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Monday – Friday: 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

History of Redwood Falls:

The land that is Redwood Falls today was opened up to settlement in 1864, two years after the U.S.-Dakota War. Prior to the War, the Mdewakanton Dakota had been moved to a reservation along the Minnesota River, the Lower Sioux Agency being just a few miles southeast of the city’s location today. Some of the Dakota people had tried to adopt the ways of the whites, such as farming, but many held to their traditions. Wild game had become very scarce on the reservation land and the Government had arranged for payments to help supplement the needs of the Mdewakanton Dakota on the reservation. In 1862, the payment due in April did not arrive until August 29th, a day after the War had begun. This delay of payment, along with abuses by the traders on the reservation, led to a revolt in which the Mdewakanton band joined other Dakota bands resulting in hundreds of settlers being killed and others taken captive by the Dakotas’ along the Minnesota River from New Ulm to the Dakota border. McPhail CabinColonel Sam McPhail had first come to what is now Redwood Falls while leading troops following the War.

McPhail came to Redwood Falls on May 2, 1864, with a small party and immediately began work on a cabin and stockade.  This first cabin was built from logs salvaged from buildings on the reservation; it was also lined with bricks on the inside for added protection.  The stockade was an eight foot high reinforced wall of sod surrounded by a four foot deep ditch.  There is no record of the stockade ever being attacked.