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The Associated Press
in the Dispatch (Columbus, OH)
6-20-00
TOLEDO (AP) -- The city yesterday agreed to sell the key part of the Fallen Timbers battlefield to Toledo Metroparks for $5.5 million.
"Truly everyone (has) won," said Susan Horvath, president of the Metroparks board. "The city of Toledo will receive fair compensation for its land and a national treasure is now preserved in perpetuity."
The 1794 battle is credited with opening up the Northwest Territory for settlement by Americans.
The parks will make in initial payment on the 185-acre site of $2.8 million. A second payment of $2.7 million will be made by July 31, 2001.
The state will provide $2 million toward the first payment, the city of Maumee will contribute $500,000 and the Lucas County commissioners will give $300,000. Money for the second payment is expected to come from federal and state funds.
Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne led the troops that clashed with a confederacy of Indian tribes during the battle.
The land, in nearby Maumee, is part of a 1,200-acre tract the city bought in 1987 for $14 million that it wanted to annex. But a court blocked that move and the city since has sold much of the land.
Excavations begun in 1995 showed the marker for the battle was not in the right place, and the wrong property had been set aside in the 1930s.
The discovery led to an effort to combine state and private money to buy the land and link it to the national park system as a national historic site.
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