Built between 1867 and 1873 as a military outpost, Fort Totten changed to an industrial boarding school in 1890 mostly instructing children of the surrounding Dakota reservation. Students lived here and received academic and vocational training. From 1935 to 1940, Fort Totten was the site of a tuberculosis preventorium and housed children considered at high risk for contracting tuberculosis.

With 16 original buildings, Fort Totten is one of the best-preserved frontier military forts. You can walk through several of these buildings or view window exhibit panels telling their stories. Don’t miss the restored hospital, which houses a museum of artifacts from the Lake Region Pioneer Daughters. Another building houses a community theater.

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