Cultural Landscape Report: Wilson's Creek National Battlefield, National Park Service
John Milner Associates, contractor, Rivanna Archaeological Consulting, Contractor, Conservation Design Forum, Bahr Vermeer and Haecker, Contractor. 2004. Cultural Landscape Report: Wilson's Creek National Battlefield, National Park Service. Cultural Landscape Report. NPS Midwest Regional Office. Midwest Regional Office
Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield (NB) is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a nationally significant historic battlefield landscape that retains a high degree of integrity. Because Wilson’s Creek NB encompasses approximately 75 percent of the historic battlefield landscape, much of which is integral to the significance of the battle, restoration of the landscape to its 1861 appearance has for some time been considered an achievable and desirable goal by the NPS. The CLR, by documenting the historic landscape, comparing historic and existing landscape conditions, assessing the integrity and condition of the existing landscape, and evaluating its potential for further restoration of 1861 conditions, provides appropriate treatment recommendations and guidelines to support this goal. In addition, “because this is a historic place that included intact presettlement landscapes at the time of the battle, the CLR will produce treatment recommendations that closely integrate the concerns, issues, and methodologies for natural and cultural resource management.” Since the 1970s, the park has focused on vegetation management as one of its primary tools to effect battlefield scene restoration. A primary focus of the CLR is therefore the evaluation of current vegetation management practices and the identification of additional strategies that will facilitate historic scene restoration. Another goal of the CLR is to synthesize and consolidate the information available in the numerous important studies and investigations that have been conducted into various aspects of the site’s history over the past 35 years. Additionally, although the primary significance of this landscape is the August 10, 1861 Civil War Battle of Wilson’s Creek, a clearer understanding of the landscape at the time of the battle will likely result from unraveling what occurred within the landscape prior to and after the battle. The CLR therefore aims to portray the landscape throughout its known history, providing a good understanding of the origins of and forces behind landscape change. An added benefit of this approach is that the layers of historical information which are revealed and presented can be utilized to enrich the park’s interpretive program.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- John Milner Associates, contractor; Rivanna Archaeological Consulting, Contractor; Conservation Design Forum; Bahr Vermeer and Haecker, Contractor
- Date of Issue
- 2004-09
- Publisher
- NPS Midwest Regional Office
- Units
- HIST , MWR , WICR
- Keywords
- Agriculture, Armies, Bloody Hill, cemetery, commissary supplies, Confederate, Cultural Resources, ehistory, Encampment, Farming, Gen, Greene county, History, James River, Landscape, Military, military camps, mill, Nathaniel Lyon, ridges, scrub trees, undergrowth, union, Wire Road
- Subjects
- CRIS-CL: 500791: Wilson's Creek National Battlefield