Sadly It Never Ends

[DougCooper]

Re: Sadly It Never Ends

I hate to say anything disparaging about CWPT because they have done great work, but I cannot agree with the statement that says "CWPT understands it all" nor do they always "have a good plan to do as much as possible." In one instance they did nothing but throw in the towel before the bell had even rung.

A couple of years ago CWPT was unable to purchase a tract of land along Route 20 north of Saunders Field on the Wilderness battlefield. The asking price was way out of their range. OK, that happens, but just because they couldn't buy it doesn't mean that the preservation battle is over. But later on they made the incredible statement via correspondece to their members that read (paraphrasing) "this part of the Wilderness battlefield is now lost to us forever."

What does that mean? Just because CWPT no longer can purchase the land that the fight is over? It sure gave me and several others I know the impression that no further actions, either through legislation or negotiation, could possibly save that part of the battlefield. Loss of that tract would certainly lead to the widening of Route 20 which would disembowel a national park that already looks like Swiss chees.

And, because CWPT is the leading voice in the preservation arena, that statement seemed to imply that allied organizations such as the Center Virginia Battlefield Trust, the Friends of Wilderness Battlefield and the NPS could not, or would not, do anything further to prevent or mitigate development of that tract. The fact that this remark was made in the wake of the great victory at Chancellorsville's Mullins Farm (the Lick Run Tract), where all of these organizations came together with the new owner and worked out a spectacular compromise, was particularly puzzling.

Due to the careless nature of that statement I didn't bother to renew my membership in CWPT. Because of my particular interest in the Wilderness I'll give my hard-earned dollars to CVBT or FotWB in the future. I won't mindlessly take CWPTs word about which battlefields are, or are not, "lost forever" just because they can't afford to buy them. There are always other avenues to pursue when outright purchase fails, but CWPT seems to have forgotten that in this instance. In doing so may have undermined other preservation avenues for protecting the Wilderness along the Route 20 corridore. But, the fight is not over... it hasn't even started.

Bill - funny, I never got that impression from the Wilderness Fight (that CWPT thought it was over) - guess it helps to be a bit closer to the problem in this case. The term "lost forever" is sometimes a bit of motivational hyperbole employed to galvanize support. CWPT is like any other effective lobbying organization - they lobby. I am willing to give them a bit of rope based on their track record. They are not perfect, but it sure is good to have them working so hard on OUR behalf.

[SouthernMag]

Re: Sadly It Never Ends

In college I would often go ballistic over the plowing up of archaeological sites, mounds, villages, hunting camps, etc. from our prehistory. In my idealistic zeal, I wanted to save every single site right down to the smallest pot sherd. One day a prof. of mine put it into perspective for me when he said something to the effect that one cannot take a step without trodding on our prehistory or history and that as archaeologists our job was to save as much of the more significant sites and information as possible. He went on to say that we have to realize that life goes on and the living have to live and they have to have a place to do it in. Sage advice IMO that applies to all aspects of our history as well as prehistory. To put it more bluntly and quote my Mom, "pick your battles wisely". We cannot save it all but we need to decide what is most significant then make a major all out effort to save that. For example. just because a shopping mall gets built on a site where a battle or skirmish has occurred does not mean that a marker could not be placed inside the mall near the entrance commenmorating said occurence. It just needs a bit of diplomatic finessing of the developers by a very tactful intermediary. The ground is still there, under the structure and history cannot be changed (no matter what some folks may think). In a perfect world, we could save every single battlefield, every single prehistoric site, every single historic structure but, we don't live in a perfect world (nor an underpopulated one) so we must simply do the best we can to save the sites that are most significant and leave the rest to live on in the history books.

Maggie Reese

[Suppelsa]

Re: Sadly It Never Ends

Maggie,
You explained that much better than I did.

[HistoryGeek]

Re: Sadly It Never Ends

Suppelsa I agree with you but we should at least try to save every battlefield we can! It might make sense to some people to save the big battles like Gettysburg, Shiloh, Chancellorsville etc. But we should not save them because of how many men died there but by the battlefields importance to the Civil War and to the U.S. history. If we destroy the small batlefields that had a huge importance to the war we would lose huge amounts of history!

Evan Hunsberger HistoryGeek

[cap tassel]

Re: Sadly It Never Ends

... For example. just because a shopping mall gets built on a site where a battle or skirmish has occurred does not mean that a marker could not be placed inside the mall near the entrance commenmorating said occurence. It just needs a bit of diplomatic finessing of the developers by a very tactful intermediary...

Maggie Reese

It takes a developer who cares to please a tiny minority then. When developers and governments get together the language is money. With the sort of local officials we have where I'm from even a marker stands no chance. :(

[HistoryGeek]

Re: Sadly It Never Ends

When developers and governments get together the language is money. :(

I completely agree with you. All the developers want to do is get rich! I't really doesn't make any sense at all! I will preserve Civil War sites!

Evan Hunsberger History Geek