In 2010 the battlefield site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Wood Lake Battlefield Historic District for having state-level significance under the themes Archaeology/Historic-Aboriginal, Archaeology/Historic-Non-Aboriginal, Ethnic Heritage/Native American, and Military.[7] It was nominated as the final engagement of the Dakota War of 1862, a watershed period for the state of Minnesota and the Dakota people, and for embodying early commemoration efforts of 1907–1910, culminating in the stone monument.[8] The Civil War Trust (a division of the American Battlefield Trust) and its partners have acquired and preserved 240 acres of the Wood Lake battlefield.[9]