

Mission

The mission of the Wood Lake Battlefield Preservation Association is to preserve, restore, promote and respectfully interpret for all people, the Wood Lake Battle site and the history involving the U.S./Dakota War of 1862.

Goals

  • Develop awareness of the battlefield site and to provide public access
  • Accurately interpret the history involving the U.S./Dakota War of 1862
  • Restore parts of the battlefield to its 1862 environment, have interpretive signs and provide safe parking
  • Honor all peoples who fell there
  • Commemorate the anniversary of the Wood Lake Battle
  • Provide educational materials to aid in interpretation
  • Raise money to support the WLBPA mission

Wood Lake Battlefield - Minnesota

“In 1862 Minnesota had its own civil war within the larger Civil War, between Indians and white settlers. The absence of troops from this frontier state and the government's preoccupation with the war of the rebellion underlay the Sioux uprising. Militia and Minnesota volunteers finally suppressed the uprising.

The Wood Lake battlefield is as important to understanding this civil war as Gettysburg is to understanding the larger conflict.”

James McPherson
Historian, Pulitzer Prize Winning Author-Battle Cry Of Freedom.

Join the Wood Lake Battlefield Preservation Association

Join us in the effort to protect and preserve this historic Minnesota site.  If you share our interest in the preservation and interpretation of the Wood Lake Battlefield, we would welcome you as an Association member.
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Wood Lake Battlefield Preservation Association
4210 57th Street NW
Rochester, Minnesota 55901