Administrative History of Fort Stanwix Complete

Date: October 15, 2004
Contact: Craig Davis, 315-336-3033

Historian Joan Zenzen, Ph.D., of Rockville, Maryland, has completed a comprehensive account of the establishment of Fort Stanwix National Monument and its history and management to the present. The report is entitled Reconstructing the Past, Partnering for the Future: An Administrative History of Fort Stanwix National Monument. "We are very pleased having a researcher of the caliber of Dr. Zenzen involved with this project," said Superintendent Mike Caldwell. "She has written a compelling story of how local people fought to have Fort Stanwix National Monument authorized and reconstructed on its original site. There is much to say about the contributions of the National Monument to the Rome community and ongoing partnerships with the citizens and organizations of Central New York and elsewhere," added Caldwell.

Twenty people provided oral histories for the report including the superintendents of the park past and present, government, business and civic leaders such as Congressman Sherwood Boehlert and former Mayors Carl Eilenberg and Joseph Griffo, businessmen Chris Destito and Joseph E. Smith Jr., and George and Shirley Waters of the Rome Daily Sentinel. Planners, specialists and volunteers involved with the Fort Stanwix project over the years were also interviewed including reenactor Laura Sawyer, William Flinchbaugh the former Director of Rome Urban Renewal Agency, Nancy Demyttenaere manager of Oriskany Battlefield State Historic Site, and Orville Carroll of Rome who was the historic architect for the fort's reconstruction.

Two copies of the history are available at the Jervis Library and an electronic version is available on the Fort Stanwix National Monument web page (www.nps.gov/fost).

Dr. Zenzen is not new to writing a park history. "In 1998 she published the definitive history of Manassas National Battlefield Park," said Caldwell. Dr. Zenzen's book on Manassas, published by Penn State University Press, is entitled Battling for Manassas: The Fifty-Year Preservation Struggle at Manassas National Battlefield Park. Her next job will be doing a history of Minute Man National Historical Park in Massachusetts.

Dr. Zenzen will make a presentation about the administrative history at 7 PM, October 21st at the Rome Historical Society. The public is invited to attend.