Communications Tower Proposed On South Mountain Battlefield
By Deborah Fitts
May 2004 SOUTH MOUNTAIN, Md

The State of Maryland has spent millions of dollars to preserve land at South Mountain where two armies clashed on Sept. 14, 1862. But preservationists say the historic landscape will be compromised if Maryland succeeds in its plan to build a 180-foot communications tower "in the middle of the battlefield."

The Telecommunications Division of Maryland's Department of Budget and Management is proposing the three-legged lattice tower on Lamb's Knoll, at 1,758 feet the second-highest point on South Mountain. The site is two miles south of Fox's Gap and in the heart of Maryland's first historical park, South Mountain Battlefield, created in 2000.

Paul Rosa, director of the Harpers Ferry Conservancy, has led the fight against the tower. The nonprofit land trust is leading a coalition that includes the Civil War Preservation Trust, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Scenic America.

"Anything above 80 feet is unacceptable," said Rosa of the tower. "Above that is already fully leased to the citizens for scenery and history."

Rosa contends that there are less obtrusive options, including an 80-foot tower camouflaged as a tree, or a series of four or five smaller towers that would be hidden in the tree canopy.

But Ed Ryan, Maryland's director of wireless communications, was dismissive.

"Mr. Rosa is clueless when it comes to engineering," Ryan said. "We've been going through this for two years, and after looking at all the options, this is the best."

Maryland is seeking the tower as part of a new, $100 million microwave network that will serve Maryland's emergency-services systems. It comprises 220 towers across the state.

On Lamb's Knoll, the new tower would replace a decaying 90-foot forest-fire lookout tower dating from 1934 that currently carries a host of antennas. They serve the Maryland State Police and Emergency Medical Services, the National Park Service (including Antietam National Battlefield), the Internal Revenue Service, and several Washington County agencies.

One argument for the tower used by Maryland authorities is that Lamb's Knoll is already compromised. Besides the fire tower, there are two Federal Aviation Administration structures. An 80-foot concrete silo, 25 feet in diameter, is a relic of the Cold War and carries several television antennas and weather instruments. The FAA also has a 125-foot directional antenna, resembling a giant rooftop antenna. And there is a 108-foot commercial microwave tower

Rosa noted that at the urging of the coalition, in 2002 the FAA reduced the height of the directional antenna to 60 feet, nearly flush with the treeline. And he said the microwave tower is expected to come down in 2005, to be replaced with a fiber-optic network.

"So our position is that with the exception of the state, South Mountain is moving in history's direction," Rosa said. "The state's consistent siren song is that people will die if we don't get our way."

He said the proposed antenna will be "in the middle of the battlefield" and will be highly visible. The tower will also stand within 150 feet of the Appalachian Trail, he noted.

"If everybody is operating today successfully on the 90-foot lookout tower, why do they need 180 feet? Rosa asked. "What's lacking is political will on the part of the state."

Telecommunications director Ryan said approval of the tower is awaiting conclusion of a review by the Federal Communications Commission, which received an environmental assessment at the end of January. The only bone of contention, he noted, is the impact of the tower on the historic landscape.

"Our telecommunications systems have holes in them, and we need to do something to improve them," Ryan said. "This is the best option with the least amount of impact."

Consulting historian David S. Rotenstein, who was hired by a coalition of preservation groups to review the state's environmental assessment, has put his report and related documents at www.dsrotenstein.com/lambsknoll.

A summary on his site says his report finds that the state "neglected to identify properties eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and failed to identify historic properties at its proposed facility site" and that the state's "assessment of effects to historic properties is fatally flawed and is not supported by the documentation... ."