Museum work is at the midpoint

By Tim Engstrom Published September 8, 2025

The part of a submarine that stick upward is called the sail, and the new museum will feature the sail of the USS Minneapolis-St. Paul rising from the prairie.

CAMP RIPLEY — The $40 million Minnesota Military & Veterans Museum is at its construction midpoint. The local news media was invited on a tour July 23.

Of course, because this is the wet summer of 2025, it rained.

The 40,000-square-foot museum is slated to open in summer 2026. It sits on 30 acres along Highway 371 next to the Camp Ripley exit north of Little Falls.

Museum Executive Director Randal Dietrich said the project was motivated by three things:

Veteran resilience. He said he hopes veterans host reunions, find stories about themselves, their friends or their relatives.

“This will be a place where they can come together and have a sense of belonging,” he said.

Servicemember retention. He wants currently serving soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines to feel good about their service to the country.

“We want folks in the military to feel this reflects well on them and what they are doing to currently support the state and nation,” Dietrich said.

Future generations. He said he hopes young people are inspired by what they see and considering joining the military or stand by the national service of friends and relatives.

“We’re going to rely upon those folks when we get older,” he said.

Architect Steven Dwyer with design firm HGA said the design of the building is modern yet reflects Camp Ripley’s heritage of black granite stone gates and fences built during the Great Depression.

“We’re trying to think about the timelessness that we are trying to achieve,” he said, “Now, I can’t say we’re achieving timelessness, but that’s the goal. Only time will tell if something is timeless.”

The purpose of the museum is to be a monument to all who have served, he said. He said he and the construction team try to be stewards of dollars while constructing the building to be expandable in the future.

He spoke about the black precast panels that line the exterior, in which visitors will be able to see their reflections.

Dietrich took the media members into the museum and explained how it will welcome visitors, whether they come for the museum, the state veterans cemetery or to the military base. The main entrance will be on the west side. Once inside, the first exhibit the visitors experience will be the No. 3 Gun from the USS Ward — Minnesota’s prime connection to the start of World War II.

There are several rooms for displays, and on the south side there is a large space for gatherings, and it will have a door facing the future parade grounds.