Fort Totten State Historic Site, Military post museum in Fort Totten, North Dakota.
Fort Totten State Historic Site is a 19th-century military post with seventeen preserved brick buildings that tell the story of soldiers and schooling. The buildings sit on open grounds and show the layout of a former fort with its different functional areas.
The fort was established in 1867 to monitor tribal lands and protect trade routes near Devils Lake. After forty years of military use, the site shifted to educational purposes for a new population.
The school buildings show how students lived and worked here together, with classrooms, workshops, and dormitories arranged side by side. You can see where children studied and trained for trades, reflecting how education was combined with hands-on work.
The site is best explored on foot, since buildings are spread across the grounds and pathways connect them. Plan enough time to visit several buildings and see the exhibits housed in each.
In the 1930s, part of the site became a medical facility where sick children received treatment and schooling at the same time. This combined approach of healthcare and education was unusual for that period.
Location: Benson County
Inception: 1960
Website: https://history.nd.gov/historicsites/totten
GPS coordinates: 47.97750,-98.99306
Latest update: December 6, 2025 17:44
North Dakota is a Great Plains state with a history shaped by trading posts, military forts, and Native American settlements. The region stretches from the Missouri River to the Canadian border, preserving sites that tell stories from the 19th century alongside Cold War relics and natural areas. Visitors find military installations turned into museums, archaeological sites, and parks that protect bison, prairie, and forest.The locations include Theodore Roosevelt National Park with its badlands formations, Fort Union Trading Post from the fur trade era, and Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site, where earth lodge foundations recall earlier communities. The Enchanted Highway displays large metal sculptures along the road, while Nekoma Missile Site and Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile Site provide views into the missile defense systems of the 1970s. State parks like Fort Ransom and Icelandic preserve river valleys and woodlands. Museums in Fargo and Minot showcase aviation history. The Center of North America Monument in Rugby marks a geographic midpoint, and Bonanzaville USA displays historical buildings from pioneer times.
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