National Council on Public History

Alexandra Wallace, Historic Preservation Specialist, Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands, Colorado State University

Proposal Type: Panel

Seeking: Additional Presenters

Abstract: Military range and training lands can be hostile landscapes for cultural resources management (CRM). These spaces reflect not only prehistoric and historic events, but also historic and current military training and missions. Military training lands are significant to many groups, organizations, and military tenants that train and utilize the area to fulfill military missions as well as non-military communities with communal or religious ties to the land.

Unfortunately, CRM has developed a negative reputation on military installations. Most tensions occur when CRM staff attempts to preserve historic resources, but training land personnel sees these efforts as impeding the military mission. Meanwhile, many Native American and descendent communities have been uprooted from the area and have minimal access to traditional and familial resources on the training lands.

A happy medium between upholding the military mission and historic preservation can be found. In 2012, the CRM staff at U.S. Army Fort Drum, NY identified historic training assets (including towers, observation bunkers, trench networks, and firing points and targets). When range management learned of these historic resources, they expressed an interest in learning more about and preserving these assets as part of the range’s story. Also, access to and commemoration of historic sites predating the installation can be used to bridge the gap between the military and descendent communities.

A partnership plan was developed for the Department of Defense Legacy Resource Management Program to provide the tools for CRM staff to establish and maintain positive alliances with training land managers and local and descendent communities (both of whom are invested in the land and resources, but typically have a negative response to the way the materials are handled by CRM staff and regulations). The benefits of the plan include easing tensions and building alliances; improving training lands management and locating historic unexploded ordnance; and utilizing historic training assets for modern training goals.

Seeking: Nearly all Department of Defense lands support some type of historic military assets as well as non-military resources, including Native American sites and historic features left behind from the communities that were evacuated prior to military occupation. However, these resources are not unique to only military lands but can be extended to other local, regional, and national government lands. Historic preservation does not have to come at the expense of other land use goals, particularly relating to military landscapes. Rather, historic materials can be used as assets for educational purposes and as outreach tools.

The goal of the partnership plan is to show CRM staff ways to fulfill compliance requirements while establishing helpful alliances and educate groups that may be untrusting of preservation goals. By establishing a working relationship, CRM personnel and government entities can establish and cultivate trust and help heal bruised connections.

Furthermore, the partnership plan examines ways to use and rehabilitate historic resources for educational and training purposes. For example, on the Fort Drum installation, historic buildings dating to the nineteenth century were not demolished, but fortified and used for soldiers to learn how to navigate around historic resources when deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

I am seeking additional presenters that may be able to contribute to a session. My research may intersect with other examinations and topics related to military or government lands (or land use), non-traditional teaching tools, public outreach, and partnerships with unwilling participants or non-preservation groups.

Although this specific project is already completed, I am open to suggestions for reframing this research to examine broader topics of discussion to present at the NCPH conference. As to a conference format, I am open if there are any suggestions.

Additionally, if there are any other proposed sessions in the works that I can join based on my research, please contact me

If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to share contact information for other people the proposer should reach out to, please get in contact directly: Alexandra Wallace,Alexandra.Wallace[at]colostate.edu

If you have general ideas or feedback to share please feel free to use the comments feature below.

All feedback, and offers of assistance, should be submitted by July 3, 2015.

Related Topics: Government Historians, Preservation, Place

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