Hopewell Culture Administrative History

CHAPTER FOUR
Administering the Mound City Group (continued)

History of Boundary Changes

The first NPS-produced survey map, prepared by Region One Topographical Engineer George Martin, appeared in late 1946. Efforts, which began a decade previously, continued to secure from Chillicothe Veterans Hospital a northern buffer strip measuring three hundred feet wide and fronting on State Route 104 eastward to the river. In April 1948, VA officials arrived to assess the proposal. Even though the ten-and-a-half-acre tract served its farming program and included the hospital's incinerator, VA officials supported the transfer. Citing its scenic protection and ability to ensure full park restoration, Interior pushed for the transfer before the House of Representatives as the veterans committee considered H.R. 5951. The bill easily passed Congress, receiving President Harry S Truman's signature on April 3, 1952. [39]

Enlarging the boundary to include a total monument area of 67.5 acres raised more questions than were answered. A search of Virginia Military District and early Ohio land records showed imprecise methods adopted to mark boundaries. In fact, when Camp Sherman evolved, the excepted State Route 104 became appropriated by the Army, relocated, and not officially defined again. Neither the VA nor Department of Justice's reformatory possessed surveys, even of the earlier transfer to establish the reformatory. King proposed that all parties agree to accept Camp Sherman's road system for boundary configuration purposes, using the centerpoint of north-south roads as boundary demarcations. During agency deliberations however, Director Conrad Wirth proposed to VA that "where the Monument is bounded by a street the boundary shall be a line fifteen feet toward Monument property measured from and parallel to the center line of the street." In other words, NPS would not own or maintain the road. [40]

While the VA officially acknowledged Wirth's proposal and pledged to cooperate at the local level, in practice, nothing happened. In July 1956, Clyde King, irked by the inactivity and jolted by a sudden land transfer between the VA and Department of Justice, borrowed a transit, measured three hundred feet from the center of Portsmouth Road (effectively dismissing Wirth's position), and pounded in iron posts to mark the proposed boundary. A year later, NPS engineer C. S. Waldren arrived to conduct an official survey and monument the boundaries. When the Bureau of Prisons reformatory indicated its satisfaction, the marking work became complete in September 1957. King wryly noted, "For the first time in its 44 year history the area has defined boundaries." [41]

In late 1958, the VA declared additional land surplus to its needs and notified the General Services Administration (GSA) to effect its disposal. The area included land immediately west of Mound City Group across State Route 104. Regional Archeologist John Cotter arrived on February 25, 1959, to conduct a one-day examination of the tract for archeological resources. The VA lent a road grader and operator to test six strips, fifty feet long, eight feet wide, and about eighteen inches deep to reach sterile soil. Cotter's inspection revealed negative signs of aboriginal occupation. He relayed his findings to Regional Director Daniel J. Tobin with the recommendation that a 300- to 500-foot buffer strip be acquired to protect the monument:

If the National Park Service does not acquire this land, the Department of Justice will definitely take it over for agricultural purposes, I was told by local workmen. This has already been indicated to the National Park Service, I believe, by GSA. This would mean that 'trusty' convicts would be working within a few yards of the new visitor center and directly across the highway from the National Park Service land. This would be most undesirable, as the distraction of visitor interest, plus the possibility -- even temptation -- of a break by the reformatory inmates near a lot full of parked and often unlocked cars, should render obvious. [42]

In March 1959, regional planners met with King to discuss the matter and determined that the land had no historical or administrative value. While NPS determined not to seek its acquisition, it did inform GSA of Park Service interest in keeping the area undeveloped and in continued agricultural use. [43]

The Bureau of Prisons announced in September 1966 the closure of its Chillicothe reformatory and ten-year lease to the state commencing December 1, 1966. Governor James Rhodes announced that the cellblock and hospital segment would serve as a psychiatric treatment and care facility for psychotic prisoners while the remainder of the complex would be a medium security prison, all collectively called the Chillicothe Correctional Institution (CCI). [44] Along with the facility transfer, the Department of Justice leased its farmland to CCI, but in early 1969, however, the department announced plans to dispense with the properties altogether. The announcement prompted Superintendent George F. Schesventer to propose an ambitious acquisition program to add almost 186 acres, in effect, trebling the monument's size. The parcels Schesventer proposed in no particular priority order to Regional Director Lemuel A. Garrison were as follows:

Parcel 1: A forty-foot-wide strip along the park's south boundary measured 2.26 acres. From a management standpoint, the existing boundary, determined then to be down the centerline of Portsmouth Road, was undesirable because NPS controlled only half of its own utility road. Schesventer proposed acquiring all of the road, the southern berm, and enough to plant a vegetative screen between the mound complex and the prison. Prison authorities consistently cut back or removed trees and shrubs along the corridor so as to have an unobstructed field of view to shoot at escapees.

Parcel 2: This 45.44-acre tract on the park's northern boundary would follow both State Route 104 and the Scioto to the VA's drainage ditch. Judging from surface finds, archeologists believed it potentially contained a Hopewell occupation site. Its acquisition could also provide sufficient area for reforestation, a more desirable natural scene than its contemporary agricultural use.

Parcel 3: An 18.37-acre tract in front of the prison contained a large circular Hopewellian earthwall. Because the partial circle could still be seen from aerial photographs, it easily could be reconstructed and interpreted from the visitor center.

Parcel 4: This 114-acre parcel stood on the opposite side of State Route 104 across from the park's visitor center. The same 1959 arguments for its acquisition resurfaced in 1969 and became more urgent because it could now pass out of federal ownership and control. Two buildings at the tract's southwest corner could serve park needs. The largest could serve as a maintenance and storage building, while the second, Camp Sherman's library, could be used to interpret one of World War I's largest US Army cantonments. Schesventer proposed relocating picnic grounds to this parcel's northeast corner to satisfy locals.

Parcel 5: The 5.75-acre tract included four contemporary houses within view of the visitor center. Its acquisition would solve the park's chronic employee housing problem. "The superintendent and the permanent staff," according to Schesventer, "would be able to reside nearby but still not be 'under the guns' of the prison and in the migration route of the Veteran's Hospital mental patients. Future recruiting of employees would be improved if there were housing available to them in the area." [45]

Regional Director Lemuel Garrison sent specialists to inspect the proposed additions. John L. Cotter, chief, office of archeology and historic preservation in the Philadelphia Planning and Service Center, [46] and regional maintenance chief Nathan B. Golub largely concurred with Schesventer's proposals. Cotter believed Parcel 2's acquisition was necessary in order to control Scioto River erosion into archeological resources as well as provide for a "living farm-ethno-historical demonstration area." They recommended reducing Parcel 4 to eliminate the large metal maintenance shed and historic library building which lacked considerable original fabric. Instead, a nearby Camp Sherman-era recreational hall and two brick buildings could be adapted to served as a maintenance, interpretive, and administrative complex to tell the combined Hopewell, Ohio and Erie Canal, and World War I story. Further, they believed the superintendent's residence and utility buildings should be removed for safety reasons as the area came under the direct line of fire from the prison's guard towers. [47]

Garrison forwarded the Cotter-Golub findings, which added up to 172 acres, to Associate Director for Management and Programming Edward A. Hummel. Garrison saw considerable environmental and recreational potential for the additions, as well as a management need to prevent adverse development surrounding the park. In addition, he advocated adding a five-acre strip connecting Parcels 3 and 4 along State Route 104. Because of the urgency involved with the acquisitions, he requested scheduling immediately an amendment to the 1966 park master plan. [48]

The Park Service's bid on the surplus lands interrupted surreptitious plans between the Bureau of Prisons and Ohio penal authorities to transfer all of the property. As a federal agency, however, NPS had first claim to any excess federal land. The agricultural leasing agreement between the two continued, however, and the only land transfer came in 1971 when 14.75 acres went to the Ross County Board of Commissioners to establish the Camp Sherman Memorial Park at the beginning of Camp Sherman Memorial Highway (State Route 104). [49]

On February 4, 1972, General Superintendent Bill Birdsell secured Congressman William H. Harsha's support to effect the land transfer for NPS. Harsha soon learned from the Department of Justice that CCI and state authorities opposed it. Birdsell wanted to continue using congressional means to achieve NPS goals. "We believe we have an excellent opportunity to round-out the Hopewell Indian culture story" Birdsell reported, "by developing [Mound City Group] into the area its significance deserves and makes it more than just a 'City of the Dead' (pun intended)." [50] Birdsell warned of increasing area industrial development with the advent of flood control programs. He dismissed the Northeast Regional Office's view of "Hopeton is hopeless," that acquisition of the ceremonial and habitation site across the river would never happen. Instead, Birdsell pressed for its addition to the park along with Justice department lands and called for the necessary master plan amendment. [51]

In response to a query from the Northeast Regional Office, Acting Regional Solicitor William H. Thornton, Jr., opined that while legislation was not necessary to complete the federal lands transfer, a presidential proclamation under the 1906 Antiquities Act would suffice. However, the House Interior and Insular Affairs and Interior Appropriations committees let it be known that they wanted NPS to seek legislation so as not to usurp congressional authority. [52]

To produce public pressure for the transfer, in August 1972, Birdsell outlined NPS plans to tell a more complete Hopewell culture story before the Chillicothe Rotary Club. Birdsell held out the promise of picnic facilities if a sufficient land base not in conflict with archeological resources could be secured. On October 14, Congressman Harsha announced 9.27 acres of land in the southeast corner of the VA Hospital's grounds would be transferred to NPS under the Legacy of Parks program. The transfer took effect on November 2, 1972. [53]

In mid-1973, a Denver Service Center planning team led by Robert L. Steenhagen began a study which led to the March 1974 formal assessment of surplus federal land additions. It largely reflected the park and Northeast Region plan from 1969, although it pared down Parcel 2 provisions to exclude an area still desired by the VA, and called it "Parcel 2a." The team recommended that surplus Justice lands be used in an exchange for Hopeton Earthworks. [54] Omaha regional officials accepted the report, but no progress was made to draft legislation. All parties acknowledged that if Ohio needed the land to continue its program at CCI, the legislation would not progress very far. [55]

A meeting with CCI officials in 1976 found resistance to relinquishing agricultural lands to NPS. Superintendent Fagergren pushed for legislation to acquire Parcels 1, 2, 2a, and 4, with consideration given to obtaining either Parcels 5 or 6 to alleviate the park's chronic housing problem. With the dissolution of the Ohio NPS Group, the Denver Service Center's findings in 1974 were no longer valid. He advocated a high-level meeting of all parties to resolve the logjam. [56] In September 1976, the Midwest Regional Office requested legislative support data and materials for Congress. The package that went to Congress in the fall of 1977 was as follows:

Parcel 1: Adjacent to State Route 104, Parcel 1 contained 7.5 acres and a house occupied by a state prison employee, lending itself to employee housing or future park infrastructure.

Parcel 2: 48.85 acres; bounded on the west by State Route 104, and the east by the eroding Scioto riverbank. Parcel 2 contained an unexcavated Hopewell village or campsite. Planners envisioned the tract accommodating the park's residence and utility building, relocated here so as to remove them from their close proximity to the Mound City Group earthworks. Gone from this proposal was any mention of the "ethno-historical demonstration area."

Parcel 3: An east-west strip fifty feet by 2,600 feet containing 3.34 acres along the park's south boundary utility road, cultivation here would cease with grass planted. There would be no vegetative screening.

Parcel 4: Contiguous with Parcel 3 to the prison wall, this buffer strip, used by CCI for alfalfa, measured 350 feet by 3,000 feet and contained 22.4 acres. Continued agricultural lease was recommended.

Parcel 5: A north-south strip immediately west of State Route 104, Parcel 5 measured 200 by 3,800 feet, or 21.59 acres, and used as corn fields. Cultivation occurred to within twenty-five feet of the road and within this strip were powerlines and evenly-spaced silver maple trees. [57] Continued agricultural use was recommended.

The entire proposal constituted 103.68 acres. [58] Continued opposition expressed by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction stalled the effort. In December 1979, Governor James Rhodes announced plans to construct a new prison on the leased agricultural lands across State Route 104 from Mound City Group National Monument. NPS promptly notified General Services Administration to reserve specific tracts should the Department of Justice lands be declared surplus. The Park Service had already drafted legislation and pushed for its introduction into the second session of the 96th Congress in January 1980. The legislation eliminated Parcel 1 and, with a few minor alterations, the package now stood at 92.23 acres. [59]

While Fagergren advocated presidential proclamation to transfer the land, his superiors continued to rule the action unwise and a disregard of congressional prerogative. The surplus declaration came in April 1980, and Ohio declared its interest in acquiring all lands it already leased. NPS officially notified GSA of its interest in the lands with the promise that if GSA did not set them aside, NPS intended to nominate the significant archeological resources to the National Register of Historic Places, thereby invoking section 106 compliance review per the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. [60] NPS designed the move to slow the process down and prevent surreptitious action.

The presence of the National Register-eligible Hopewell village brought about a June 3, 1980, meeting attended by NPS, GSA, Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, Ohio State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), and three state agencies: Department of Mental Health and Rehabilitation, Public Works, and Bureau of Prisons/CCI. NPS was the only federal agency expressing an interest in the excess property. State agency officials, exclusive of the SHPO, were either unconcerned about cultural resources or denigrated them. The meeting revealed state plans to site the new prison on Parcel 4. While Ohio did not object to NPS plans for Parcels 1 and 2, it vigorously opposed them on Parcels 3 and 4. GSA pushed NPS not to request transfer of 3 and 4, instead asking that deed restrictions guaranteeing present use with a reversion to NPS clause should ownership ever change. NPS accepted the compromise if Ohio promised to provide water and sewer service to the area within five years of the transfer. During review of the deed restrictions, NPS insisted on an additional clause on Parcel 4 which gave NPS the right to implement a mutually-acceptable vegetative screening plan with costs borne by NPS. [61]

On December 28, 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed Public Law 96-607 which, in part, expanded the monument and provided for acquisition of the 150-acre Hopeton Earthworks and 52.7 acres surplus to the Justice department (Parcel 1 at 47.16 acres and Parcel 2 at 2.87 acres). [62] Immediate transfer became hampered by two events: the beginning of the Reagan administration and GSA request for a fair market value payment of $72,500 for Parcels 1 and 2. Because GSA did not consider PL 96-607 as congressional direction to it to transfer the tracts without reimbursement, NPS had to seek an exception via a request from Interior Secretary Watt to GSA, with concurrence from the Office of Management and Budget. Watt's request did not come until March 4, 1983, and GSA's conveyance came on April 28, 1983. Under direction of PL 96-607 and the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, GSA Real Property Division Chief Robert M. Crouse transferred the property "without reimbursement to the Department of the Interior together with a reversionary interest in a strip of land 200 feet wide situated along the west side of State Route 104 and another strip of land 350 feet wide located along the southern boundary of the monument." [63]

Under the historic leasing program, Mound City Group promptly issued an agricultural special use permit to CCI. Park maintenance installed boundary markers, planted shrubs and trees for screening, and instructed the telephone company to move its utility poles. To provide a more effective natural screen, the park stopped mowing the strip adjacent to the agricultural use area. [64] The expansion effort that began in 1969, came to legislative fruition in 1980, and culminated in 1983, with all but Hopeton Earthworks yet to be acquired (see Chapter Ten).

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