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By Jay King
HOMETOWN NEWS
The plan to develop a comprehensive preservation plan for eight Revolutionary War battlefields spread across six Upstate counties is beginning to take shape as members of the project team met with area residents Monday to unveil what has been accomplished so far.
The ambitious project was sparked by a grant awarded in 2008 to the Musgrove Mill State Historic Site through the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program aimed at developing a preservation plan for several key Revolutionary War battlefields and related sites.
Musgrove Mill Park Manager Brian Robson has been the project administrator for the endeavor that has included a number of public forums since March of this year aimed at identifying and prioritizing methods of preserving and promoting these key historic sites. Robson introduced the project team Monday evening during a presentation of the project’s aims and achievements at a public meeting at the Westside Branch of the Spartanburg County Public Library.
Project Manager Glenn Stach of Hill Studio in Virginia discussed the importance of the project in helping to preserve and promote the region’s rich heritage through its Revolutionary War battlefields and related historic sites.
Stach explained that 30 historically significant sites have been identified spread across Cherokee, Union, Spartanburg, Laurens, Greenwood and York counties representing a concentration of sites scarcely to be rivaled elsewhere in the nation.
“It would be hard to find an area with such a densely packed source of Revolutionary War historical sites anywhere else in the country,” Stach said.
In addition to Robson and Stach, the team is comprised of heritage tourism specialist David Hill, project historian George Fields, and cultural landscape specialist Amanda Graham Barton. The team has been evaluating the needs and possibilities of the Cowpens, Musgrove Mill, Blackstock’s, Hayes Station, Hammond’s Store, King’s Mountain, Cedar Spring and Ninety-Six battlefields as well as the related cultural sites of Duncan Creek Church, the Glenn Springs community and the Daniel Morgan monument.
“We’re not historians, we’re experts in historic preservation,” Stach said. He added the project’s goals also include fostering an ongoing discussion about the preservation of these sites and how to coordinate such efforts to increase public awareness of the area’s historical heritage.
One of the biggest benefits of achieving a wider awareness would be the potential increase in economic development centered on taking advantage of the area’s high concentration of significant historical sites.
Stach also explained that an added benefit to the success of this project would be the strong footing on which it would place the Upstate in efforts to pursue a National Heritage Area designation from the National Park Service being contemplated for North and South Carolina. He said that with the significance of the sites and how the region incorporated key battles that turned the tide of the Revolutionary War, the project can advance the campaign to earn the region National Heritage Area status.
He said that among the things the project has evaluated is the disparity in both preservation and historical interpretation among the 11 locations. For example, the Cowpens National Battlefield represents a high degree of both preservation and historical interpretation under the care of the National Park Service while the site for the first battle of Cedar Spring has been covered by modern developments and has no historical marker.
Hill next explained some of the ideas developed to promote the sites and tie the area together using the high concentration of sites as an anchor. One of the key points in this area is finding a way to link the different sites, many of them geographically isolated. Hill said one way to achieve this was through the development of a heritage trail, similar to ones linking the various Civil War sites in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.
Among the other ideas aimed at promoting the area and its historical sites are the development of a strong web presence, improved interactive interpretive signs at the sites, promoting the walkable downtowns in close proximity to the sites and identifying unique places to stay in the area.
“These are discussions that will take months or even years to nail down,” Hill said.
Barton explained the ways in which the project had identified areas where education and interpretation can be improved to convey to the public through these sites the dynamic history of the six turbulent years that were the American revolution in South Carolina.
“If children don’t learn about the Revolutionary War and how we came to be the country we are, how are they going to understand what it is to be a democracy,” Barton asked.
She said there could be more programs aimed at teaching school-aged children about the history “under their feet” by developing a close partnership between the sites and area school districts. She also emphasized using the web to boost education and interpretation about the sites.
“It’s an awareness issue,” she said. “This is a good project. The more things we add to the list, we realize there’s a lot out here.”
jking@hometown-news.com
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