[1] The confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers was a neutral and sacred place where the Ojibwe, Dakota, Sauk, Meskwaki and Potowatamie tribes moved freely.

On May 5, 1820, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Leavenworth moved his troops to the spring area because their former encampment, on the Minnesota River, was causing unhealthy conditions.

The Coldwater area once housed blacksmith shops, stables, trading posts, a hotel, and a steamboat landing, but nearly all of those buildings were gone by the time of the American Civil War.

Researchers at the site were credited with developing an air filtration system to eliminate black lung disease among coal miners, and creating a beeping device to alert people when a heavy truck is backing up.

[6] The Minnesota Department of Transportation set a national precedent in 2003 by welding 28,000 square yards of eight-layer synthetic liner, covering approximately six acres to protect the water flow to the spring.

[8][9][10][6] The National Park Service led an environmental impact statement process in 2006 to consider potential future uses of the site that had been largely abandoned for the past ten years.

Some of the vacant mine research buildings may have been eligible for National Register for Historic Places status, but would have required expensive repairs.

Mdewakanton and their hereditary descendents [sic] for thousands of years" and that "the water of Coldwater Spring has been traditionally utilized for healing of Dakota people and others.

"[11] The National Park Service held the view that while there were Dakota villages along the lower Minnesota River, there is little evidence the spring itself was a ceremonial site.

[14] Coldwater Spring emanates from Platteville limestone bedrock near the river gorge that was formed over 10,000 years ago by glacier melt at the end of the most recent ice age.

[17] Prairie restoration efforts had the similar aim as those at Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary in Saint Paul a few years prior.