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Editorial by Ralph Johnson, senior associate editor
The Blade (Toledo, OH)
01-28-97
For a couple of months a letter from Mayor Carty Finkbeiner has been sitting on my desk. It wasn't sent to me. It was addressed to Elmer Fuhrhop, president of the Northwest Ohio Mayors & Managers Association (NOMMA), with copies to a number of other officials, one of whom sent me a fax.
The letter shows that the mayor, who is plainly aware of the historical importance of the Fallen Timbers battle site and the visits here of several National Park Service officials, doesn't see that it makes much difference as long as the price is right.
Maumee city officials have sought the support of NOMMA in their efforts to purchase the land from the city of Toledo and establish an affiliated unit of the National Park Service here. Judging by some of the letters passing through the back channels of official communication they can be nasty, usually polite, but nasty.
The park would consist of the battlefield (at the intersection of I-475 and U.S. 24), which is now part of the city of Maumee. Other units would be Fort Meigs in Perrysburg, and the site of Fort Miamis in Maumee, if the Ohio Historical Society agrees. The National Park Service is all for it.
The sum would be greater than the parts, and it merits strong support from state government. Let's say at least a million dollars, although the state is no great champion of historical preservation either.
Mr. Finkbeiner wrote: "Although we recognize the historic significance of the land, I cannot, in all good conscience, devote the entire acreage to park usage." He has offered 15 acres somewhere in the site for an interpretive and memorial center. It might be in the wooded area, which has deep ravines, mentioned in early accounts of the battle. He has spoken of as much as 30 acres, but not lately.
A state Fallen Timbers memorial already exists. However, the fate of the battlefield, the last major unprotected historic site in Ohio, is up in the air -- malls, stores, golf courses, residential subdivisions, perhaps.
The Stranahan estate off Central Avenue could have been turned into a beautiful residential area. Some far-seeing Toledoans and the voters gave us Wildwood Metropark instead.
Sinclair Lewis, if he were alive, might derive wry amusement from all this. He invented George Babbitt, the epitome of the small-town businessman whose vision ultimately did not extend beyond his real-estate deals. Lewis would have found the Fallen Timbers controversy an all too depressingly familiar American saga.
The issue of the location of a Jeep plant at the Monclova site has been raised. Events are moving swiftly on that front, judging by news accounts. The city of Toledo is pushing the Stickney Avenue plant site and adjacent acreage. If the mayor manages to sell much more of the city's acreage, he will make the Jeep issue moot.
Moreover, a prudent Chrysler management would want the Fallen Timbers question resolved. Why buy trouble? So, as to the future of Fallen Timbers, the issue of Jeep is a red herring.
The battlefield site is bounded on the west by Jerome Road, which has a number of homes whose backyards look out upon the Fallen Timbers site. Also, east of Jerome Road, part of the 180-acre battlefield site has been zoned residential by the city of Maumee. Toledo is the landowner, but has to abide by zoning regulations.
Urban sprawl is a relevant issue. The Toledo area needs more sprawlscape, right? And, wouldn't it be nice to have a supermall that draws from as far as Ann Arbor and Detroit? No, we don't need more urban sprawl. No, we won't get that kind of shopping pattern.
Drive from any part of north or west Toledo and see how long it takes to reach the Fallen Timbers exit on U.S. 24. It's not a short drive, even if you take I-475.
Developers of megamalls in Edmonton, Alberta, and Minneapolis are reportedly thinking of building one in Silver Springs, Md. Stockholders of a retail giant might be interested in a megamall serving Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. They would have a different view of a megamall between Maumee and Waterville.
Why is the city of Toledo so dead set on getting rid of the site, however it is finally used? Why not just hold on to it? Is the mayor trying to get back at Maumee, which outgeneraled, outflanked, and outlawyered Toledo at every turn in the Monclova Township fiasco?
A national park in the Toledo area would bring in tourist dollars, which spend like any other kinds of dollars. The mayor should read the books that detail the importance of this region to the development of the Ohio frontier between 1790 and 1815 and studies of economic benefits that can flow from such a park?
Some people think Toledoans don't care a fig about the history of their region. Sometimes it seems that way. But perhaps the public, concerned with other things, doesn't know that, as a compliant city council looks on, Mr. Finkbeiner and a local developer allied to an out-of-town outfit is blocking a national park at Fallen Timbers, an important milestone in America's westward expansion.
The 1995 archeological survey, supported by both Toledo and Maumee, ended any doubt that the site of Fallen Timbers had been found -- miraculously spared from urban development for 200 years.
Mr. Finkbeiner could be a hero of this scenario, if he championed the battlefield park before or even after the election. The city is entitled to a reasonable return on its investment, not an inflated price.
What the Isaac firm plans for the site, other than a mall whose prospects may be fading, the public really doesn't know. If other uses are being planned, the public has a right to know about them.
Northwest Ohioans don't need to bow to ukases handed down from on high. Mr. Finkbeiner has a lot of power, but his mandate stops at the city limit. Nobody crowned him regional economic czar. The region needs more democracy, of the small-d variety.
Here's my take on it. The public thinks the battlefield will become a national park. So when the first bulldozer rolls out onto the field to turn it into stores, parking lots, gas stations, and cinema houses, there will be an intense local and national reaction.
Toledo and the state of Ohio will be pictured as too mean-spirited to save an important part of the nation's history, all for thirty pieces of silver. It could mean protests, boycotts, and reams of adverse publicity by people who love to beat up on "Rust Belt" cities.
Is that what the mayor wants? More to the point, is that what you want?
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