For the first time in more than a decade, the Alexander Ramsey House in St. Paul will host tour groups on the anniversary of the 1862 mass hanging of 38 Dakota men in Mankato.
The house has been closed to the public each Dec. 26 since at least 2012 in observance of the anniversary, but an oversight caused four Candlelight Christmas Tours to be scheduled on that date this year, according to Ben Leonard, the Minnesota Historical Society’s vice president of historic sites.
“Once the issue was realized, MNHS removed the tour from the website and stopped ticket sales,” Leonard said in an emailed statement. “The tickets that had previously been purchased will be honored, and it is our goal for the visitors to learn more about Minnesota’s complex history.”
This is the first year MNHS has held holiday tours at the Alexander Ramsey House since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and some new staffers were not aware that it is the Historical Society’s practice to close the site on Dec. 26, Leonard said.
The Alexander Ramsey House is one of 26 historic sites MNHS manages across the state.
Josie Bergmann, a tour guide at the Alexander Ramsey House, said she was disappointed that the Historical Society did not cancel the tours after the mistake was recognized.
“This should have never happened,” she said.
Ramsey, who was governor of Minnesota during the 1862 U.S.-Dakota war, called for the Dakota to “be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of the state” in a speech to the Minnesota Legislature that year. The hanging — the largest mass execution in American history — occurred four months after the war ended.
“At the Minnesota Historical Society, we recognize the tragedy of this day and the generational impact of the mass execution and exile of the Dakota people from Minnesota,” Leonard said.
Although the focus of the Candlelight Christmas Tour is the melancholy feelings that can accompany the holiday, an MNHS spokeswoman said the anniversary of the hanging will be acknowledged. The house will remain closed on Dec. 26 in future years, she added.
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