Paynesville Fort

Paynesville Fort is a Minnesota historical marker in Paynesville, Stearns County.

Trunk highway 4, 2 blocks south of the Crow River Bridge, Paynesville · location approximate

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In August 1862 during the Sioux Outbreak, home guards built but soon abandoned a sod fort just east of here. On the night of September 13, Indians here surprised a small harvesting party, burned the buildings, and wounded John Boyland, but all the whites finally escaped. Troops garrisoned the fort from October 1862 to May 1864.

Verbatim 1940 text, presented as a historical record, not current interpretation. Minnesota now calls the 1862 conflict the U.S.-Dakota War and has since replaced the wording on some of these signs.

TodayHistorical map

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Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1859 · Colton's Minnesota & Dakota (1859) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1860 · Minnesota And Dakota. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1869 · Johnson's Minnesota (1869) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1870 · Burritt's Sectional Minnesota (1870) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1873 · Minnesota. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Colton's Minnesota & Dakota (1859), 1859, covering the location of Paynesville Fort, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Colton's Minnesota & Dakota (1859), 1859, covering this location. Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours and the location is approximate.

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The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyExpected here. This page shows the older published text, and some signs were recast later. Telling us still helps.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

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Marker data: Minnesota Historical Records Survey Project, Work Projects Administration, Guide to Historic Markers Erected by the State Highway Department Cooperating with the Minnesota Historical Society (1940)

Paynesville Fort

Historical maps covering this location

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