Fort Snelling-born of hardship

From: "Minnesota Past and Present" - Antoinette Ford, 1955

"The troops arrived at Mendota on the 24th of August (1819) and were at once set to work cutting down trees, and making roads up the river bank. Soon they were building log houses near the present site of the town of Mendota. The quarters were all log cabins and building them was full of hardship and difficulty. Stone had to be quarried for chimneys, and logs had to be carried for a considerable distance by men"
In September reinforcements arrived. One hundred and twenty men.
The following winter scurvy raged among the troops. 40 men died. The cause of the trouble was found to be pork, which was sent from St. Louis. Contractors had drawn the brine from the pork barrels in order to lighten the load. Before delivering the pork they had filled the barrels with river water."