Two days down the Minnesota River from Minneapolis: St. Peter’s treaty sites, New Ulm’s museums and monument, and the fort and agency of the 1862 US-Dakota War. Every road time below was measured; the time at each stop is our estimate and is labelled that way.
Start at 9:00 a.m. each day. The first and last drives are from and to Downtown Minneapolis. Road times come from OpenStreetMap routing and do not include traffic, closures, parking or walking. Pick the stops you want: the ones marked Optional can be dropped, which frees 2 h 00 min in all.
- Day 1: St. Peter and New Ulm
- Day 2: Harkin Store, Fort Ridgely and Lower Sioux Agency
- What We Could Not Confirm
- Questions
- All Itineraries
- 2Days
- 8Stops
- 6 h 23 minRoad Time, Measured
- 266 miRoad Miles, Measured
Day 1: St. Peter and New Ulm
- S
Start: Downtown Minneapolis (start)
1 h 26 min by road, 67.6 mi, measured
1Treaty Site History Center
What to see: Exhibits on the treaty and Nicollet County history.
Type: Museum, St. Peter
Hours, as the operator states: Regular hours Tue-Sat 10-4; winter changes Nov 3, 2026-Feb 28, 2027
Admission, as the operator states: See official site
23 min by road, 9.0 mi, measured
2Traverse des Sioux
What to see: Treaty site trails; adjacent Treaty Site History Center (separate admission).
Type: State historic site, St. Peter
Hours, as the operator states: Grounds daily 8-8
Admission, as the operator states: Free
1 h 00 min by road, 34.0 mi, measured
3Brown County Historical Society Museum
What to see: ‘Becoming Brown County’ and other exhibits; research library.
Type: Museum, New Ulm
Hours, as the operator states: Tue-Fri 10-4; Sat 10-3
Admission, as the operator states: $7 adults; $5 seniors 65+; $4 students 5-18; 4 & under and members free
Under 2 min by car (0.4 mi): a short walk or the same block, measured
4Wanda Gág House
What to see: Childhood home with attic studio, skylights and turrets; self-guided or 45-minute docent tours.
Type: House museum, New Ulm
Hours, as the operator states: Sat 10-4; Sun 11-2
Admission, as the operator states: Free; suggested donation $5
3 min by road, 0.8 mi, measured
5Hermann Monument (Hermann Heights Park)
What to see: Copper statue of Hermann (Arminius) atop a dome.
Type: Memorial, New Ulm
Hours, as the operator states: Grounds open; climbing access closed. The official page still shows 2025 season hours
Admission, as the operator states: $3 per person; 5 & under free with adult
Day 1 map: 5 of 5 stops are pinned, numbered in plan order: 1. Treaty Site History Center; 2. Traverse des Sioux; 3. Brown County Historical Society Museum; 4. Wanda Gág House; 5. Hermann Monument. The start and finish points are off the map. Lines are straight and show order only, not the road. Each pin is an OpenStreetMap point for the named place, checked by eye; it is not a verified entrance or parking lot.
Day 2: Harkin Store, Fort Ridgely and Lower Sioux Agency
- S
Start: Downtown New Ulm (start of day 2)
17 min by road, 10.0 mi, measured
1Harkin Store
What to see: Historic store site.
Type: State historic site, New Ulm
Hours, as the operator states: See official site
Admission, as the operator states: Free
13 min by road, 8.2 mi, measured
2Fort Ridgely
What to see: Site of the fort in Fort Ridgely State Park; commissary building.
Type: Fort, Fairfax
Hours, as the operator states: Grounds daily 8-8; commissary building currently closed
Admission, as the operator states: Free (State park vehicle permit required)
35 min by road, 23.6 mi, measured
3Lower Sioux Agency
What to see: Restored 1861 U.S. government building, History Center owned and operated by the Lower Sioux Indian Community, Minnesota River trails.
Type: State historic site, Morton
Hours, as the operator states: Trails open daily dawn to dusk; History Center hours via Lower Sioux Indian Community
Admission, as the operator states: Free (trails); History Center: see official site
2 h 25 min by road, 112.6 mi, measured – a long drive
SFinish: Downtown Minneapolis (start)
Day 2 map: 3 of 3 stops are pinned, numbered in plan order: 1. Harkin Store; 2. Fort Ridgely; 3. Lower Sioux Agency. The start and finish points are off the map. Lines are straight and show order only, not the road. Each pin is an OpenStreetMap point for the named place, checked by eye; it is not a verified entrance or parking lot.
Read this first: Several of these stops tell the story of the US-Dakota War of 1862 and its aftermath, and some stand on Dakota homeland. Plan to read and listen more than you photograph, and follow each site’s own guidance.
If a Stop Is Closed or The Weather Turns
Drop an Optional stop first: together they are 2 h 00 min of the plan, and the road times for the others stay the same except where the dropped stop sat between two. Check each operator’s page before you go, because the hours above are copied from the operator on the date in our dataset and change by season.
What We Could Not Confirm
- Time on site, Essential or Optional, and the arrival clock are our own planning estimates, not operator figures. The 9:00 a.m. start is an assumption.
- Road times are OpenStreetMap routing for a car with no live traffic, closures, tolls, parking search or ferry waits. Real trips will run longer at busy hours.
- Opening hours: we did not check each arrival time against the stop’s hours. Some stops are closed on some weekdays or for the season; confirm with the operator before you go.
- Pins are OpenStreetMap points for each named place, not verified entrances or parking.
- Dog and child rules, accessibility and prices for stops whose operators do not state them are not confirmed here; ask the operator.
- Where to sleep: we measured no lodging. Day 2 starts at its first stop, so the drive from wherever you stay is not counted.
Questions People Ask
How long does the drive take on this itinerary?
We measured 6 h 23 min and 266 road miles in all across 2 days. That is routing without traffic; allow more at busy times.
Can I shorten it?
Plan on 6 h 23 min on the road and at stops for day 1 on our estimates. Optional stops can be dropped and free 2 h 00 min in all.
Are the hours and prices current?
They are copied from each operator’s own page as listed on Historic Sites, which we checked on November 1, 2026. Hours and prices change; use the Official page link on each stop.
More Minnesota Trips
Other itineraries: Twin Cities Weekend, The St. Croix Valley, Duluth and the North Shore, The Iron Range, Central Minnesota. Back to all itineraries.
Related: Historic Sites, Drive Times, Minnesota River Valley & Prairielands events, Plan a Visit, Venues.
Sources
- Stops, hours and admission: the open dataset Minnesota historic sites (CSV), the same rows as Historic Sites, each with its operator link.
- Road times and miles: OSRM routing on OpenStreetMap data, run by us on November 1, 2026. Coordinates: OpenStreetMap.
- Checked November 1, 2026 by It’s Minnesota. Cite this page: It’s Minnesota (https://itsminnesota.com/itineraries/minnesota-river-valley/), checked November 1, 2026. Free to quote with a link.