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by Karen MacPherson, Blade Washington Bureau
The Blade (Toledo, OH)
03-05-99
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) has joined with Sen. Mike DeWine (R., O.) to sponsor legislation to designate Fallen Timbers battlefield and Fort Miamis as a National Historic Site.
The measure, introduced this week, is designed to preserve the battlefield and Fort Miamis because they are important to military history and American Indian culture.
With the National Historic Site designation, local community and historical groups working to preserve the battlefield and Fort Miamis would be eligible for help from the National Park Service.
Such help would include providing a formal link between the two locations with signs and markers, as well as developing programs to explain the significance of their history.
Although the two sites aren't contiguous, National Park Service officials said yesterday that the link between the battlefield and Fort Miamis is important.
Indian tribes under attack by the U.S. Army in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 fell back to Fort Maimis in hopes that the British -- who occupied the fort -- would keep their promise to assist the tribes, said Patty Henry of the National Park Service.
The British, however, kept the fort gates closed.
The tribes eventually surrendered and in 1795 signed the Treaty of Greenville, which gave the United States the city of Detroit, ensured the peaceful settlement of Ohio and part of present-day Indiana, and secured safe passage along the Ohio River and points west.
The new bill is similar to one introduced by Mr. DeWine and Miss Kaptur in the last session of Congress. That measure, however, would have designated Fort Meigs as a National Historic Site. But Fort Meigs is owned by the state of Ohio, and state officials since have decided they don't need the federal designation, according to a spokesman for Mr. DeWine.
Mr. DeWine and Miss Kaptur say they believe the new measure has a good chance of passage in this session of Congress.
The Fallen Timbers battlefield, plus a monument commemorating the battle, are in the city of Maumee. But the 188-acre site is owned by the city of Toledo, which bought the land in 1987 as part of an industrial-development effort.
The Fort Miamis site is owned by the city of Maumee. Preservationists have offered Toledo $2.5 million for the property.
The battlefield and Fort Miamis have historic designations. The battlefield is a National Historic Landmark, a designation that simply means that the Federal government has placed a plaque there.
Fort Miamis, meanwhile, is on the National Register of Historic Places, which means that any federal agency that wants to do something affecting the property -- such as build a highway through it -- must first conduct a review.
If Congress designates the battlefield and Fort Miamis as a National Historic Site, this will move them up a notch on the ladder of historic designations, because it qualifies them for help from National Park Service officials to link and interpret the sites.
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