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Artifact Looting Ring Busted
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An illegal Utah looting network has dug its last artifact after the arrests of its 24 ring members on June 10. The indictments were the result of a two-year undercover operation by the Bureau of Land Management, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney for Utah. The archeological investigation was one of the largest ever. The defendants are alleged to have stolen and profited in the sale of 256 Native American artifacts, worth an estimated $335, 685, from the Four Corners region of Utah. Among the stolen antiquities were decorated Anasazi pottery, a buffalo headdress, sandals, and ceremonial masks. “These treasures are the heritage of all Americans, and some of the objects are sacred to American Indians,” stated Brett Tolman, U.S. Attorney for Utah, in a press release. “Those who loot or damage public and American Indian resources for their own personal use or gain take something from all of us.”
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Interior Secretary Ken Salazar with a team from the Department of Justice and the FBI announce the indictments of 23 antiquity thieves at a press conference in the Utah U.S. Attorney’s office on June 10.
Tami A. Heilemann/DOI |
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Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit Approvals in May
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The National Park Service’s Historic Preservation Certification review of applications for Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives has three parts: Part 1 determines the eligibility of a property for the tax incentives program; Part 2 determines whether a proposed project meets the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation; Part 3 determines whether the completed project conforms with the Secretary’s Standards. In May, National Park Service staff reviewed 95 Part 1 applications, 92 Part 2 applications representing nearly $305 million in estimated preservation investment, and 83 Part 3 applications that resulted in $390 million in preservation investment using the federal tax credit. The National Park Service administers this program in cooperation with State Historic Preservation Officers and the Internal Revenue Service.
Maryland Mill Town
The town of Oella, Maryland, was one of the first planned milling company towns in America, along with its neighbor, Ellicott City. One of its mills, the William J. Dickey & Sons Textile Mill, was constructed by the Dickey family in 1918 along the Potapsco River, on the site of what used to be the 19th century Union Manufacturing Company mill, before it burned down. Although once the largest cotton mill in America, the emergence of synthetic fabrics in the 1970s, along with the devastating floods from Hurricane Agnes in 1972, served to shutter the Dickey factory for good. The building stood virtually vacant for the next three decades, until a recent $43 million rehabilitation converted it from a mill into modern apartments. On the exterior, the brick facades were cleaned and repaired, and new compatible windows were installed. On the interior, the building was subdivided into apartments and public space for residents. The brick walls, the concrete and wood floors, and the wood and iron structural system, were all left exposed so that residents could enjoy the historic building’s industrial nature. The rehabilitation of the former mill into residential units has brought people back to this once thriving milling town.
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The William J. Dickey & Sons Textile Mill in Oella, Maryland, was recently converted into apartments with the help of the National Park Service's Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives.
NPS file photos |
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National Register Statistics for May
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Ninety properties were listed in the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places in May 2009. This included 1,629 buildings, 34 sites, 75 structures and 12 objects. May is the latest month for which complete statistics are available. Nominations are submitted by states, tribes, and other federal agencies.
This One’s on the House
Back in the days of Prohibition, many moonshiners hid their stills in mountains or barns, but not Boyd Gilleland – his still, used for creating the illegal concoction, was right in his house. The Boyd and Sallie Gilleland House, a c. 1929 Craftsman bungalow in Dawsonville, Georgia, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on May 6. It’s not known when Gilleland ceased manufacture, but he started in the 1930s to supplement the family’s income. The drink was made in a secret room, accessible only through a hidden panel in a closet, containing a chimney with an extra round vent for a stovepipe and another secret panel leading into a hidden passageway inside the attic. Reportedly, Gilleland brewed upstairs while wife Sallie cooked dinner downstairs to mask the smoke and odor of distilling alcohol. The house’s location on Georgia Highway 9, which heads straight into Atlanta, was ideal for the moonshine’s transportation and sale at local speakeasies. Millions of gallons of illicit whiskey from all over north Georgia were transported into the city during Prohibition (1920-33) and even into the 1940s. The house today is an excellent example of a side-gable bungalow that retains its open bungalow floor plan and exterior and interior character-defining features.
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Exterior shot of Boyd and Sallie Gilleland House in Dawsonville, Georgia. The house is famous for its moonshining past.
James R. Lockhart/Georgia Department of Natural Resources |
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New National Heritage Areas
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The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, signed into law on March 30, created nine new national heritage areas (NHA), including the first one in Alaska, Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm NHA. The others are Sangre de Cristo NHA and South Park NHA in Colorado, Mississippi Hills NHA and Mississippi Delta NHA in Mississippi, Northern Plains NHA in North Dakota, Muscle Shoals NHA in Alabama, Baltimore NHA in Maryland, and Freedoms Way NHA in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. These new additions bring the total number of heritage areas to 49, spread across 32 states.
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The Elvis Presley Birthplace in Tupelo, Mississippi, is part of the Mississippi Hills National Heritage Area.
Image courtesy of Tupelo Convention and Visitors Bureau |
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Contests
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Have you taken a great photo in the Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area lately? If so, enter your snapshot in the 2009 Capture the Heart of America Photo Contest. Photos submitted must be taken within the heritage area’s 37-county swath of Iowa, with entries accepted in the following categories: Events/Festivals, Farm Life, Heritage Area Sites, Images of the Past (pre-1950s), and Scenic. Awards will be given in each category for first, second, and third place, as well as best of show. Select photos will be considered for publication in the Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area Visitor Guide. For more information or an entry form, or to see past winning photos, visit the heritage area’s website. Submission Deadline: September 18.
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Conferences
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9th Biennial State of the San Francisco Estuary Conference: Our Actions, Our Estuary; September 29-October 1; in Oakland, California. Poster Abstracts Deadline: July 17.
Sustainable Archives: Austin 2009, the Joint Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archives and the Council of State Archives, August 11-16; in Austin, Texas. Registration Deadline: July 20.
ECLAS Conference 2009: Landscape and Ruins – Planning and Design for the Regeneration of Derelict Places, September 23-27; in Genova, Italy. Registration Deadline: July 30.
CAMOC 2009 Istanbul: Collecting Urban History in the Electronic Age, September 28-30; in Istanbul, Turkey. Registration Deadline: July 31.
Groundwater Protection Council Water/Energy Sustainability Symposium; September 13-17; Salt Lake City, Utah. Registration Deadline: August 29.
Geological Society of America 2009 Annual Meeting: From Volcanoes to Vineyards, Living with Dynamic Landscapes, October 18-21; in Portland, Oregon. Registration Deadline: September 14.
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Training
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Demystifying the Accreditation Process Online Webinar; July 16 & 21; presented by the Land Trust Alliance. RSVP Deadline: July 13.
Strategic Conservation Planning Using the Green Infrastructure Approach; September 14-18; in Shepherdstown, West Virginia; presented by the Conservation Fund in partnership the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/National Conservation Training Center and the USDA Forest Service. Registration Deadline: August 14.
Master of Legal Studies Program; West Virginia University; Spring 2010 semester. Elective courses in Cultural Resource Management and Public History offered.
Application Deadline: October 15.
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Heritage In the News
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150-Year-Old Missouri Botanical Garden is Now One of World’s Top Gardens
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The Seattle Times – June 21
Henry Shaw, only 18, was selling cutlery out of a rented room in St. Louis when a chance, half-day journey out of town on horseback one spring day in 1819 led him to his destiny — the prairie that would become his now-world-famous garden…
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$431,000 Paid for Envelope and Its Stamp
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New York Times – June 15
An envelope from an 1873 letter bearing a scarce 90-cent stamp with Abraham Lincoln fetched more than $431,000 at an auction in New York City on Saturday…
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Centuries-old Slate Discovered at Jamestowne Dig
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Washington Post – June 8
RICHMOND, Va. -- Archaeologists have pulled a 400-year-old slate tablet from what they think was an original well at Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America, a historic preservation group announced Monday…
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Setting Sail on the Hudson River 400 Years Later
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Smithsonian.com – June 8
About midway through construction of the replica of Onrust, a 17th-century Dutch ship, volunteer Lance LaTant of Queensbury, New York, paused and peered through a thicket of curved, bent white oak ribs towering over him and fellow workers…
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Carter Site Could Become National Park
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution – May 31
PLAINS, Ga. — The house was haunted; everyone knew that. A shadowy figure peered from an upstairs window. Screams rent the night. There was that vanishing dog, too…
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On the Hill
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Floor Action
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June 26 – House passed H.R. 2996, the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations for FY 2010.
June 2 – House passed:
H.R. 2330 – to direct the Secretary of the Interior to carry out a study to determine the suitability and feasibility of establishing Camp Hale as a unit of the National Park System.
H.R. 2430 – to direct the Secretary of the Interior to continue stocking fish in certain lakes in the North Cascades National Park, Ross Lake National Recreation Area, and Lake Chelan National Recreation Area.
H. Res. 421, recognizing and commending Great Smoky Mountains National Park on its 75th anniversary.
June 2 – Senate passed, S. Res. 137, recognizing and commending the people of Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the park.
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Hearings
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June 23 – House Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittees on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands and Insular Affairs, joint oversight field hearing on “The Impacts of Climate Change on the Chesapeake Bay” at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, MD.
June 16 – Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on National Parks, oversight hearing on the President’s proposed Fiscal Year 2010 budget for the National Park Service and proposed expenditures under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
June 16 – House Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands and the Subcommittee on Water and Power, joint oversight hearing on the “Mountain Pine Beetle: Strategies for Protecting the West”.
June 4 – House Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittees on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands and Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife, joint oversight hearing on "White-Nose Syndrome: What's Killing Bats in the Northeast?"
June 3 – House Resources Committee, hearing on H.R. 1061, to transfer certain land to the United States to be held in trust for the Hoh Indian Tribe, to place additional land into trust for the Hoh Indian Tribe, and for other purposes.
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Upcoming Committee Activity
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July 8 – House Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands, will hold a hearing (time/place TBD) on the following bills of interest:
H.R. 481 – to revise the authorized route of the North Country National Scenic Trail in northeastern Minnesota to include existing hiking trails along Lake Superior's north shore and in Superior National Forest and Chippewa National Forest
H.R. 685 – to require a study of the feasibility of establishing the United States Civil Rights Trail System
H.R. 2167 – to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study to assess the suitability and feasibility of designating certain lands as the Los Caminos del Rio National Heritage Corridor
H.R. 2806 – to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to adjust the boundary of the Stephen Mather Wilderness and North Cascades National Park in order to allow the rebuilding of a road outside of the floodplain while ensuring that there is no net loss of acreage to the park and wilderness, and for other purposes.
July 9 – House Natural Resources Committee, will markup the following bills of interest at 10:00 a.m. in 1334 Longworth House Office Building:
H.R. 2314 – to express the policy of the United States regarding the United States relationship with Native Hawaiians and to provide a process for the recognition by the United States of the Native Hawaiian governing entity
H.R. 1061 – to transfer certain land to the United States to be held in trust for the Hoh Indian Tribe, to place land into trust for the Hoh Indian Tribe, and for other purposes
H.R. 715 – to expand the boundary of Saguaro National Park, to study additional land for future adjustments to the boundary of the park, and for other purposes;
H.R. 1376 – to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to establish the Waco Mammoth National Monument in Texas
H.R. 1121 – to authorize a land exchange to acquire lands for the Blue Ridge Parkway from the Town of Blowing Rock, North Carolina, and for other purposes.
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New Bills of Interest
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H.R. 3046 – to recognize the heritage of hunting and provide opportunities for continued hunting on federal public land, introduced by Denny Rehberg (R-MT) on June 25.
S. 1348 – to recognize the heritage of hunting and provide opportunities for continued hunting on Federal public land, introduced by Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) on June 25.
S. 1356 – to amend the National Trails System Act to provide for the study of the Western States Trail, introduced by Barbara Boxer (D-CA) on June 25.
S. 1388 – to provide for equitable compensation to the Spokane Tribe of Indians of the Spokane Reservation for the use of tribal land for the production of hydropower by the Grand Coulee Dam, and for other purposes, introduced by Maria Cantwell (D-WA) on June 25.
H.R. 2986 – to amend the Act of May 29, 1930 (Chapter 354; 46 Stat. 482; commonly known as the Capper-Cramton Act), to authorize a grant program to preserve resources in the National Capital region, and for other purposes, introduced by Jim Moran (D-VA) on June 19.
H.R. 2889 – to modify the boundary of the Oregon Caves National Monument, and for other purposes, introduced by Peter DeFazio (D-OR) on June 16.
S. 1270 – to modify the boundary of the Oregon Caves National Monument, and for other purposes, introduced by Ron Wyden (D-OR) on June 16.
H.R. 2838 – to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to enter into a long-term ground lease for the operation and maintenance of Rock Creek, Langston, and East Potomac golf courses, and for other purposes, introduced by Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) on June 11.
S. 1241 – to amend Public Law 106-206 to direct the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to require annual permits and assess annual fees for commercial filming activities on Federal land for film crews of five persons or fewer, introduced by James Inhofe (R-OK) on June 11.
H.R. 2802 – to provide for an extension of the legislative authority of the Adams Memorial Foundation to establish a commemorative work in honor of former President John Adams and his legacy, and for other purposes, introduced by Bill Delahunt (D-MA) on June 10.
H.R. 2809 – to amend the Wilderness Act to allow recreation organizations consisting of hikers or horseback riders to cross wilderness areas on established trails, and for other purposes, introduced by Doug Lamborn (R-CO) on June 10.
S. 1168 – to authorize the acquisition and protection of nationally significant battlefields and associated sites of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 under the American Battlefield Protection Program, introduced by Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) on June 3.
H.R. 2689 – to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to study the suitability and feasibility of designating the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia as a unit of the National Park System, introduced by Thomas Perriello (D-VA) on June 3.
H.R. 2659 – to convey certain submerged lands to the Government of the Virgin Islands, introduced by Donna Christensen (D-VI) on June 2.
H.R. 2602 – to direct the Secretary of the Interior to study the suitability and feasibility of designating the Ka'u Coast on the island of Hawaii as a unit of the National Park System, introduced by Mazie Hirono (D-HI) on May 21.
H.R. 2603 – to direct the Secretary of the Interior to study the suitability and feasibility of designating certain lands along the northern coast of Maui, Hawaii, as a unit of the National Park System, introduced by Mazie Hirono (D-HI) on May 21.
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