Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Battlefield Group Forming

The Arkansas Historic Preservation Program will hold an organizational meeting beginning at 2 p.m. Saturday, February 24, at the Clark County Courthouse in Arkadelphia to establish a southwest Arkansas Civil War battlefield preservation group, AHPP director Cathy Slater announced. The AHPP is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

The meeting will be the first step in establishing a southwest Arkansas "leg" of the AHPP's Arkansas Civil War Heritage Trail, a network of regional, grassroots, public-private partnerships that will identify, protect, interpret and promote Civil War-related properties around the state.

"This project enables local people to take positive, proactive steps toward preserving noteworthy properties from the Civil War era," Slater said. "The AHPP will provide technical assistance as needed to the regional `legs' of the Arkansas Civil War Heritage Trail."

The southwest Arkansas group will be the second to form in the state. A northwest Arkansas organization formed in late 1994 and is currently developing a tourism brochure on Civil War sites in the area.

The meeting is free and open to the public. In case of inclement weather, the meeting will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 9.

For more information, write Mark Christ, AHPP, 1500 Tower Building, 323 Center Street, Little Rock, AR 72201, call the agency at 324-9880 [TDD 501-324-9811], or send e-mail to mark@dah.state.ar.us.

The Arkansas Historic Preservation Program is the agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage responsible for the identification, evaluation, registration and preservation of the state's cultural resources. Other agencies in the department are the Arkansas Arts Council, the Delta Cultural Center in Helena, the Arkansas Commemorative Commission, the Arkansas Natural and Scenic Rivers Commission, the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission and the Arkansas Territorial Restoration.