Free Republic

A Chicago suburb could not get anyone to fork over $1 for a home, the Belleville News-Democrat reported. The village of Barrington, Illinois put three older homes up for sale for just $1 each, but was not able to get any interested buyers. The suburb hopes to sell and relocate the homes in order to make way for redevelopment in the downtown area, according to the paper. If no buyers come forward, the village will demolish the houses, which many residents say hold an historic value.

Few parts of America have been as badly hit by the global economic crisis as California, where Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has been forced to slash state budgets to compensate for a $24-billion shortfall. Among the items on the chopping block were 100 California state parks -- including Fort Ross, a 19th-century settlement on the Pacific coast just north of San Francisco that was established by a group of hunters and traders from Russia. The fort, whose name is derived from "Rossiya," was ultimately spared closure, when California announced on September 25 it would keep the parks open. But the weeks...

ORANGE, Va. — Officials in central Virginia approved a Wal-Mart Supercenter early Tuesday near one of the nation's most important Civil War battlefields, a proposal that had stirred opposition by preservationists and hundreds of historians. The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to grant the special permit to the world's biggest retailer after a majority of more than 100 speakers said they favored bringing the Wal-Mart to Locust Grove, within a cannonball's shot from the Wilderness Battlefield. Historians and Civil War buffs are fearful the Wal-Mart store will draw traffic and more commerce to an area within the historic...

DIFF Partners with World Cinema Foundation to Protect Middle Eastern Cinema Heritage The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) today announced its partnership with the World Cinema Foundation (WCF), an international body set up by cinema legend Martin Scorsese to call attention to the cause of film preservation and restoration. The organization preserves prints of non-Hollywood films that are important milestones in regional cinemas but which are in danger of being lost due to improper storage, lack of funds for restoration, or neglect. Masoud Amralla al Ali, DIFF’s Artistic Director, stated: “Arab film has a pedigree that dates back a century,...

Iraq was home to some of civilization's first outposts and hosted conquerors from Alexander the Great to Americans. Much of that priceless archeological heritage was lost and looted in the chaotic months after the U.S. invasion in 2003. Now, the Field Museum and the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute are part of an effort to turn things around: They're training Iraqi archeologists and cultural preservationists, who will return home to train their colleagues, in techniques that would wow Indiana Jones.

FORT HUACHUCA — There’s some graffiti on the wall, the ceiling has been torn down and the only inhabitants seem to be rodents since the fate of a historic black officers club was to be torn down. Dave Perryman, left, restoration coordinator for the Mountain View Colored Officers Club project, talks Friday with contractors and engineers inside the club on Fort Huachuca. (Beatrice Richardson-Herald/Review) “At one time, it must have been marvelous,” Jan Sheller said after walking through the building and its many rooms on Friday afternoon. Contractors and members of the Southwest Association of Buffalo Soldiers walk in front...

I see that Virginia Senator James Webb is in the news with an announcement about preserving "Virginia’s abundant natural, historical, and cultural resources." That's great. In his editorial, Webb stated: "Virginia is fortunate to have such an abundant supply of pristine lands steeped in history. Extending the Civil War Battlefields Preservation program will enable children to experience the same untouched landscapes of their ancestors and visit the places where so many sacrifices were made, by soldiers and civilians, alike." I'm grateful that Senator Webb recognizes this emotional connection Virginians have to their ancestors and the land. (Too bad others don't.)...

Bobby Prigel says building an organic creamery will keep his farm alive. But preservationists say it will spoil the rural landscape. GLEN ARM, Md. -- Bobby Prigel seems like a poster child for the local-food movement. A fourth-generation dairy farmer, he wants to build a creamery to make organic butter, yogurt, cheese and ice cream. He wants to sell those products to consumers in nearby Baltimore instead of shipping his milk out of state. He wants to make enough money to pass on the farm to a fifth generation. But some neighbors and conservationists are challenging Prigel's plans. Opponents, led...

SHARPSBURG - Antietam National Battlefield is one of the 10 most endangered battlefields in the United States, according to a list released Wednesday by the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT). The battlefield is "threatened with a 120-foot-tall cellular tower that would be visible from all of the battlefield's most famous vantage points," according to a CWPT press release. Monocacy National Battlefield near Frederick, Md., also is on the list, which also includes sites in several states from Virginia to Oklahoma. National Park Service officials were notified in December 2007 of a proposal to erect a stealth cell tower south of...

WASHINGTON, DC - Trace Adkins isn't the typical, tweedy sort of fellow who often graces Civil War history events. But this son of the South, a platinum-selling country-music star, knows plenty about what he calls the War Between the States. He brought that passion yesterday to the National Press Club to help the Civil War Preservation Trust unveil its 2008 list of the 10 most endangered battlefields. "People say the Revolutionary War defined what we want to be," Adkins said. "I think the Civil War defined who we are, and who we want to be. That's what I'm trying to...

The Easter Bunny came to the rescue of a battered Hawthorne train station that's more than a century old this weekend. More than 1,600 parents and children packed a seven-car NJ Transit train Saturday for a ride on the "Easter Bunny Train." The bunny, along with Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat and Snoopy the Dog, visited with children during the 90-minute ride from the Glen Rock-Boro Hall Train Station to Suffern, N.Y., and back again. The train made three trips. The tickets cost $9 for children and $13 for everyone else. The proceeds from the sold-out train rides will go...

Associated Press New York, Massachusetts launch program to save Revolutionary War trail markers. Bi-state effort hopes to save monuments to 1775-76 route ALBANY -- New York and Massachusetts are launching an effort to conserve dozens of roadside monuments that mark the route taken by patriots who transported the artillery that forced the British from Boston during the Revolutionary War. The granite slabs with bronze plaques serve as markers for the Knox Trail, considered one of the earliest heritage trails created in the United States. The trail mostly follows the original route used by Gen. Henry Knox and his troops in...

It's been 100 years since a feisty woman who stood 5-foot-3 began "the second battle of the Alamo." Adina De Zavala barricaded herself in the Long Barrack, not knowing her three-day protest would save the Alamo's oldest structure, but cast her in a shadow of controversy. De Zavala is thought to be the first person to use civil disobedience to preserve Texas history. A commemoration is set for 3 p.m. today at the Alamo. "She's almost an unsung hero," said Marcie Ince, San Antonio Conservation Society president. "She was the first to really set the way for others to follow...

With so many Civil War battlefields gone and forgotten, just how was Stones River saved? After all, the federal government protects only 15 percent of all significant Civil War battlefields. So how was Murfreesboro so fortunate? When it comes down to it, Civil War veterans and the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railroad saved the battlefield. Probably none of that would have happened if a national cemetery had been established elsewhere like Nashville or Franklin during the war. The Battle of Stones River was fought for control of the railroad and for the fertile land of Middle Tennessee, which could...

Frozen baby mammoth to be sent to Japan for research (Kyodo) _ A frozen mammoth found recently in Russia in unprecedented good condition is set to be sent to a Japanese university for examination, several experts told Kyodo News on Friday. The mammoth, thought to be a six-month-old female, was found in the best state of preservation among all frozen mammoths ever recovered, said the experts. "The mammoth has no defects except that its tail was bit off," said Alexei Tikhonov, vice director of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. "In terms of its state of preservation,...

The growing problem of accessing old digital file formats is a "ticking time bomb", the chief executive of the UK National Archives has warned. Natalie Ceeney said society faced the possibility of "losing years of critical knowledge" because modern PCs could not always open old file formats. She was speaking at the launch of a partnership with Microsoft to ensure the Archives could read old formats. Microsoft's UK head Gordon Frazer warned of a looming "digital dark age".Costly dealHe added: "Unless more work is done to ensure legacy file formats can be read and edited in the future, we face...

Cornelius and Merry Lucas have lived in their rowhouse in Mount Pleasant for 46 years, and they'd like to finish their run right there, if the District government deigns to permit that. At 88 and 86, respectively, the Lucases can't manage the stairs anymore, so they've moved into their basement, which opens onto the back alley. Their son, Richard, determined not to put them in a nursing home, hired an architect who came up with plans to cut through the front porch and install a ramp from the sidewalk down into the basement. But Mount Pleasant, developed in the early...

In today's Wall Street Journal, Thaddeus Herrick reports on the continued concern about the fate of several landmarks in Houston. This time, though, there is a solid statement about the developments:David Deason, vice president for development at Barnes & Noble, said the New York-based company intends to close the Bookstop in favor of a "state of the art" facility. But Mr. Deason said the fate of the landmarks is in the hands of Weingarten. The statement in itself may not be so threatening; the Alabama Theater could just acquire a new tenant. If we know Weingarten, though (and we think...

The original film footage of astronaut Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon, one of the most important artifacts of the 20th century, has been lost. The television broadcast seen by about 600 million people in July 1969 is preserved for posterity, but the original tapes from which the footage was taken have been mislaid, most likely in NASA's vast archives at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. The footage could transform our view of the moon landings, offering images far sharper than the blurred, grainy video shown around the world. It also could lay to rest the conspiracy...

A NEW breed of educated women has discovered the secret of a happy marriage — opting to stay at home instead of pursuing a career. The phenomenon, in which wives prefer their husbands to be the main breadwinner, has been identified by American sociologists and is now gaining a foothold in Britain. Unlike the housewives of the 1950s, who had little choice over rearing children and acting as homemaker, this generation of women is building on the advances of the feminist movement to determine their optimum lifestyle. The women are predominantly drawn from the middle classes and have young offspring....

Video Proof Disputed in Case of Ivory Bill The writer of a field guide to North American birds and three academic colleagues have challenged the videotape evidence offered as proof of the existence of an ivory-billed woodpecker in Arkansas' Big Woods region. Long believed to be extinct, the bird made headlines around the world last April when scientists announced that they had spotted it several times and caught it on film. But David Sibley and his team argue that the low-quality video shows the more common pileated woodpecker, not the ivory-bill, preparing to take flight from a tupelo tree and...

Saturday's Chicago Tribune includes a front page story titled, "The Bill they can't stomach: Voting Clinton's boyhood home a historic site too much for these 12 angry lawmakers." The article, written by senior correspondent William Neikirk, doesn't support the headline. Yes, twelve Republican congressmen did vote against a bill, which passed with 409 votes, to name the former president's birthplace a national historic site. But characterizing them as "angry" isn't justified, at least not by anything appearing in the article. The closest thing to "angry" was a comment made by one opponent of the Clinton site that, "Maybe it should...

The Rosetta Project Posted by Greg Bjerg on February 27th, 2006 at 4:33 pm Do you speak Votian? Votian is the language spoken by the Votes. Votes are the people of Ingria, an area of Russia just Southwest of St. Petersburg close to the Estonian border. The Votian language is also practically extinct with 50 speakers at most. There are no children currently speaking Votian. Experts generally consider a community's language to be "endangered" when at least 30 per cent of its children no longer learn it. Imminent extinction is also on the horizon for the Livonian, Krimchak and Yevanic...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The New Mexico battlefield known as the "Gettysburg of the West" was listed Tuesday as one of America's 10 most endangered battlefields. Proposed development was one threat cited by the Civil War Preservation Trust in naming the 10 sites located in Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Georgia, Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Washington, D.C. "Hallowed ground, where more than 600,000 Americans gave their lives, is being paved over in favor of shopping malls, housing tracts and even gambling casinos," the trust's president, James Lighthizer, said during a news conference. The New Mexico battlefield, at Glorieta, was where Union forces...

Gettysburg was the site of one of the largest battles fought on American soil, but today it is playing host to a different type of fight: Whether slot machines should come to town. A proposal that would bring gambling a little more than a mile away from the Pennsylvania battlefield propelled it to the top of a preservation group's list of the 10 most endangered Civil War battlefields released Tuesday. Proposed development was one threat cited by the Civil War Preservation Trust in the naming of the 10 sites located in Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Georgia, Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and...

Before I moved here four years ago, I frequently used to drive northward from my home in northern Virginia to Western New York and Niagara Falls for business, or visiting friends and relatives, or attending funerals, or college-lecturing, or any number of reasons. I would always use Route 15 to get through Pennsylvania. Not only was that venerable highway widened and vastly improved during the administration of former governor Tom Ridge -- it also went through Gettysburg. I've been a Civil War buff since I was in knee pants. My parents encouraged that, and in my two-plus decades living in...

Tucked in the rolling hills of western Howard County, Doughoregan Manor is a hidden touchstone to America's founding. It is the ancestral home of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, one of the 56 revolutionaries who signed the Declaration of Independence. Some consider it Maryland's Monticello. Unlike the famed Virginia estate, however, the 892-acre Doughoregan (pronounced "Doe-RAY-gun") property is owned by the Founding Father's direct descendants, who still live there. The intensely private family is considering selling some of Doughoregan for development and seeking tens of millions of dollars from the state and county to permanently preserve the rest. Perched on the...

We in Ocean City, NJ have been fighting since 1998 to preserve a circa 1885 Historic Life-Saving Station from destruction. The property is located in our City's Historic District and is afforded specific levels of protection from development. The current property owner bought the property knowing those protections were in place, but used his political connections to get approvals to demolish the Life-Saving station and replace it with 6 condo units. Through various legal battles, we finally had Court affirmation that the developer had to follow our City's ordinances regarding Historic Preservation. Those ordinances define the requirement for maintaining his...

SIERRA VISTA — The path to saving the black officers club on Fort Huachuca is getting smoother, according to a man leading an effort to protect it. Harlan Bradford, chairman of the Southwest Association of Buffalo Soldiers’ project to save the World War II facility, also said his organization is hoping Building 66050 will be designated one of “America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places” by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He said the building being listed would be a great help in saving the facility. Last year, SWABS tried to have the building listed as one of “America’s 11...

SALUDA -- The Middlesex County Board of Supervisors reaffirmed its support for the biggest housing development in the county's history last night and voted to rezone the historic Rosegill Plantation. The 5-0 vote allows Northern Virginia developers to build 700 housing units on the 848-acre Rappahannock River estate that resonates with Colonial history and shelters the neighboring town of Urbanna in a cloak of picturesque farmland. The Rosegill manor house was home to two Colonial Virginia governors and parts of the house date to 1650, making it one of the oldest in the state. Residents on both sides of the...

Benjamin Franklin, Londoner. The U.S. founding father lived in the British capital for almost two decades before the American Revolution, working to bridge the widening gap between the colonies and the crown. After decades of neglect and a $5.3 million restoration, his house was unveiled to the public Tuesday as a museum dedicated to a revolutionary who spent years trying to keep Britain and its American colonies united. "He wasn't very successful, but he sowed the seeds of the Anglo-American special relationship," said Marcia Balisciano, director of the Benjamin Franklin House museum. U.S. Ambassador Robert H. Tuttle and Foreign Secretary...

Hewlett-Packard employees in Palo Alto are working to save the house and one-car garage — dubbed the birthplace of Silicon Valley — where William "Bill" Hewlett and David Packard began manufacturing their first product in 1939. "We took the whole thing apart and are rebuilding it using the original frame and original 52 boards," said archivist Anna Mancini, who's overseeing the restoration. "We want to do it right. We want to do everything right." After dismantling the 12-foot-by-18-foot garage, sanding down the boards to eliminate termites and reinforcing the frame to withstand earthquakes, workers nailed the original Douglas-fir planks back...

Apple CEO Steve Jobs was denied the right to demolish a 17,000 square-foot mansion in Woodside, California that preservationists are calling a historical treasure. "The Jackling House" was designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style for Utah Copper Company's magnate Daniel Jackling, and was purchased by Jobs in 1984. The CEO hasn't occupied the home for over 10 years, but said he wants to tear down the mansion to build a new, smaller dwelling for his family. Steve Jobs currently resides in Palo Alto, and his attorney, Howard Ellman, said he will likely appeal the judge's decision. Preservationists cried out...

WOODSIDE, Calif. - Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer Inc., lost his bid to demolish a 17,000-square-foot Woodside mansion that preservationists call a historical treasure. A San Mateo County Superior Court judge has tentatively ruled that the town improperly granted Jobs a demolition permit last year for "The Jackling House," which was designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style for Utah Copper Co. magnate Daniel Jackling.Jobs bought the house in 1984 but hasn't lived there for a decade, saying he wants to tear down the home and build a new, smaller unit on the property that would be more appropriate...

This is the first and only time I will write in this paper about Merrimac Farm. When the proposal to acquire Merrimac Farm came to the Prince William Conservation Alliance, the board was entirely in favor of this action. Kim Hosen is the executive director of the Prince William Conservation Alliance and therefore must answer to the board. As the Conservation Alliance's mission statement makes clear, we work to improve water quality, air quality, and to "increase the local capacity to assume effective, sustainable stewardship of Prince William's valuable natural and cultural resources." Col. McDowell clearly agreed with these principles....

A 200-acre site that was part of William T. Sherman's Atlanta campaign is once again up for grabs. This time, the contenders are Henry County government and developer Maxie Price, Jr., and the guns have been replaced by lawyers. The county is looking to condemn part of the site of the Battle of Lovejoy's Station, on the south side of McDonough Road at the Clayton County border, in the name of preservation. Henry County Commissioner Elizabeth “BJ” Mathis, who represents the area, wants the site to be turned into a passive park dedicated to Civil War history, and an existing...

Saying he questions a sovereign Indian tribe’s role in a local government process, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger late on Friday vetoed the bill that would have made the Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians an official partner in managing Conaway Ranch, if Yolo County officials acquire it through eminent domain. The legislation, AB 1747 by Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis, would have made the tribe a member alongside Yolo County officials and others of the joint powers authority created for Conaway Ranch. The tribe has offered to loan the county money for the acquisition. The county and tribe say the veto does not...

2005 10 Most Endangered Historic Places List Unveiled The 2005 list of the 10 Most Endangered Historic Places was unveiled on April 21st at the newly restored Union Train Station in downtown Jackson. The 10 Most list is produced by the Mississippi Heritage Trust as a way to help raise awareness about the most historically significant threatened places in the state. Morgan Freeman and Bill Luckett were Honorary Chairs for the event and unveiled the new photographic exhibit of the 10 Most list while Walt Grayson announced the sites on the new list. After the unveiling Morgan Freeman and Bill...

BANGKOK, Thailand, September 6, 2005 (ENS) - The mountains of Asia, including the towering Himalayas, are facing accelerating threats from a rapid rise in roads, settlements, overgrazing and deforestation, experts are warning in a new report. New calculations by experts with the Chinese Academy of Sciences indicate that China’s highland glaciers are shrinking by an amount equivalent to all the water in the giant Yellow River each year.There is concern that the region’s water supplies, fed by glaciers and the monsoons and vital for around half the world’s population, may be harmed alongside the area’s abundant and rich wildlife. "Mountain...

MINSK -- Dmitry Slepovich spends weeks at a time traveling the Belarusian countryside, recording for posterity a Jewish musical tradition that genocide, emigration and old age have nearly extinguished. "The memory of Yiddish song is being swallowed up," bemoaned Slepovich, 27, who makes recordings of melodies sung in Yiddish, the traditional language of Eastern Europe's Jews. Slepovich, who plays the clarinet in a Jewish folk band and studies at the music academy in the Belarusian capital Minsk, has already taped dozens of hours of singing by more than 100 elderly singers since he began in 2001. His band, Minsker Kapelye...

The upcoming Supreme Court vacancy resulting from Justice Sandra O’Connor’s retirement, when considered in conjunction with the ongoing terror war, highlights the pivotal times in which Western Civilization finds itself. On the one hand, the slaughter of innocent civilians is the chosen weapon that Islamists ruthlessly employ to subjugate their enemies. Among liberals, it is by the iron-fisted use of judicial power that they intend to further their cause. Certainly, nobody is suggesting that liberals engage in terrorist bombings, beheadings, or the torture of their political enemies. Although, the left regularly makes just such accusations against the United States military,...

An international team of marine ecologists is urging the United States to take immediate action to save its fragile coral reefs. Their message is contained a strongly worded essay titled, "Are U.S. Coral Reefs on the Slippery Slope to Slime?" that appears in the March 18 edition of the journal Science. "We're frustrated with how slowly things are moving with coral reef conservation in the United States," said Fiorenza Micheli, an assistant professor of biological sciences at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station. "Tiny steps are being taken, but they really don't address the overall problem." Micheli and Stanford graduate student...

WASHINGTON -- America has no more than 20 years before the last of the unprotected but critical Civil War battlefields are "preserved or paved over," the president of the Civil War Preservation Trust said Thursday. Revealing a list of the 10 most-endangered battlefields at a news conference with country musician Darryl Worley, trust president O. James Lighthizer called the hallowed acreage "outdoor classrooms" under serious threat of development. Although the trust has had success in preserving more than 18,000 acres of critical battlefields, including parts of Shiloh in Tennessee, Iuka and Corinth in Mississippi and Antietam in Maryland, important tracts...

Preservation effort gets help from Cheney By Kevin Wingert news@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE - The second most powerful man in the country believes the Wyoming Historic Governors' Mansion is worth preserving. Wyoming's own Dick Cheney, the vice president of the United States, has donated money to the foundation overseeing the restoration of the historic landmark where 19 different gubernatorial families lived while in office. "To know that the vice president of our country is aware of your project and thinks enough of it that he wants to be part of it and wants to be part of...

RUSKIN - Mangrove marshes and wetlands rise gently to upland hammocks of live oak and pine in this wilderness area along the tidal flats of the Little Manatee River. Many Ruskin residents say the 167-acre tract is a natural wonder and should remain so. But without a lot of money and a little luck, the land is fated to be just another wild place leveled by bulldozers in Hillsborough County. Little Manatee Bay Associates, a Fort Myers-based development company, wants to rezone the property in the Bahia Beach area for up to 538 single- and multifamily homes and up to...

What's green on the inside and black on the outside and is neither a fruit nor a vegetable? We'll skip the hints and go straight to the answer - the State of California. In California, the green is preserved thanks to a combination of one of the most progressive environmental policies in the world and public pressure. But outside, in other countries, the environment is blackened by pollution of the oil that provides the fuel for the cars of California's residents. At the beginning of this month, IUCN, the World Conservation Union, an important nature protection organization, held its third...

Senator Barbara Boxer, a liberal Democrat from California, finds herself on the wrong side of a group of fundamentalists. A modest piece of legislation that Ms. Boxer sponsored is under attack in court by plaintiffs who demand that the government enforce their moral views. These are secular fundamentalists, not religious ones. At issue is the California Missions Preservation Act, which allots $10 million to restore and repair 21 historic churches in the Golden State. On December 2, two days after President Bush signed the act into law, Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed suit on behalf of...

At the Pound Ridge Cemetery, a stone wall runs along West Lane, its rocks stacked neatly atop one another, but one 25-foot section of the wall has crumbled away. Restoring that portion is the latest project of the Pound Ridge Stone Wall Rebuilding Club,... "The stone walls are an integral part of the community," said Josh Arnow, a 47-year-old investment manager who helped found the group. "The walls were originally built ... to separate people, and we are using the opportunity to rebuild walls as a way to bring people together, bring neighbors together." They fix the deteriorating structures the...

SAN DIEGO-A lawsuit filed in Washington D.C. Thursday is aimed at keeping California's 21 missions from receiving a $10 million repairs grant that President Bush approved.

GETTYSBURG, Pa. - Things change, even here. The orchard that used to sit beside the Trostle Barn, site of brutal fighting on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, is gone. The cherry, pear, and peach trees, which the fabled 12th New Hampshire used as cover during an artillery duel, have disappeared. The thicket that once sat on the Neinstedt Field, where Union infantry units established positions, grew into mature trees. The world outside Gettysburg has changed since the guns roared and the men cried here, and so too has the battlefield. It has, after all, been 141 years....