Wilson's Creek National Battlefield: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Wilson's Creek National Battlefield
MWRO Cultural Landscapes Program. 2018. Wilson's Creek National Battlefield: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Wilson's Creek National Battlefield. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 500791. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Midwest Regional Office
Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield is composed of 2,015.20 acres. These lands constitute the majority of the area over which Union and Confederate forces clashed on August 10, 1861. Since the 1960s, the site has been administered by the NPS as a historical park and is open and interpreted to the public. Interpretation of the battlefield landscape is available primarily through self-guided tours, with guided tours by park rangers are available by appointment. The park also hosts numerous programs and special events throughout the year. The landform associated with the park is defined primarily by the Wilson’s Creek valley that cuts through the central portion of the site from north to south. A series of upland knolls, separated by smaller drainages, edge the creek valley. The banks and floodplains to either side of the waterway are predominantly wooded, as are the margins of the park’s other perennial and intermittent streams and drainages. Woodland cover is also associated with the park’s steep slopes and the tops of the some of its knolls. Areas dominated by woody cover are generally comprised of either open hardwood savanna, scrubby successional growth, or by Eastern red cedar trees. A large portion of the park is maintained in open fields composed of either prairie communities in various stages of restoration, or agricultural fields maintained in fescue cover that is hayed seasonally. The agricultural fields are concentrated in two large areas. Prairie restoration areas are located in various portions of the park. Since the 1960s, NPS has established, monitored, and maintained prairie communities as part of a Civil War battlefield scene restoration program. One of the battlefield’s most significant resources is the Ray House, constructed circa 1852, which serves as one of only three known surviving pre-Civil War structures within the Springfield-Greene County metropolitan area. Other extant features that likely survive from the Civil War period include the trace of the Wire Road; two sinkholes and a well that were used to bury soldiers killed in the battle; site landform, topography, and hydrology; and various views. Post-Civil War agriculture has heavily altered park vegetation. The park is currently working to restore historic vegetation cover and patterns as an aid to battle interpretation. The park also exhibits evidence of extensive prehistoric use and occupation in the form of archeological deposits. This Cultural Landscape Inventory report for the Wilson's Creek National Battlefield landscape identifies and documents the landscape’s location, size, physical development, condition, landscape characteristics as character-defining features, as well as other valuable information useful to park management.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- MWRO Cultural Landscapes Program
- Date of Issue
- 2018-06
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
- Units
- MWR , WICR
- Keywords
- agriculture, air quality, archeology, battlefield, cannon, Civil War, commemoration, communications, County Road bridge, crop exhibit, deer, field patterns, floodplains, geology, historic lease, horseback riding, interpretation, McElhaney farm, military, Nathaniel Lyon, native vegetation, orchard, prairie, prairie restoration, Ray House, recreation, rural, savanna, soil, stone wall, telegraph road, tour road, Trans-Mississippi, transportation, utility easement, vegetation, view management, viewshed, visitor use, water quality, water resources, white-tailed deer, wildlife, Wire road