Now for some good news!
From Georgia Public Broadcasting:
“The Kettle Creek Battlefield in Wilkes County is now an “affiliated area” of the National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Rep Jody Hice, R-Greensboro, announced Monday [January 25, 2021]. Then-Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt approved the designation earlier this month, marking a commitment by the federal government to preserve the Revolutionary War site for future generations.“This is an enormous win for all of us who have spent years working toward this goal,” Hice said in a statement. “Kettle Creek Battlefield [will] finally receive the recognition it deserves.”The battle at Kettle Creek on Feb. 14, 1779, was the first major victory for Patriot forces in Georgia, showing conclusively that the British could never pacify the South’s frontier backcountry. Efforts to have Kettle Creek Battlefield designated a national park date back nearly a century. U.S. Sen. Richard Russell of Georgia was among those who pushed for acquisition of the property. Hice introduced legislation directing the Interior Department to conduct a study of the battlefield. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill last month.Affiliated areas are a designation within the National Park Service referring to sites that may be recognized by Congress and may receive federal assistance but typically are owned and administered primarily by nonfederal entities.Groups that worked to make the designation a reality for the Kettle Creek Battlefield include the Kettle Creek Battlefield Association, the Georgia Battlefields Association and Georgia Piedmont Land Trust and the Watson-Brown Foundation. Wilkes County also was involved.Supporters hosted NPS Acting Director Dan Smith on a tour of the site back in May 2019.”
NOT A MENTION OF THE LAMAR INSTITUTE IN ALL THIS!
The LAMAR Institute considers this recognition by the U.S. Congress and the National Park Service to be a major step forward into the past. Our organization’s involvement in research at Kettle Creek battlefield dates back to 2007 (or maybe 2006, as that was several hard drive crashes ago). Thanks go out to our 2008 Kettle Creek Preserve America (NPS grant funded) survey team! Daniel E. Battle, Joel Jones, Mark Pollard, Gregory Beavers, Rita Elliott, Mike Benton, Jamie Lynn Folse, Daphne Owens Battle, and volunteers Tom Gresham, Judy Kendrix, Gail Boynton, Francis Hammett, Jay Gordon, Amy Ladewig, and others who encouraged us or added to our discoveries (including Tracy Sargent, David Noble, Shawn Patch, Patrick Severts, David Jenkins, Charles Baxley, Stephen Rausch, David Sherman, Biddy Hammett, Dan Battle’s Mom & Robert S. Davis, Jr.).
Read all about it in:
LAMAR Institute Publication Series, Report Number 131
http://thelamarinstitute.org/images/PDFs/publication_131.pdf
AND
The subsequent Carr’s Fort battlefield ABPP (NPS grant funded) Survey team, P. T. Ashlock, Dawn Chapman Ashlock, Michael Jordan, and others.
http://thelamarinstitute.org/images/PDFs/publication_189.pdf
Mister Soapstone 