Monday, August 11, 2003
Gov. Rod Blagojevich's Office
... is taking our efforts seriously, thanks in part to everyone's letters, resolutions and calls in support of the site.
So far we have received letters in support of the Plan of Action from U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, state Sen. John O. Jones, state Rep. Mike Bost, and verbal support from state Sen. Gary Forby, state Rep. Brandon Phelps and state Rep. John Bradley. Resolutions of support have come from the county boards of Gallatin, Saline and Williamson Counties as well as the city councils or village boards of Equality, Ridgway and Marion. Also, both the Gallatin County Tourism Board and the Gallatin County Historical Society have endorsed the plan. There may be a few more groups too that have endorsed it, but I haven't received copies yet.
If you want to let the Governor's office know that they should move on this plan, call them at (217) 872-6830, or write to them at Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Illinois State Capitol Room 207, Springfield IL 62706-1150. You may not receive a response, but copies of the letters are all going to the same place. You can find a sample resolution here to take to your local community or county board.
Remember, our basic Plan of Action is as follows:
Move the Old Slave House from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency to the Department of Natural Resources.
Combine the Old Slave House with the existing nearby Saline County Fish and Wildlife Area (Glen O. Jones Lake) and create a new state park called Eagle Mountain State Park.
Have DNR to lease the operations of the Old Slave House to a non-profit group who can develop it into an educational facility (i.e. museum) that would pay for its operations through an admission fee. (This is why we need to change agencies, IHPA doesn't have this authority).
So far, DNR isn't thrilled with the idea. They say it should stay with IHPA and that IHPA does have the authority to do what we want it to do. Whether IHPA has the authority is debatable. We went throuth six months of them studying the idea last year from November 2002 to April 2003. During that time they decided that didn't have the authority.
Meanwhile IHPA is sticking to a research report prepared for them by the Illinois History Survey at University of Illinois, which is manages to both praise Crenshaw for his pioneer spirit as well as condemn him for possibly being involved in kidnapping. At only 99 pages (double-space and 12-point font), it was surpassed by other research before it was even finished. It was supposed to be the "bible" for the future interpretation of the site, but lacks so many details it's worthless. For example, although it mentions the letters we've found written on behalf of various kidnapping victims, but it doesn't reprint them. The report also misses one of the important letters that names the victims Crenshaw sold in Tipton Co., Tennessee on one of his early slave-trading trips. Other small details include the "fact" that Crenshaw had 11 children (he had 10), yet only six are named (the first five are his, the sixth is his nephew not his son and the other five who died early are not named). The one area I can compliment the work is some of the general background information found concerning the salt industry in general. Details of the Gallatin Salines are not there, but are still buried in the records at the Illinois State Archives.
Even if IHPA did have the authority to lease the site a non-profit group, that would still leave the Saline County Fish and Wildlife Area unaffected. Area tourism boards have long identified this site as something that has needed to be upgraded into a state park. Combining it with the Old Slave House would provide the impetus. Also, long term, the combined site would be better suited to developing the whole heritage tourism potential that makes up the Saline Valley and its history of slavery and salt-making. (Saline Co. FWA includes the site of some of the old salt wells and is adjacent to the Half Moon Lick property.)
Originally we wanted a decision made and the site reopened by Emancipation Day 2003, which was last Friday. Now, we're focusing on getting the governor down to visit the site while he's in the area during the DuQuoin State Fair.
News Coverage
WJPF-AM covered the coming and going of Emancipation Day without a decision last Friday. We also had a good write-up in the Prairie Post from Albion. They had a picture of me and Janie Jackson from the day of the governor's visit at the Coal Research Facility south of Carterville.
Handbook of Old Gallatin County and Southeastern Illinois
I'm down to the last few dozen copies of my Gallatin County book. Order one now before they are all gone. Click on the picture of the book over in the left column for more information on the book's contents as well as ordering information.
... is taking our efforts seriously, thanks in part to everyone's letters, resolutions and calls in support of the site.
So far we have received letters in support of the Plan of Action from U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, state Sen. John O. Jones, state Rep. Mike Bost, and verbal support from state Sen. Gary Forby, state Rep. Brandon Phelps and state Rep. John Bradley. Resolutions of support have come from the county boards of Gallatin, Saline and Williamson Counties as well as the city councils or village boards of Equality, Ridgway and Marion. Also, both the Gallatin County Tourism Board and the Gallatin County Historical Society have endorsed the plan. There may be a few more groups too that have endorsed it, but I haven't received copies yet.
If you want to let the Governor's office know that they should move on this plan, call them at (217) 872-6830, or write to them at Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Illinois State Capitol Room 207, Springfield IL 62706-1150. You may not receive a response, but copies of the letters are all going to the same place. You can find a sample resolution here to take to your local community or county board.
Remember, our basic Plan of Action is as follows:
So far, DNR isn't thrilled with the idea. They say it should stay with IHPA and that IHPA does have the authority to do what we want it to do. Whether IHPA has the authority is debatable. We went throuth six months of them studying the idea last year from November 2002 to April 2003. During that time they decided that didn't have the authority.
Meanwhile IHPA is sticking to a research report prepared for them by the Illinois History Survey at University of Illinois, which is manages to both praise Crenshaw for his pioneer spirit as well as condemn him for possibly being involved in kidnapping. At only 99 pages (double-space and 12-point font), it was surpassed by other research before it was even finished. It was supposed to be the "bible" for the future interpretation of the site, but lacks so many details it's worthless. For example, although it mentions the letters we've found written on behalf of various kidnapping victims, but it doesn't reprint them. The report also misses one of the important letters that names the victims Crenshaw sold in Tipton Co., Tennessee on one of his early slave-trading trips. Other small details include the "fact" that Crenshaw had 11 children (he had 10), yet only six are named (the first five are his, the sixth is his nephew not his son and the other five who died early are not named). The one area I can compliment the work is some of the general background information found concerning the salt industry in general. Details of the Gallatin Salines are not there, but are still buried in the records at the Illinois State Archives.
Even if IHPA did have the authority to lease the site a non-profit group, that would still leave the Saline County Fish and Wildlife Area unaffected. Area tourism boards have long identified this site as something that has needed to be upgraded into a state park. Combining it with the Old Slave House would provide the impetus. Also, long term, the combined site would be better suited to developing the whole heritage tourism potential that makes up the Saline Valley and its history of slavery and salt-making. (Saline Co. FWA includes the site of some of the old salt wells and is adjacent to the Half Moon Lick property.)
Originally we wanted a decision made and the site reopened by Emancipation Day 2003, which was last Friday. Now, we're focusing on getting the governor down to visit the site while he's in the area during the DuQuoin State Fair.
News Coverage
WJPF-AM covered the coming and going of Emancipation Day without a decision last Friday. We also had a good write-up in the Prairie Post from Albion. They had a picture of me and Janie Jackson from the day of the governor's visit at the Coal Research Facility south of Carterville.
Handbook of Old Gallatin County and Southeastern Illinois
I'm down to the last few dozen copies of my Gallatin County book. Order one now before they are all gone. Click on the picture of the book over in the left column for more information on the book's contents as well as ordering information.