Buffington Island Battlefield Preservation Foundation

I attended my first meeting of the Buffington Island Battlefield Preservation Foundation on Saturday. The meeting was held at the facility of the Meigs County Historical Society in Pomeroy, Ohio, which is the nearest town of any consequence to the Buffington Island battlefield. Pomeroy is also the county seat of Meigs County.

A couple of months ago, I was named one of the founding voting trustees of the organization, so this was my introduction to the group. It’s taken several years of political haggling and wrangling to get things to this point. Apparently striking a balance between folks from Meigs County and outsiders like me was one of the big hang-ups. Interestingly, the president and vice president are both outsiders, while the secretary and treasurer are local folks from Meigs County. I guess that’s as even a split as is possible. If it works, it’s fine by me.

The first order of business was for the trustees–there are nine of us, although the by-laws of the organization call for thirteen; we’re still looking to fill those four slots–to vote for the slate of officers put forward by the same nominating committee that proposed me as a trustee. I was nominated to serve as vice president and agreed to serve in that role if elected. Since I was running unopposed, my election was something of a foregone conclusion, but the formalities need to be obeyed. So, I am now officially the vice president of the BIBPF. As the vice president, I’m also now a member of several committees, including the historical interpretation committee and the fundraising committee.

To make a long story short, there is a lot of work yet to be done. Sadly, the sand and gravel country has begun its mining operations there, and a significant portion of the battlefield has been forever destroyed. They do not plan on filling in their ponds when done, so that part of the battlefield will never be restored. It’s sad, but it was inevitable, and there simply is nothing that can be done about it. That ball was set in motion ten years ago, and the Army Corps of Engineers approved the operation, which, in turn, cast the die.

The other big problem, of course, is that the Ohio Historical Society owns only four acres of the battlefield. The rest is in private hands, meaning that it’s all threatened. Prior attempts to purchase preservation easements have been met by the locals with great resistance, so we have our work cut out for us. There is no doubt about that.

The good news is that the Ohio Civil War Trails Commission plans on running its John Hunt Morgan trail through Meigs County in 2009. Using TEA-21 funds from the Federal government, the trail will bring interpretation and visitors to the battlefield, and we hope to be able to raise its profile among the public. One of our projects will be to come up with some standard interpretation of the battle’s main details, so that we’re ensuring that folks get a consistent interpretation of the events that occurred there.

This will be a long-term and challenging process, but I look forward to the challenge. I look forward to working with the other officers and trustees, and I likewise look forward to working with the Civil War Preservation Trust and other similar preservation organizations. I will keep you posted on our progress.