Preservation: Where the Bodies are Buried
By: Mark Boardman 06/01/2009
Where the Bodies are Buried
In 2007, the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco was expanding its facility. The foundation of the new education center and Company F Headquarters was already in place, and crews were burying utility lines. The state was paying $2.1 million to complete the project.
Then diggers found human remains—a lot of them, an estimated 190, mostly from the 19th century. The former First Street Cemetery had been relocated 40 years ago; it turns out that only the headstones were moved, but not the coffins and remains.
In 2006, the city of Waco had hired American Archaeology Group (AAG). AAG claimed it did not find anything to hold up the project, so construction was greenlighted. The company now says it was never informed that a cemetery had been located there, so its studies did not discover the bodies. The city is suing AAG; the company is countersuing Waco.
In the meantime, the bodies are being relocated, at an estimated cost of $1 million (the city is paying, but it wants AAG to foot the bill). Other expenses related to the relocation are doubling that amount. While the building expansion should be completed around the time you read this, further development is in limbo.
254-750-8631 - TexasRanger.org
A Hole in Bozeman
It’s amazing how quickly history can be destroyed. The folks in Bozeman, Montana, know that all too well.
On March 5, a natural gas leak led to an explosion that knocked down four historic buildings and damaged three others. One person was killed in the blast.
The city’s downtown was already suffering somewhat, as the economic downturn had forced some businesses to close, leaving empty storefronts in 19th-century buildings. Before that, Bozeman’s downtown was vibrant with activity—including tourism—buttressed by a strong historic preservation effort.
The National Trust has offered grant funds to help assess the damage. Chuck Winn, assistant city manager and the former fire chief for 20 years, just shakes his head over the situation. “It’s like a bad dream that you can’t wake up from.”
406-582-2301 - Bozeman.net
New Roads to Old Places
Back in the late 1800s, cowman Wellington Starkey bought a spread, the Diamond Bar Ranch, near Kingman, Arizona, and the Grand Canyon.
Tap Duncan took it over in 1904. The alleged Wild Bunch associate (and indirect kin to our own Bob Boze Bell) built it into one of the prime operations in the region before he died in 1944.
The place has been an off-the-beaten-path guest ranch (now called Grand Canyon West) for the last few years. That beaten track is about to get paved. After 16 years of study, the Diamond Bar Road that runs on federal land between the ranch and the Hualapai Reservation should be paved after 2010. Total price tag: $32 million for the entire 14-mile stretch.
More traffic is bound to take the paved road. That’s good for people who want to visit the site. But it may not be so good for natural environs.
702-798-4354 - GrandCanyonRanch.com
It Takes a Village
The Eagle Springs Baptist Church, in the “now vanished town” of Eagle Springs, Texas, has new life, thanks to a group of folks who weren’t willing to let it just blow away.
The congregation dates back to 1858, and the building itself to 1878. Two years ago, a tornado nearly did the church in. Many parishioners, already using another building for services, thought it should be demolished.
Others disagreed and moved it to a donated site, more protected from the elements. Roof repairs and wiring work were provided for free. Contributions helped pay for carpentry work.
Last November 8, the 150th anniversary of the church’s founding, more than 100 people from as far away as Ohio and Alabama attended the homecoming celebration. The fourth-generation grandson of Eagle Springs’s original pastor took part. Proceeds from the event are slated for renovation. More needs to be done—underpinning and repositioning the limestone steps that bear the carved initials of earlier members.
Many thanks to Martha Deeringer, president of the Historic Eagle Springs Baptist Church Association, for bringing this to our attention.
254-470-2360 - Rootsweb.Ancestry.com/~txhesbca
Up on Cripple Creek
The Cripple Creek District Museum in Colorado is working hard at needed repairs and improvements.
Among the projects being undertaken in 2009: new electric wiring in the 1895 Midland Terminal Depot, along with fixing plaster ceilings and refinishing floors. Total cost: about $20,500, all of it coming from donations and memberships.
Other recent improvements have included painting the 1894 Trading and Transfer Co. building and restoring 65 windows and three chimneys at the Depot. Ongoing: restoration of a 1909 Seagrave fire engine, one of only two known in the United States.
719-689-2634 • Cripple-Creek.org
Post A Comment