Tennessee history, preservation and educational artifacts

JACKSON - Train-lovers from across the nation descended on Jackson, TN this past weekend as The Casey Jones Home and Railroad Museum commemorated the 100th anniversary of the April 30, 1900 train wreck that took the life of Illinois Central Railroad Engineer Casey Jones and launched the Jackson conductor into American folklore. The event was host by T. Clark Shaw and The Old Country Store. The museum was first dedicated in 1956 and operated by the city. For more than 20 years, the city managed the home, but lost money every year and were eventually considering closing it down. To keep that from happening, they entered into a unique lease management arrangement in 1977 with The Old Country Store. That same year the home was named one of Sears Roebuck & Company's 16 Great American historic homes. In 1980, the site was renovated and the famous Engine 382 was relocated to the site and restored.
Union CountyCountry Music legend Roy Acuff, who was a big fan of Casey Jones, participated in the ceremony - riding Engine 382 on its last ride to the museum. Since then, the site has grown into the landmark Casey Jones Village featuring numerous gift shops and this year opened the largest railroad gift shop in the region. Under the direction of T. Clark Shaw, it has developed into one of the largest tourist attractions in West Tennessee. "I'm a big train fan," said New Mexico resident David Miller, "and this is the one site I have always wanted to see. Like everybody, I heard the story of Casey Jones when I was in grade school and put him up there with Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan and other American legends. Growing up I can remember watching the movies and television shows about him that were more legend than fact. This has really personalized him for me. " The official celebration started with a prayer delivered by Father William Parham of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Jackson. Jones was a parishioner at St. Mary's and was married in the church to Janie Brady. She became something of a celebrity herself and was featured on the popular 1950s television game show "I've Got a Secret". On hand for the special ceremony, was Jackson Mayor Charles Farmer, Congressman Ed Bryant, State Senator Bobby Carter and State Representative Steve McDaniel. Senator Thompson aide John Newman also attended to present the museum with a Congressional Proclamation honoring Casey Jones and The U.S. Postal Service spent the afternoon canceling stamps for collectors at a special booth. T. Clark Shaw, who hosted the official ceremony, said he was pleased with the huge turnout and that it was a great kick-off for the celebration. "There are many things we have planned for the upcoming year, " said Shaw. "A Casey Jones reunion is going to be held in June and we are working to arrange a commemorative train ride that will trace the exact route Casey Jones took the night of the famous accident. We are also planning events honoring fireman Sim Webb and the original Ballad of Casey Jones songwriter Wallace Saunders. The attendance today shows the Casey Jones' legend is still alive and well in America and, as you can see we have people here from all over the nation. " Casey Jones Village is continuing to grow. The facility only recently opened a amphitheater and staff members are working on developing an outdoor drama on the legendary engineer. "What Clark Shaw has done with this place is unbelievable," said Sen. Thompson aide John Newman. "This is a perfect example of how business and government should work together. The Casey Jones Home and Museum struggled for years and its future was questionable. Clark has turned all of that around and helped make it a first-class operation. He has seen that the Home and Museum maintains its historical integrity and, in a lot of cases, done things to enhance it that would have been impossible for any city to do. It is now one of the largest tourist attractions in Tennessee and, without this unique leasing arrangement between The Old Country Store and the city of Jackson, it wouldn't have happened." SCV Reunion held in Jackson JACKSON - Members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans from across Tennessee descended on Jackson last week to attend the annual S.C.V. Reunion. The yearly three-day-event is the time when the organization conducts business, elects officers and gives progress reports on various historical preservation projects the group is undertaking in Tennessee. The 2000 S.C.V. Reunion was hosted by Jackson's John Ingram Camp. Guests in attendance at the event included state legislators, representatives from Sen. Thompson's office, SCV National Commander Patrick J. Griffin III of Maryland, and Tennessee United Daughters of the Confederacy President Carolyn Kent. The featured guest speaker this year was Shiloh National Battlefield Park Superintendent Woody Harrell, who gave a progress report on the repairs underway to fix Shiloh's Mississippian Indian mounds and battlefield causeway. The highlight of the awards banquet was Superintendent Harrell's presentation of a Confederate flag that has been flown over all the major Civil War battlefields. The flag, which is hoped to be a major fund-raiser for the organization's historic preservation efforts, was flown over the battlefields in Tennessee, Virginia, and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Letters from Park Superintendents were included with the flag to certify its being flown over the battlefields. "We've had collectors and museum officials expressing interest in the flag," said John Ingram Camp spokesman Jerry Lessenberry. "This is the only certified Confederate flag that has flown over every major battlefield in the War Between the States so it has a very unique place in history. Superintendent Woody Harrell and his son took this on as a personal project and did a fantastic job. We never expected the flag would fly over that many battlefields. We had originally discussed just flying it over Tennessee's, but, after that was done, we decided to try and get it over as many battlefields as we could where Tennesseans fought and died. As the photographs and letters show, is truly a priceless artifact. The John Ingram Camp is hoping it will help the S.C.V. raise funds to continue our preservation efforts across the state. " The Tennessee Star Journal's Ed Hooper was among those honored at the annual Reunion. He received the Tennessee Division's Sons of Confederate Veteran's Edward Carmack Journalism award for his "Looking Back" column's work on Southern history. Others receiving awards were Rev. John Sims of Chattanooga, John T. Wilkinson III of Memphis, Jerry Lessenberry of Jackson, Allen Sullivant of Brentwood, and the Covington and Cookeville S.C.V. Camps. A special award was also given to Tennessee Division President Russell Bailey. Hooper also received an award on behalf of the John Ingram Camp for their work in preservation projects across Tennessee. The camp has been a leader in the fight to repair Shiloh National Battlefield Park. The Tennessee Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans was founded in 1892 and is one of the oldest historical organizations in the state. Its membership is open to male descendants of Confederate soldiers age 12 years or older. The goals of the organization include the compilation and publication of Southern history, the preservation of Confederate Soldier's graves, memorials, relics, and the erection of monuments and markers. S.C.V. President Russell Bailey was elected to his fourth term as head of the organization in Tennessee. Under his leadership, the organization has grown to 54 camps in Tennessee and membership grown by more than 40 percent. Bailey says the recent battles in South Carolina and other states over the Confederate flag has really helped the organization instead of hurting it. "We have worked hard to make the Tennessee Division one of the best in America," said Bailey. "The organization's membership has grown substantially in the last few years as the new attention on the Confederate flag has made people look into their family roots and learn the truth about the War Between the States - rather than believe the half-truths and outright falsehoods being portrayed in the media. The important thing to remember about the S.C.V is the fact that Tennessee camps are sometimes the sole support for many local historic sites that wouldn't be preserved otherwise, which, in addition to saving them from destruction, is providing popular destinations for the state's growing heritage tourism industry." Rep. Zach Wamp & U.S. Army aid Medal of Honor Museum CHATTANOOGA - Congressman Zach Wamp (R-Chattanooga) announced yesterday that the U.S. Army Reserve is donating a site at the Army Reserve Local Training Area on Bonny Oaks Drive in Chattanooga as the new location for the National Medal of Honor Museum of Military History. Wamp had the language permitting the land transfer inserted into the Defense Spending Authorization Bill passed by the House Armed Services Committee last week. The Army has agreed to donate the 15-acre site on the training area property, which sits 1.9 miles west of Interstate 75. "For years, I have worked with the National Medal of Honor Museum of Military History," said Wamp, "and believe that its mission of honoring the men and women who have served nobly in our Armed Forces has the potential to create a world-class draw for tourism and economic development while honoring our military heroes. This new site will help make the museum even more of a regional and national attraction because it is near Interstate 75 - putting it in easy reach of visitors from all over our area and the rest of the country. " Members of the Board of Trustees, Medal of Honor recipient Desmond Doss, and numerous county and city officials were on hand for the event, which Rep. Wamp called a 'historic occasion' for America and Chattanooga. The museum is currently located on Georgia Avenue in the city and has been working to relocate to a bigger facility. Plans were underway at one time to renovate the Saint Elmo school, but the museum board decided to scrap the project because the expense of remodeling the historic structure was too much and didn't offer the space needed to accommodate the museum's growing collection of artifacts and archive materials. Museum officials were excited about the news and say the property will allow them to construct a first-rate facility that can handle the growing number of tourists that visit the museum each year. "We appreciate everything Congressman Wamp has done to make this happen," said Museum Chairman Joe Young. "I know we could not have accomplished this without his help. This new site gives us the opportunity to construct a quality single level museum that will be accessible to everyone. Our museum's displays cover war eras from the Revolutionary War to Desert Storm, but our primary focus is the 'Hall of Valor', where we honor recipients of the Medal of Honor. I also want to especially thank museum vice chairman retired U.S. Army Major General Marvin Back, who has brought great leadership to the museum board and worked tirelessly to help obtain this property." Museum officials will now begin the process of raising funds for the museum and hope to break ground on the new facility next year and have the new museum open by 2004. Plans call for a one-level 20,00 square foot facility to be constructed on the new site and include ample grounds for the museums collections of military vehicles, tanks, and artillery pieces. "There is still a lot of work to do," said trustee Ann Moyers, "but this is a excellent opportunity for us to build a museum that can continue to grow in the future and offer America and Tennessee one of its best military museums. Although we are underway raising fund for it, our focus still remains on maintaining the current location of the museum and ensuring our work continues with the Armed Forces, schools, and cities in preserving the history of the Medal of Honor and the lives of those who received it." In addition to functioning as a museum, the National Medal of Honor Museum of Military History operates a number of educational programs and assists the armed forces in constructing Medal of Honor displays on base throughout the world and has recently finished a "Hall of Honor" project for Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. The museum also conducts educational tour groups at the museum and has assisted numerous schools, including Sevier County, in developing programs to honor Medal of Honor recipients.

WASHINGTON - While it is a government body that is much aligned and cursed one time or another by nearly every American voter, there is one thing even the most die-hard critic of the U.S. Congress points at with pride - the Library of Congress. The grandfather of American libraries is celebrating its 200th anniversary this week and officials are hopeful the renewed focus will lead people to remember to support their local libraries. While there is no such thing in America as a "national library", the institution's supportive programs is the one reason local libraries rival those in any other nation. The Library of Congress was founded on April 24, 1800, when then-President John Adams signed a bill authorizing $5,000 for the creation of a small library to aid the U.S. House of Representatives. Within a year of signing the bill, the seedling collection of 152 works in 740 volumes and three maps arrived from a London bookseller. By 1812, the collection had grown to more than 3,000 books and 53 maps, charts and plans. The library would become a target the next year, when a group of American soldiers captured the Canadian Parliament and its attached library and burned it to the ground. After the British marched on Washington. D.C. and captured the Capitol, they returned the favor and torched the Library of Congress - destroying the collection. With much of the nation's capitol lying in ruins, Congress could have walked away from the project, but a prominent American offered to help reestablish the institution and forever change the way the library would operate. Former President Thomas Jefferson, who had bought a vast collection of books and wine in Europe for Monticello, was finding himself falling on hard financial times and offered to sell his book collection to reseed the library. The grand gesture wasn't exactly met with open arms. His political enemies and other government officials were offended by many of the books in his collection. In other national libraries, the collections were mainly designed for native attorneys and legislators. Jefferson's collection, however, admitted every topic, field of knowledge, and branch of literature known to have existed. Many books were in foreign languages and, for his opponents, were not considered "proper" for the Library of Congress. After some backroom deals and political arm-twisting, America purchased the books. From Jefferson's personal collection of 6,487 books, sprang a library the world has not seen since Roman soldiers burned Ptolemy's Library of Alexandria in 47 B.C. Today more than 530 miles of bookshelves hold more than 18 million books, 12 million photographs, 5 million maps, and many more millions of prints, microfilms, manuscripts, tapes, and videos in more than 450 languages, including the original Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution. The library collection expands by 10,000 items every 24 hours and it rejects that same amount every day, when they judge items submitted as inappropriate and not keeping with the institutions standards. With library substations in cities like Rio De Janiero, Bangkok, and Europe, the Library of Congress literally scans the earth looking for material. In addition, it is the one place where communication tools and devices from every era are forever maintained. "The Library of Congress' method of collecting and furnishing material is completely different from a museum," said one Congressional staffer, "they don't have one book on a subject, for example, they have 1,000 and on every conceivable aspect of that particular subject. The books and material are not for display, but for referencing and accessing knowledge. Not everything is in computer databases and some of the knowledge is in formats where you need antiquated communication tools to access it and people who know how to use them. This is a research library that literally shelters the world's knowledge and is our proverbial 'ace-in-the-hole' as a nation. It's best kept secret, however, is the fact that any American can walk into its reading rooms and use it. " In order to catalog everything in its vast collection, the LOC had to pioneer their own referencing system. When Melvill Dewey lobbied them in 1896 to implement his Dewey Decimal system, LOC officials quickly pointed out the system, which was good for public book libraries, would not work on a serious research library. The classification system they devised is simple and completely unique to the institution. Because of the efforts of past and present officials at the Library of Congress, libraries are enjoying new life in America today. In Nashville, Memphis, and Pigeon Forge, new libraries are under construction and are not the darkened facilities we have come to associate with libraries. They now include such amenities as computer terminals, coffee bars, and movie rentals. These and other libraries being built across the nation will soon number more than 122,000 and budgets for local libraries have grown by more than a third in the last five years. The cost is nominal in that most are built from local taxes and fund-raisers and do not receive federal funding. "A library is the best single investment a community can make," said political science professor David Moyers, "and they should be regarded as community centers where people not only borrow books, but access a computer, find videos and be able to discover what is going on in the community. Less than one percent of government budgeting helps public libraries and I dare anyone to find another government organization that efficient. The modern library is truly an American invention. It was started by Benjamin Franklin, aided by John Adams, and revolutionized by Thomas Jefferson. From those three influences sprang an American library that rivals the Seven Wonders of the World in its scope of existence. Anyone who travels to D.C. needs to stop in at least once to see it." As it enters a new century, the Library of Congress is expanding its reach into the computer age and is hopeful they will continue their success in the digital evolution. they hope the year long celebration, which will kick off April 24, will refocus attention on America's greatest community resource. If you or your family would like to visit the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., a little known secret is to contact your congressman and talk to one of the staff members who will help arrange a tour. For more information, you can visit the Library of Congress' Home page at www.loc.gov. The entire catalog detailing their collections are available through a variety of sources and on-line at www.catalog.loc.gov.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -The National Parks Conservation Association has placed two National Parks located in Tennessee on the Ten Most Endangered List. The Great Smoky Mountain National Park and Stones River National Battlefield Park in Murfreesboro both made the annual list. The NPCA was founded in 1919 and currently has 400,000 members nationwide. The non-profit organization serves as an official watchdog group that alerts representatives and citizens about proposed threats to the nation�s National Parks. It is regarded as the foremost national conservation organization in America.

MURFREESBORO- A proposed interstate-highway exchange and threatened commercial development put Stones River National Military Park at number seven on the list. The City of Murfreesboro has been eyeing the property, most of which is part of the battlefield�s proposed boundary, for commercial and industrial development. While Park supporters have protested the Murfreesboro�s city council�s plans to develop the region, officials haven�t been too accommodating. Some were even found to have personal financial interests in the development, which calls for an interstate exchange to be built that would violate the Park�s proposed boundary. According to the report: "The historic Civil War site, where nearly 7,000 soldiers are buried, is threatened by proposed highway and commercial development. The park, which represents just ten percent of the original battlefield, needs to be expanded by new land acquisition." Stones River NBP officials have said that the park needs to expand its battlefield property in order to preserve the historic areas, which were not included in the original layout. They had very little to say about the NCPA report, except that it points out the need to preserve the historic credibility of the site. "I think this points to the concern that many people have made about the park being threatened by the fact the county may lose historic battleground property forever," said Superintendent Mary Ann Peckham. "I think that the Park Service and the interests involved can work out a reasonable solution to help preserve the vital areas that need to be brought into the park in order to save them for future generations." In a news release from D.C., National Parks Conservation President Thomas Kiernan says there is no reason for the national park lands on the list to be threatened. "Logic tells you," said Kiernan, "that national park status protects America�s priceless wild and scenic areas from human degradation, but that logic is wrong. Like Liberty itself, the protection of America�s natural and historic heritage requires eternal vigilance on the part of U.S. citizens. Otherwise uncontrolled special interests ultimately will ruin the parks." One research assistant in the agency says Stones River is among two national parks threatened by commercial development. "In Tennessee," said an NPCA research assistant, "an interstate-highway exchange may bisect the battlefield of Stones River National Battleground and an airport expansion may irrevocably alter Hawaii�s Haleakala National Park." Tennessee preservationists applauded the NPCA report and say it was long overdue. It is an issue that Park supporters say they hope will allow their voices to finally be heard and some action be taken to preserve the battlefield proper fir future generations. "This doesn�t look good on Tennessee," said historical preservationist Jerry Lessenberry. "We have a few people in Murfreesboro playing politics with history and putting their own interests ahead of those people they were elected to serve. The interstate exchange was a low priority item in the Tennessee General Assembly, but now it is being quietly fast-tracked through the legislature. Citizens of Murfreesboro and Tennesseans need to wake up and see what is going on or we are going to lose a very valuable resource. These military parks are developing into valuable resources for education and tourism that offer a community far more benefits than a new company or two in a region where unemployment is less than three percent." Many officials agree with Lessenberry�s assessment of the situation and say that they are a little curious as to how the new interstate exchange suddenly became such a high priority in the state. "There are many other counties in Tennessee that need new industry other than Murfreesboro," said one legislator. "If a new factory comes in bringing 1,000 or more jobs, the governor needs to try and place that company in or near a region that will hire Tennesseans needing work and actually help a community who needs it. Anything else just contributes to urban sprawl and that is counter-productive to the state�s economy as a whole." Others say the city of Murfresboro and the state are not taking into consideration the obvious tourist values in the state�s growing heritage tourism markets, which has grown tremendously over the last ten years. "I am pro-business, but most communities are trying to develop a tourism base that is both reliable and profitable without a centerpiece like Stones River NBP," said Lessenberry. GATLINBURG - According to the NPCA report, the Smoky Mountains, which came in at ninth place on the list, can attribute pollution as its greatest cause of concern to experts and the reason it was named as one of the most endangered. "The breath-taking vistas of this popular park are being clouded by noxious air pollution from regional power-generating plants and motor vehicles," said the report. " Nitrous oxide and other pollutants have damaged 30 of the park�s plant species and contributed to poor air quality." Environmentalists and government officials point to coal fired power plants located in the vicinity of the Smoky Mountains as the biggest problems in regards to air pollution. Many say by enforcing federal requirements regarding pollution emissions may be the most helpful. Most of the coal-powered plants are owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, who has some immunity from federal pollution regulations. That allows them to phase in air scrubbers and other pollution collectors on smoke stacks. T.V.A. officials say they have reduced a lot of the pollutants thrown into the air by the plants, but environmentalists say the government-owned utility should do more. "How can the government be out here twisting the arms of small businesses to reduce their emissions when government-owned industries are given a pass on the rules," said one environmentalist. "This is a case where the government needs to set its own house in order before it starts telling others how to run theirs. In this case, private industry is beating the government in implementing environmental technology. The trouble is industry can�t fine the government." Park officials say that pollution from automobiles carrying some ten million visitors per year is also a major contributing factor. Officials are now studying how to decrease the number of individual automobiles coming into the park by adding mass transit vehicles, which is hoped will include electric vehicles. Last year GSMNP broke its own record for the number of days they had to issue health warnings because of air pollutants. Already two such days have been recorded prior to the unofficial April 15^th kickoff of the 2000 tourist season.