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excerpted from a year-in-review article
The Blade (Toledo, OH)
12-27-98
Reporter Joshua Benton took a close look at the significance of historic sites around Ohio in September, and focused on one scholars consider to be one of the country's most threatened -- the location of the Battle of Fallen Timbers just south of Toledo, the 1794 conflict that opened up much of the Midwest to the expanding United States.
The brief battle pitted the army of Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne against a band of Native American tribes. The American victory gave to the young United States the areas of Ohio, Detroit and a part of Indiana and a sage passage on the Ohio River.
Battlefield advocates have had an uphill battle trying to convince the land's owner, the city of Toledo, that the site deserves preservation. They have also tried to raise the millions of dollars it would take to buy the land.
But just two weeks ago a National Park Service report called the battlefield "nationally significant" and recommended it be included in the National Park System, not as a national park but as an affiliated unit of the system. That means park personnel and resources could be used to help preservationists on the battlefield.
Local preservationists said the affiliation could help them raise more than $7.2 million needed to buy the land from the city.
Gov. Voinovich signed a capital bill soon after the report was released, including $2 million to help buy land for a Fallen Timbers Battlefield site.
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