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The Sentinel-Tribune (Bowling Green, OH)
12-22-97
TOLEDO -- The Fallen Timbers Battlefield could be operated as part of Side Cut Metropark if efforts to preserve the battlefield are successful.
The Board of Park Commissioners of the Metropark District adopted a resolution Dec. 16 that committed the park district to "assume its share of the responsibility of protecting, maintaining and operating in perpetuity the Fallen Timbers Battlefield in the best public interest."
The resolution reaffirms the board's continuing enthusiastic support of preserving the battlefield and gaining National Park Affiliate Unit status for the site. The Fallen Timbers Battlefield Preservation Commission, with the support of numerous partners, is spearheading the effort.
"Preservation of the Fallen Timbers Battlefield is a high priority for our agency," Metropark Director Jean T. Ward said. "If the other partners agree, we're willing to step forward and become what might be called the managing partner of the site."
The Battle of Fallen Timbers, which occurred in 1794, was one of the most significant battles in our nation's history. It pitted an American Legion under the command of General "Mad Anthony" Wayne against a confederation of warriors from eight American Indian tribes. Sometimes referred to as the last battle of the American Revolution, the victory by Wayne's forces secured the Old Northwest Territories as part of the United States.
Today, the battle is memorialized in Side Cut Metropark off U.S. 24 near Jerome Road. For decades it was thought the monuments, situated on a bluff overlooking the Maumee River and its floodplain, were positioned above the battlefield.
In the summer of 1995, however, an archaeological team led by Dr. Michael Pratt of Heidelberg College collected numerous battle artifacts from a 185-acre site across U.S. 24 from Side Cut. The finds proved conclusively that the battlefield is on property now owned by the City of Toledo.
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