Battle of Fallen Timbers/Blade 01-20-99

With one eye cast toward removal from office and another toward a lasting political legacy free from the tarnish of scandal, President Clinton proposed last night that the federal government "mark the millennium by saving America's treasures."

Future generations of northwest Ohioans may remember President Clinton not for his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, but for his program that helped establish a monument marking the Fallen Timbers battlefield south of Toledo.

Should the program -- introduced in the President's State of the Union speech last night -- win congressional funding, and should the Fallen Timbers project qualify, the effort to establish a memorial at the Fallen Timbers battlefield site, which is under way, could become what the President envisions as a "Millennium Project."

Mr. Clinton's speech was designed, in part, to divert attention from a trial now under way in the Senate, in which the President stands accused of perjury and obstruction of justice. Should two-thirds of the Senate concur that he is guilty of such crimes, he could be removed from office.

The brief battle of Fallen Timbers, fought on Aug. 20, 1794, pitted the army of Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne against a band of Native American tribes. The American victory, and the treaty that followed it, gave the young United States Ohio, Detroit, a part of Indiana, and a safe passage on the Ohio River, opening the region to settlement.

'Millennium Project' focuses on preservation

by Pat Griffith, Blade Washington bureau

The White House Millennium Project builds on a theme suggested by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton -- to save America's historic treasures and celebrate its creative and innovative spirit by "honoring the past and imaging the future."

Congress appropriated $30 million in this year's budget for a "millennium fund" administered by the National Park Service that will be allocated for the most urgent preservation projects of national significance -- from protecting the fraying Star Spangled Banner that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the national anthem to restoring historic homes and public buildings.

In announcing the project in July, President Clinton said that as 2000 approaches, Americans "must ask ourselves, what will it take to meet that challenge, to define that future, to prepare ourselves for a new century and a new millennium? And what gifts shall we give to the future?"

The response, he said, is a project to showcase the achievements that define America as a nation -- "our culture, our scholarship, our scientific exploration."

Last month, Mrs. Clinton visited several of the sites undergoing restoration, from the homes of jazz icon Louis Armstrong in the New York borough of Queens and poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in Cambridge, Mass., to a Jewish synagogue and old vaudeville theatre district in Los Angeles, an African-American Meeting House in Boston, and the nation's oldest municipal conservatory for rare plants in San Francisco.

The project is encouraging private participation to restore historic treasures. In addition, the White House and the National Endowment for the Humanities are co-sponsoring a series of "millennium evenings" at the White House with prominent educators, historians, and artists.

These lectures, available over the Internet and broadcast via satellite, have included presentations by historian Bernard Bailyn of Harvard University and scientist Stephen Hawking of Cambridge University, England.

The city of Toledo bought the battlefield in 1987, before archaeologists determined the battle was fought on that land.

Maumee Mayor Steve Pauken, a proponent of the historic site now within the Maumee city limits, said last night the suggestion to make Fallen Timbers a local Millennium Project "is an excellent idea."

The mayor said he was surprised to receive an e-mail message last night from the Ohio Historic Preservation Office of the Ohio Historical Society with notice of a Feb. 1 deadline for applying for millennium funding.

Mayor Pauken said the message indicated available funds could range from $50,000 to $3 million a project. Application forms are to be sent to his office today, he added.

The various Fallen Timbers interest groups, including the Fallen Timbers Battlefield Preservation Committee, the Maumee Valley Heritage Corridor, and others, will likely meet to decide who will apply for the grant, Mayor Pauken said.

Members of an alliance of Fallen Timbers supporters get together on a regular basis, he added.

John Squire, former chairman of the Maumee Valley Historical Society, thinks designating the historical site Toledo's millennium project might be the break the land needs.

"It's a sacred site out there," Mr. Squire said. "It really is a tourist draw," he said.

Dr. Charles Glaab, a professor of history at the University of Toledo, said the battle is a natural selection for a millennium project.

"Fallen Timbers is probably the most natural site," he said. "It's obviously one of the neglected major historical sites. . . . It is one of the most significant battles in American history. It sort of shaped control of the whole continent"

Mayor Carty Finkbeiner said he thought Fallen Timbers would make an excellent millennium project but that the needed to know more about the criteria for the project.

"I'm excited about the concept, but I want to make sure I know all the criteria," he said.

The mayor said he would seek to be identified as a millennium community over a millennium project.

"I would like Toledo to be considered an urban community that was well-situated in its planning processes to be considered exactly what American men and women are seeking in an urban setting during the first 10 years or so of the next millennium," Mr. Finkbeiner said.

"Hillary has traveled across the country to inspire recognition and supported for saving places like Thomas Edison's Invention Factory and Harriet Tubman's home," Mr. Clinton said. We must preserve our treasures in every community. I invite every American town, city, and county to become nationally recognized 'Millennium Communities' by launching projects that save our history, promote the arts and humanities, and prepare our children for the 21st century."

Blade staff writers Ryan Smith, Tom Jewell, Ignazio Messina contributed to this report.

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Fallen Timbers could be beneficiary of project