By National Trails Office (US National Park Service) - NPGallery, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=133513771
Fort Gibson was first established in 1824 under the direction of Colonel Matthew Arbuckle, part of a series of forts built to protect its western border and the Louisiana Purchase. After passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830, soldiers here built roads, provisioned incoming American Indians removed from the eastern states, and worked to maintain peace among antagonistic tribes and factions, including the Osage Nation, who settled the region in the 18th century, and the Cherokee Nation, a people forcibly removed from the American South to the Indian Territory.
In the 1850s, the Cherokee urged Congress to close Fort Gibson, which they did. During the American Civil War, however, Union troops occasionally occupied the post and then retained it for some time. The Kansas and Arkansas Valley Railway built track through the area in 1888, and the town of Fort Gibson, Oklahoma began to develop. In the summer of 1890, the Army abandoned Fort Gibson for the last time.
The Works Progress Administration reconstructed buildings here. In 1960, the National Park Service designated Fort Gibson as a National Historic Landmark.
Source: Wikipedia
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One of the oldest roads in the state, Fort Road was originally built by the federal government after Fort Ridgely was completed in 1853-54. Supplies were shipped from Fort Snelling to Traverse des Sioux, then transported by wagon to Fort Ridgely.
Nicollet County Road 5 runs more than 42 miles from its eastern terminus at its intersection with US Highway 169 in St Peter to the Renville County line. Old Fort Road presumably extended from Traverse des Sioux, although the portion running through the campus of Gustavus Adolphus College has been blocked off. Fort Road as an address runs from the western edge of St Peter to the end of CR-5.
In an ideal world, a paved trail would have been installed when the road was refurbished in the early 2010s. This planned geocache trail will have to suffice, but won’t alleviate my anxiety when biking here.