Civil War battlefield site will help interpret others in Virginia
MIDDLETOWN, VA.-An arduous, decades-long effort to protect Civil War sites in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley paid off in December, when the Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park became the newest unit of the National Park System.
Although the 3,000-acre park includes only the Cedar Creek battlefield within its boundaries, it will help draw attention to and interpret other battlefields in the Shenandoah Valley that played a pivotal role in the Civil War. |
 |
"This is great news for historic preservation and economic development in the northern Shenandoah Valley, said Dan Scandling, a spokesman for Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), a sponsor of the legislation.
"National parks are Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Manassas, and now Cedar Creek and Belle Grove," he said.
Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), another key sponsor of the legislation, was credited with bringing the bill to an 11th hour vote before the Senate adjourned in December.
President George W. Bush signed the bill into law soon after, designating Cedar Creek the 388th unit of the National Park System-just the second created during the 107th Congress. The other is Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania, created in September.
"This significant designation demonstrates once again that park preservation is a non-partisan issue," said Joy Oakes, NPCA's Mid-Atlantic regional director. "This victory results from years of public outreach, education, and teamwork by local, state, and national interests."
NPCA supported the creation of the park and asked its members to ask their members of Congress to support its designation. Conservationists have long feared that development in the area, 75 miles west of Washington, D.C., could degrade these battlefields. Even though the Shenandoah Valley remains a lush landscape of green farmland and small towns that appear much as they did a century and a half ago, sprawling development and highway construction threatens historical gems and natural resources throughout the valley.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, Belle Grove Incorporated, the Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation, and Shenandoah County Parks and Recreation already own close to one-third of the land in the park unit. Each will continue to own, manage, and operate sites within the park.
The bill calls for the rest of the land to be acquired by the Interior Department from willing sellers only, either by donation or purchase with donated or appropriated funds or exchange.
The designation was an outgrowth of the efforts of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District Commission, authorized by Congress in 1996 to create a management plan for the area and determine whether a component of the historic district merited addition to the National Park System.
After several years of citizen involvement, the commission chose the Battle of Cedar Creek as the site within the historic district most appropriate for national park designation. Cedar Creek first received national recognition in 1969 when it was designated a National Historic Landmark. It was later included in the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District.
The Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, a nonprofit, helps direct efforts to protect and interpret ten battlefields from Winchester to McDowell County, including Cedar Creek, and was one of the promoters of the idea to include the site in the park system.
Park Service officials say that it will take at least three years of planning and research before a visitor center or other major park infrastructure will be built. They expect the project to be completed within a decade.
The boundary for the park unit includes land on which some of the heaviest fighting of the Battle of Cedar Creek occurred in October 1864. It was the final clash of the 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaign and a turning point of the war, breaking the back of the Confederacy in the Shenandoah Valley.
Many credit the decisive Union victory for the re-election of President Lincoln and the end of Confederate General Jubal Early's career. Nearly 4,000 people participate each October in an annual battle reenactment and living history weekend at the site.
Other important stories to be interpreted at the site include those of American Indians in the area, a pioneer French and Indian War-era homestead, a plantation built and run by enslaved African Americans, and the role of caves and caverns in and around Cedar Creek as part of the Underground Railroad. |
