1997 Memorial in Mankato Marking the Site of the December 26, 1862 Mass Execution of 38 Dakota Men
100 Riverfront Dr, Mankato, MN 56001
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
The park is a public memorial open at all hours at no charge.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Flat riverfront park with paved paths; fully accessible
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1997 · Site of Largest Mass Execution in U.S. History · U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 Aftermath · Dakota-Mankato Reconciliation Memorial
The mass execution of December 26, 1862, was the direct consequence of the U.S.-Dakota War of that summer. Military commissions tried 392 Dakota men in proceedings that lasted as little as five minutes each, with no legal representation and in an atmosphere of intense hostility. The commissions sentenced 307 to death. President Abraham Lincoln reviewed the transcripts personally and commuted 264 of the sentences, approving 39 executions. One was later reprieved, bringing the final number to 38.
At 10 AM on December 26, 1862, 38 Dakota men were hanged simultaneously on a specially constructed gallows in Mankato before an estimated 4,000 spectators, with 2,000 troops present to control the crowd. It remains the largest single-day mass execution in American history. The men had been convicted of participation in the summer's fighting or, in a significant number of cases, of rape — a charge historians have scrutinized for accuracy given the conditions of the trials.
For more than a century the execution site was marked by a monument celebrating the event. That marker was removed in 1971 following protests. The effort to replace it with something appropriate took decades. Reconciliation Park was dedicated on September 19, 1997, as a joint project of the Bdewakaŋtuŋwaŋ Dakota and Mankato communities, carrying the theme 'Forgive Everyone Everything.' Artist Tom Miller carved the nine-foot white buffalo from a 67-ton block of Kasota limestone as the central monument; a later addition in 2012 lists the names of all 38 men. Each December, members of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe ride horseback from their South Dakota reservation to Mankato to mark the anniversary.
Sources
Reconciliation Park does not carry a paranormal tradition and should not be framed as a haunted site. The weight of the place is historical: 38 Dakota men were hanged here on December 26, 1862, following rushed military trials that Lincoln himself acknowledged were problematic. The park was built in 1997 specifically to acknowledge that history and work toward healing.
The adjacent riverbank includes a documented mass grave site where remains of some of those executed were interred. Each December, the Dakota 38+2 Memorial Ride arrives in Mankato — a multi-week horseback journey from South Dakota carried out by members of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe in memory of the men who died here and two additional Dakota leaders executed at Fort Snelling in 1865.
The park's value as a dark-tourism destination is educational and commemorative. Visitors encounter a serious accounting of a federal atrocity against Dakota people at a specifically documented location, with named individuals listed on the memorial. The theme 'Forgive Everyone Everything' is the Dakota community's framing, not an exoneration of the history.
A self-paced visit to the memorial site, which includes the nine-foot white buffalo sculpture carved from Kasota limestone by artist Tom Miller, a monument listing the names of all 38 Dakota men executed on December 26, 1862, and native prairie plantings. The adjacent Minnesota River bank includes a documented mass grave site.
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