$1.2 Million Awarded to Preserve Battlefields
OutdoorHub 07.28.11
WASHINGTON – More than $1.2 million in National Park Service grants will be used to help preserve and protect America’s significant battlefield lands. The funding from the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP) will support 25 projects at more than 76 battlefields nationwide.
“These grants help safeguard and preserve American battlefield lands,” said Jon Jarvis, Director of the National Park Service. “It is important to protect these lands as symbols of individual sacrifice and national heritage for present and future generations.”
This year’s grants provide funding for projects at endangered battlefields from the Pequot War, King Philip’s War, Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, World War II and various Indian Wars. Awards were given to projects in states or territories entailing archeology, mapping, cultural resource survey work, documentation, planning, education and interpretation.
Winning projects include a National Register nomination and management plan at the War of 1812 Battle of Bladensburg in Maryland; an archaeological assessment of Creek War battle sites in Alabama; a preservation plan for the Civil War Battle of Lone Jack in Missouri; a digital, web-based tour of the Civil War Battles in Saltville, Virginia; archeology for resource identification at the Revolutionary War Battle of Fort Boonesborough, Kentucky; public interpretation and educational activities at Pequot War battlefields in Connecticut; and a nomination project for seven Nez Perce and Cheyenne-Great Sioux Wars in Montana.
Priority was given to those groups submitting applications for nationally significant battlefields. The majority of awards were given to battlefields listed as Priority I or II sites in the National Park Service’s Civil War Sites Advisory Commission Report on the Nation’s Civil War Battlefields and the Report to Congress on the Historic Preservation of Revolutionary War and War of 1812 Sites in the United States.
The National Park Service helps communities build trails and playgrounds, preserve local history and get tax credits for historic rehabilitation projects. Learn more at: www.nps.gov/YOURSTATE. Brief descriptions of funded grant projects follow.
