America's 11 Most Endangered Places

I'm going to get a little preachy, but you can't say I didn't warn you.  I am passionate about history and historical places.  I earned an MA in American Studies, focusing my classes (as much as I could) on museum/public history courses.  My goal is to change careers and work in a museum (or an archives!), so I am volunteering/interning at the PA State Archives.  You could say I have a vested interest in the topic.

Today, the National Trust for Historic Preservation released their America's 11 Most Endangered Places.  The NTHP researches and publishes this list each year and have been doing so since 1988.  The list provides a "powerful alarm to raise awareness of the serious threats facing the nation's greatest treasures."  Since 1988, there have been 233 locations which have been listed, with only a handful of sites being lost.

The following list can be found here in an article written by Rob Lovitt.  He did a great job in listing the 11 endangered places with a description.

• Bear Butte, Meade County, S.D.: Considered sacred ground by as many as 17 Native American tribes, this 4,426-foot mountain is threatened by proposed energy-development projects that NTHP says “will negatively impact the sacred site and further degrade the cultural landscape.”
• Belmead-on-the-James, Powhatan County, Va.: This one-time slave-holding plantation became a school for African-American boys in 1893. Closed in 1970, the Gothic Revival manor house and other buildings are in need of emergency repair.
• China Alley, Hanford, Calif.: Brick facades and Asian detailing create a unique atmosphere in this once-bustling Chinatown, which dates back to 1877. Today, it suffers from disuse, deterioration and insensitive development, says NTHP.
• Fort Gaines, Dauphin Island, Ala.: Established in 1821, this fort played a major role in the Battle of Mobile Bay during the Civil War. Today, it’s under siege by tides and currents, which are eroding its shoreline by as much as 50 feet per year.
• Greater Chaco Landscape, N.M.: This 1,000-square-mile swath of northwestern New Mexico is home to hundreds of Native American cultural and archeological sites. It’s threatened, says NTHP, by increased oil and gas exploration in the area.
• Isaac Manchester Farm, Avella, Pa.: Founded in 1797 and kept in the same family for eight generations, this 400-acre farm in southwestern Pennsylvania sells organic beef and other natural products, but is threatened by potential coal-mining operations.
• John Coltrane House, Dix Hills, N.Y.: The house where the jazz master composed “A Love Supreme” was saved from demolition in 2004, but is still deteriorating. A local preservation group hopes to restore it but lacks funds, says NTHP.
• National Soldiers Home Historic District, Milwaukee, Wis.: This 90-acre district was originally established to care for veterans of the Civil War. According to NTHP, deferred maintenance has left its historic buildings unused and on the verge of collapse.
• Pillsbury A Mill, Minneapolis, Minn.: Towering over the Mississippi River, this 130-year-old mill was considered the largest flour mill in the world for the next 40 years. Now vacant, it’s threatened by piecemeal development.
• Prentice Women’s Hospital, Chicago, Ill.: With its round windows in four cylindrical towers, this one-of-a-kind building resembles a 3-D cloverleaf. Unique architecture notwithstanding, it faces imminent demolition.
• “Sites imperiled by state actions”: According to NTHP, this comprehensive designation refers to the fact that state budget cuts pose an ongoing threat to historic places across the country. If key sources of funding and incentives are lost, thousands of irreplaceable sites and national treasures may suffer untold consequences, says the group.

 As much as each and every one of these locations needs to be saved and should not need to worry about funding in the future, the one that bothers me the most is #11 - sites imperiled by state actions.  This one bothers me more than any other.  In the state of PA, the budget for the PHMC (Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission) has been slashed over the past couple years due to the economy.  Funding to the PHMC itself, money available for grants, and hiring freezes have been implemented as a way to keep the budget under control.  In this economic climate we are all forced to cut back, which is understandable.  But, the drastic cuts for this organization is staggering, to the point that the last administration tried to close Valley Forge National Park.  This didn't fly to well with the Federal government, as they fund the U.S. National Park Service, of which Valley Forge belongs.  So, we can see through these actions that historical locations are not priority.

As passionate as I am about history and preservation, please do not mistake my stance with taking funding from education, health care, etc. areas that are also underfunded.  What I am saying is, rather than cutting funding to significant historical sites, why can we not use these sites to increase revenue, improve education, and bolster tourism?  Imagine if we invested in these sites, promoted these sites, used these sites.  Have you ever been to Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the Grand Canyon in Arizona, or the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor?  How many people go to these sites with their families?  How many school children visit each year?  These sites are crucial to our identity as a nation.  They define us and tell where we have been.  Funding to keep these sites and all the others around the country open is paramount to us remembering our history as a nation, where we came from, and what was sacrificed.

Imagine if the Founding Fathers who met at Independence Hall in Philadelphia decided the risks were too great to sign the Declaration of Independence.  Instead, they packed up their belongings and headed home.  That Thomas Jefferson never wrote the famous words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Rather than being the independent nation we are today, we may still be a colony of the British. Oh, did I mention to visit Independence Hall is free?  Yea, free.

The vastness of the Grand Canyon is awesome.  It was first designated a Forest Preserve under federal protection in 1893, then became a National Park in 1919.  The South Rim is one mile deep by 277 river miles long.  The North Rim is across from the South Rim, rising 1,000 feet higher.  According to the National Park Service, the Grand Canyon receives close to 5 million visitors a year.  Admission to the Grand Canyon is $25 per car or $12.00 per person.  If we average attendance at 5 million people a year, with an average car holding 4 people, the Grand Canyon earns $31,250,000 a year.  If you decide to run the same numbers (5 million visitors) using the $12.00 figure, you're looking at a revenue source of $60,000,000 a year.  And to think to see the Grand Canyon, it is only $12.00 per person or $25.00 per car.  Apparently, there is money to be made from historic sites.

December 7, 1944 was described by President Theodore Roosevelt as "a date that will live in infamy." I cannot imagine someone not recognizing the importance of this day and what came afterwards due to the actions of the Japanese.  Making the tactical error of attacking the U.S. thinking to knock out the Pacific fleet, the Japanese brought the "sleeping giant" into World War II.  To commemorate this important battle, the National Park Service provides a museum detailing the events leading up to December 7th, as well as preserving the USS Arizona.  Visiting the USS Arizona is free, but tickets are on a first-come, first-serve basis.

As a country, we honor our military and their sacrifice.  As a country, we believe that preserving farm land and grass lands are important.  How can we as a nation, as a state determine that cutting funding to historical sites and locations is where we should cut corners?  Imagine not being able to see where General George Washington's troops battled a brutal winter at Valley Forge.  Imagine not being able to see the room where Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence.  Imagine the Grand Canyon being filled in for another housing development.  Imagine Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona not being available to remember and honor the "greatest generation."  These are things I do not want to contemplate.  And why should smaller, lesser known sites and locations be ignored?  Should we not recognize their significance to the citizens of their towns, as much as we recognize the importance of more prominent sites?  With budget cutting going on in state legislatures around the country, we will shortly know a world without important venues.  Rather than recognizing these sites as a way to encourage patriotism, increase tourism, educate young and old alike, and bring in badly needed revenue streams, they would rather cut funding.  How can our elected officials be so short-sighted?