Wood Lake Battlefield Preservation Association

A 501 (c)(3) Association

Welcome to the Wood Lake Battlefield Preservation Association website. We appreciate your interest.

MISSION

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

GOALS

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

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