The judgment of history

Editorial: The Blade (Toledo, OH)
07-15-98

OHIOANS can be forever grateful that America's Civil War was not fought in our state, except peripherally. But had the Battle of Fallen Timbers been fought during War Between the States,, you can bet Civil War buffs would have saved the site by now from the avarice of shopping mall developers, and the city of Toledo would not be trying to sell it off to the highest bidder.

The Blade has always been solidly for economic development, and we have said that the city's Maumee and Monclova Township land should be held in reserve for manufacturing use. But now that the acreage is being chopped up and sold off in chunks, and now that Jeep is building its new plant elsewhere, we cannot sit by and watch more urban sprawl obliterate American history.

Historians have pinpointed the site of the actual battle, so much so that battle lines can even be reconstructed, so it is unconscionable that the city wants to sell off what remains of this valuable land.

Civil War battles are revered, and Civil War battlefields are considered hallowed ground, because the war preserved the union. But ours would have been a far different union to preserve in the 1860s had the Battle of Fallen Timbers not been fought and won in 1794.

Had the American army not prevailed, it is quite possible that a sovereign native-American nation would have been created. Where we sit today would quite likely have become an Indian buffer state. The United States of America would look far different, and there would be no Detroit, no Cleveland, no Toledo.

It is gratifying that our view of the site's importance is share by one of the country's most distinguished American historians, the University of Michigan's John Dann. Professor Dann is director of the prestigious William Clements Library at the U of M, and he and a number of his colleagues around the country are increasingly vocal about the threat posed to the site by developers.

Dr. Dann and the others note correctly that the Battle of Fallen Timbers was the beginning of the end for the Indians in this region, setting in motion the forces that shaped the America we know today.

Isaacs Group Holdings, Inc., bought part of the site from the city of Toledo this year and proposes to build an upscale shopping mall. Now the city wants to unload the rest.

Barry Broome, the city's acting director of development, says the administration's first responsibility is a "fiduciary one to the taxpayers." But we hear no community outcry to recover every last nickel invested in the Monclova land purchase. What about the city's responsibility to history?

If the Battle of Fallen Timbers site is not protected from commercial destruction, future generations will take note that when it came time for us to preserve our heritage and remember that our history is our roots, we looked the other way.

The time is now to move to ensure that history's judgment of us is far more positive. Historians have made the case for protection of the Fallen Timbers battlefield site. Men fought and died on both sides, and we now know exactly where.

It is up to the rest of us, and Toledo city council, to stand up to Mayor Finkbeiner and say forcefully: That's no place for the likes of a Bonwit-Teller.

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