A sad note

[easttnfed]

:cry_smile

I thought that you guys/gals would like to hear about this one thing. During a trip to do a little bit of archeology on the Tazwell Battlefield in Tazwell, TN, me and a friend of mine discovered that the majority of the battlefield was being bulldozed over to make room for a new 4 lane road. This 4-laner is cutting right into the main parts of the battlefield and several Confederate as well as Federal camps. The only remaining parts that are left of the battlefield are several fields and high mountain tops where most of the fighting took place. So far, the one big Federal camp is still there and is not touched by the construction. I just wonder if there is anything that can be done to help maintain the rest of this part of East Tennessee history. For those who don't know where Tazwell is, it is just on the Tennessee side about 20 or less miles from the Cumberland Gap National Park. Like all other East Tennessee major battlefields,including Beans Station, (TVA Cherokee Dam is now there) this one is almost gone forever and there needs to be some way of preserving what little bit of battlefields that we have left here. I just thought that you guys would like to hear that tid bit of 411. Sorry to waste anyone's time with my venting about this.

[ScottFugate]

Not Surprised

I'm not at all surprised. The hard cold facts are that East Tennesseeans care more about big roads than any kind of historic preservation. Most people in these parts are not even aware of the significant events that occurred in the Region during the war. My Father's family is from Claiborne County, and I have ancestors on both sides of the struggle who lived only a few miles from each other. After the war, most people wanted bygones to be bygones and pushed the war out of their minds. The Lost Cause Movement never caught on in East Tennessee.

Most modern locals do not want any potential historic site to be made public because they believe it limits their options for development. Interested parties might be the SCV Camps in Knoxville and Morristown, and the Civil War Roundtable in Knoxville. I'm a member of the East Tennessee Historical Society, but it seems that organization is more interested in Antique collecting than preservation. I'll share your post with a few other preservation-minded individuals I know to see if perhaps if TDOT has violated any laws, but I'm not optimistic. Unless the people in Tazwell get fired up, nothing is likely to happen. A crying shame indeed.

Scott Fugate
Knoxville, TN
WIG

[VanceGuardsLT]

Re: A sad note

Hmm, a sad note indeed. Since the building the road is considered a Federal undertaking, Section 106 of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act applies. That being said, most Section 106 compliance work is performed by professional cultural resources management firms, and consists of shovel test surveys along the projected road right-of-way. Even if significant archaeological resources are located and identified, all the state has to do is to get the board in DC that has oversight authority for CRM work to pass off on the report, and then it's Katie bar the door. Section 106 is supposed to protect cultural resources, but most of the time it is merely a block that has to be checked prior to Federally-funded construction projects. Now if an ancient Native American burial had been found during the survey that would be another story altogether...

Melvin Faris

[yipper]

some clarification

Gents,

As a matter of clarification, the Section 106 review process is part of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (NHPA), not the Archeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA). The results of the inventory (shovel test survey) have to be agreed upon by the sponsoring Federal Agency, the appropriate State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) and relevant Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (THPO). In the event of a disagreement, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation may advise. For further information on this important legislation helping to preserve our nation’s historic resources, see http://www2.cr.nps.gov/laws/NHPA1966.htm

The discovery of human remains of any ethnicity or antiquity within the boundaries of a proposed project is supposed to trigger protective measures.

Regards,

geoffrey lehmann

[styler]

If you want to press the issue...

Just to futher the discussion, did you take any photographs? Do you have any data from previous archaeological work at the site (in case you are using a euphemism for relic-hunting, that data may count for something as well)? Looking at maps I didn't see any federal roads through Tazewell. That's not to say fed dollars weren't involved, but they may not have been - which, of course, doesn't right any wrongs, just limits who may care.

I'd contact the state highway agency for a copy of the cultural resource section of the envirommental impact statement as well as the Tennessee SHPO's office to find out what caused them to give the go-ahead. Could be that a survey was done and it was determined that the portion the road went through did not contain archaeological data.

That said, the battlefield itself should still meet National Register of Historic Places criteria - that's also the purveyance of Tennessee SHPO. Someone in the office may not have known that or made a decision not to give it National Register status, or gave it status and figured that the highway didn't hurt the battlefield (which sound fishy to me, but I've heard as bad if not worse).

Let us know.

http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/listing.htm describes the process and the links there to state SHPOs is at http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/shpolist.htm

[VanceGuardsLT]

Re: A sad note

Thanks, Geoff, I stand corrected. I was shooting from the hip and a little distracted besides.

M. Scott Faris
Fort Polk Cultural Resource Office

[easttnfed]

Re: A sad note

Fellows,

Thanks for posting and for your opinions and recommendations. Being a photo major, I should have taken the camera along anyway, but due to the harshness of the land I was afraid that I would end up breaking my very expensive camera. I did not want to buy one of those throw aways when I had a good one that I could have taken. I have taken pics before of us relic-hunting on different battlefields just in case, but not this one. There are several records from earlier excavations that were done there in the early days before the road construction on file that my friend has.(not mentioning names) These did include photographs with them also. I do know that some of the areas that surround my house have been protected from such work (except for Old AJ Hwy's construction) by the locals around here and it seems like that will last for the rest of my days. Even the farm behind my house has a Confederate camp nested on top of a hill that over looks the whole town of Friends Station (Tuckertown in the 1800's) or also called New Market. Hopefully folks around here will keep tragidies like that that occured in Tazwell from happening here. These people care about and understand about what went on here and it is too bad not a lot of people in the surrounding areas are that way. Again, thanks for your imput.