|
|||||
| |
Associated Press in The Dispatch (Columbus, OH)
09-09-96
So where was the Battle of Fallen Timbers fought?
The answer depends on the researcher.
Last summer, Michael Pratt said he discovered that the battle took place about a mile north of where historians originally believed it happened.
The discovery by Pratt, a Heidelberg College anthropology professor and historian, came after 10 years of research, including an archaeological dig that turned up several battle artifacts.
But a local researcher, David Stothers, said Friday that the battle might have occurred in two places. The battle opened the Midwest to white settlers and closed it to American Indians.
"People are so quick to say that history was wrong all along, and that's just not true," said Stothers, an anthropology professor at the University of Toledo.
Over the past decade, Stothers said he has unearthed artifacts at the original battle site - a flood plain between Rt. 24 and the Maumee River. Those artifacts suggest that previous accounts of the battle may have been partly correct.
The items he found include 16 musket balls and at least one American military button from the period, he said.
The battle has been drawing attention over the past two years.
Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, last month supported a plan to preserve 180 acres where Pratt said the battle was fought in 1794.
DeWine said he will introduce legislation to designate the battlefield as a national park affiliate. That would allow local officials to use the National Park Service's expertise to save the site, which developers are considering for a mall.
The designation would not mean money for the project and the park service would not buy the land.
DeWine is drafting the proposal at the urging of Maumee Mayor Steve Pauken, who was been trying to raise money to buy the land, which is owned by the city of Toledo. Pauken said it probably would cost $2 million to buy the land and turn it into a park.
On Aug. 20, 1794, Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne defeated a confederation of Indian warriors at Fallen Timbers. The battle took less than two hours. Fifty people were killed and 100 were wounded.
Wayne's victory broke the spirit of Indian resistance. Within a year, he had negotiated the Treaty of Greenville, which opened about two- thirds of southern Ohio to settlers.
Until the battle, the government had been negotiating with Indians for use of the Northwest Territory, which included what is now Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and part of Minnesota.
Pratt said he believes the battle never took place in the flood plain.
But Stothers disagreed.
"That battle was fought all over the area and, yes, I believe part of it did take place in the flood plain," Stothers said.
He credits Pratt with being the first to define some of the main perimeters of the battle, and possibly identifying the most fierce "hot spot."
NOTICE: This article, which may be copyrighted, is reprinted with specific permission granted to Heidelberg College. Further reprint rights must be secured from the publisher.
Heidelberg College / Office of College Relations
/ webmaster@heidelberg.edu