National Park Service Awards $1.3 Million in Battlefield Preservation Grants
Contributed By: National Park Service
WASHINGTON – The National Park Service has awarded 21 preservation grants totaling more than $1.3 million to help preserve, protect, document and interpret America’s significant battlefield lands. The funding from the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program will support 27 projects at more than 75 battlefields nationwide.
“These grants help safeguard and preserve significant American battlefields,” said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis. “Preserving these sites for future generations and providing a means for research and interpretation is a fitting way to honor our nation’s military heritage and the courage and service of our armed forces.”
This year’s grants provide funding for projects at endangered battlefields from King Philip’s War, Second Seminole War, Indian Wars, Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and the Civil War. Awards went to 14 states for projects entailing archeology, mapping, cultural resource survey work, documentation, planning, education and interpretation.
Winning projects include:
Priority was given to those groups submitting applications for nationally significant battlefields. The majority of awards were given to battlefields listed as Priority I or II sites in the National Park Service’s Civil War Sites Advisory Commission Report on the Nation’s Civil War Battlefields and the Report to Congress on the Historic Preservation of Revolutionary War and War of 1812 Sites in the United States.
- an archeological survey of Fort Mercer at the site of the American Revolution Battle of Red Bank in New Jersey;
- an archeological analysis to locate and evaluate the nature and size of the Battles of Camp Izard and the Withlacoochee during the Second Seminole War in Florida;
- a Phase I archeological investigation at the Battle of Wood Lake site in the U.S.-Dakota War in Minnesota;
- identification of surviving underwater resources from both the British and American landings on Mackinac Island, Michigan, during the War of 1812;
- identification of the likely location of the Great Falls Battlefield in the King Philip's War in Massachusetts;
- and public outreach materials to support farmland preservation and economic development programs that encourage compatible land uses on and around the Civil War Battles of Cross Keys and Port Republic in Virginia.
Federal, state, local and Tribal governments, nonprofit organizations, and educational institutions are eligible for the battlefield grants, which are awarded annually. Since 1996, the ABPP has awarded more than $13 million to help preserve significant historic battlefields associated with wars on American soil. More information is available online at http://www.nps.gov/hps/abpp.
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