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by Kelly J. Kaczala, Mirror Reporter
The Mirror (Maumee, OH)
11-14-97
Ask William Brown, of the National Park Service, about his earliest interest in the Fallen Timbers Battlefield, and he will likely tell you about a flag recently found in an old shoe box.
The old, silk flag, inscribed with the words, "The Third Battalion, First SubLegion," apparently was found by a relative of Colonel John Hamtramck, who commanded a wing of the army at Fallen Timbers.
The colonel died in 1803 while saving a flag from a fire in his home in Hamtramck, Michigan.
"That is one of my earliest interests in Fallen Timbers," Brown recently told a crowd of about 100 at the Toledo Zoo Auditorium. "The one thing Col. Hamtramck saved in that house was that flag, and it cost him his life," said Brown, the curator-historian of the Park Service Design Center at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
The 6-foot square flag, known to represent infantry during the Revolutionary and Federal period, is the earliest regular army flag in existence, he said. "It was carried on the Fallen Timbers Battlefield, and Col. Hamtramck thought a lot about it," Brown said.
The flag, sold at auction, is currently located at West Point.
The 160-acre battlefield, part of a 430-acre site owned by Toledo but located in Maumee, is considered an important piece of real estate by historians.
General Anthony Wayne defeated the Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, thereby ending Indian domination of the whole region. The victory would prove to be a significant factor in the settlement of the Northwest Territory.
The property, located northwest of the I-475 and US 24 interchange, has been the focus of debate for the last couple of years after a mall developer purchased an option to buy the property. Maumee has set aside $500,000 to buy the battlefield to preserve it as a national historic site.
Brown spoke to the crowd about current trends in American battlefield interpretation and how they might apply to the formation of a Fallen Timbers national historic site.
He suggested that a master plan of the battlefield be initiated to define the site. A visitors' center could be built on-site, off-site, or next to the interstate, he said.
"And that has a lot of appeal to a lot of people at the present time," he said. A historic site in Iowa, for instance, has a visitors' center directly off an interstate, making it a "welcome center" for the whole area, he said.
"And within that welcome center, they discuss the historic sites in that particular area. If you did something like that, you probably could have a kiosk at Fallen Timbers with a small parking lot. The public could then leave the visitors' center and go to Fallen Timbers, Fort Miamis or Fort Meigs," he said.
Planning should also include determining what visitors' interpretive experience of the battle should be, he said.
Building an exhibit, or a collection of artifacts related to the Fallen Timbers battle, is another option to consider, he added.
Brown highlighted the Cowpens National Battlefield in northwestern South Carolina, which may be a model for Fallen Timbers to follow if it is designated a national historic park because of its similarities.
"It's a battle that's very significant. Not a lot of people know a lot about it. It's close to an interstate. It has more acreage than you have here, but they're getting about 200,000 people per year. I think that's pretty good," Brown said.
The Cowpens battle, which took place in January 1871, was a significant battle which occurred at the end of the American Revolution, he said.
"One of the things that has been very successful in interpreting that battle is the fiber optic map -- a terrain map with fiber optics -- so you can follow the movement of the battle," he said. "Something like that at Fallen Timbers could be something to explore."
He downplayed the use of artifacts in determining the significance of a historic site. Cowpens, for instance, has few, he said.
"It's how you use those artifacts, how you tell the story of the battle that interests people, not putting things in a case. You need to relate stories about these battlefields and how they function," he said.
George Isaac, who has an option to buy the property on which the Fallen Timbers Battlefield is located, surprised the audience later in the evening when he announced he was no longer interested in developing the battlefield.
Maumee Mayor Stephen Pauken, who was at the meeting, expressed relief.
"It's good news," he said. The mayor said he asked Isaac after the meeting to help develop the battlefield into a national historic site.
"He could be of substantial help to us in terms of both acquiring and developing the battlefield within the next few years by virtue of the respect and influence he has in this community. It gives an additional measure of credibility to the project," he said.
Unfortunately, he added, Isaac's decision will not change Toledo's position to put the property back on the real estate market.
"I think it will be for sale for a period of time. But the national attention it has received over the past couple of years would preclude most reasonable people from giving consideration to purchasing that land for commercial use," the mayor said.
"We've had casual inquiries here from potential developers over the past few years who have seen it, but gave up when they found it contained a historic battlefield," the mayor added. "Its marketability is probably very low at this point."
The meeting at the zoo was sponsored by the Fallen Timbers Battlefield Preservation Commission.
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