Coldwater Spring — Attraction in Fort Snelling Unorganized Territory

This is a wonderful place, deep history and fantastic scenery. The spring flows year-round at 45 gallons/min. Not recommended for drinking as it's tributaries are impacted by road runoff. Reservoir doesn't freeze in winter. Be cautious. Sprimg structure is 100+ years old and still looking good. I don't know what the other reviews mean when they say there's little to no hiking. I spent 2 hrs. hiking the prairie and forest areas. I easily could have spent anothr 2 hra. I only left early bc my parking was expiring. Look for the National Park Service progras here including the BARK Ranger program to ”swear" in your dog as an honorary park ranger complete with a cute little doggy badge 😍 Trails are well maintained. Most trails are gravel or short prairie grass. Accessible parking is available past the road, closer...

Thanks to all who helped to save this sacred place/water from Mndot filling it in during the reroute of highway 55. *Preserve Camp Coldwater Coalition, *Friends of Coldwater, Mendote' Dakota Tribe, *Earthfirst, *Stop the Reroute Coalition and others everywhere, you know who you are! :o) NPS didn't have to much to do with saving it, but they sure took it over in true conqueror fashion! Quite the walk to see the Spring from the new parking area. It says not to drink the water, but go ahead, if it's from the source, it's in your Native traditions to gather sacred water from this spring that has been flowing for over 11,000 years, and the flow has been cut in half from all the...

This is more of a conservation area than a park, amenities should be minimal and what is there is ample, clean, tended. See Wikipedia's brief and somewhat sad history of this site.

What you will see now are ruins, remnants of its former American Army occupiers. Think I would've liked to see it in it's former glory as a reliable year-round source of fresh clean drinking water for surrounding first nations peoples and as a gathering place for important ceremonies, rituals, meetings and celebrations.

Open all year round, it's also a way station for Monarch butterflies on their seasonal migration. It has a treat to offer for every season and a fresh new face...