Visit the Sibley Historic Site
The Sibley Historic Site is open for the 2021 Summer Tour season. Due to the pandemic, we are limiting the number of people on each tour and request that you pre-register for your tours here. Drop-in visitors are welcome, but we cannot guarantee a tour spot will be open without pre-registering. Following guidelines from the CDC and MDH, face coverings are recommended for those not fully vaccinated and social distancing is strongly encouraged.
If you have any restrictions or requirements for the tour, please let us know in the "Notes" section below.
To register multiple people, you can select the "Tour Registration" (i.e. Adult) category and increase the number next to "Add to Cart" for the correct number in that category. You can then click "Add to Cart." Once you add to cart, you can select the "Tour Registration" category and add another option (i.e. Child). You will need to select the date and time for each category that you Add to Cart.
Explore the Sibley Historic Site
Visit the oldest Euro-American settlement in Minnesota where four distinctive limestone buildings grace the Minnesota River bluff across from Historic Fort Snelling. These buildings mark the American Fur Company's control over the region's Dakota trade between 1825 and 1853, when Mendota was a major center of the region's fur trade. The Sibley Historic Site is on the southern bluff of the Minnesota River upstream from its confluence with the Mississippi. The site includes four of Minnesota's oldest buildings, including the home of Henry Hastings Sibley — fur trader, General, and controversial first Governor of Minnesota. The Sibley Historic Site offers events, seasonal guided tours, and a museum shop.
About Henry Sibley
Born on Feb. 20, 1811, in Detroit, Henry Hastings Sibley came to the junction of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers in 1834 as the regional manager of the American Fur Company. Sibley went on to become one of the most influential figures in Minnesota history. His career included working as the region's most prominent fur trader; serving as a politician and territorial delegate to the U.S. Congress; election as the first governor of the state of Minnesota; and serving as a general during the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862.
The site of Sibley's Mendota home (and eventually those of Jean Baptiste Faribault and Hypolite Dupuis) became the state's first designated historic site, with restoration undertaken by the Minnesota district of the Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.) in 1910. The site is owned by the State of Minnesota and operated by the Dakota County Historical Society in partnership with the Minnesota Historical Society. Virtual Tour
Directions and Parking
Get Directions
Parking at the Sibley Historic Site
- There is on-street parking in front of the Dupuis House on Hwy 13/Sibley Memorial Highway
- There are a few parking stalls on the side of the Dupuis House off D Street
- There is on-street parking downhill from the site, in front of the Sibley House and Faribault House on D Street
- Bus parking is available on Hwy 13/Sibley Memorial Highway, or downhill on D-Street where there is some parking and a turn-around
