New Road Plan Will Spare Stones River Battlefield
By Deborah Fitts September '01 issue

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - A controversial road-improvement plan that could have severely impacted Stones River National Battlefield has been set aside by Murfreesboro officials in favor of a proposal to build a new road carrying traffic away from park property.

"This does help protect our current boundary," said Gib Backlund, chief of operations at the park.

Backlund noted, however, that the new proposal represented "a compromise," since the new road is planned to slice through battlefield south of the park boundary.

The new proposal was aired July 25 before the city's planning commission. Murfreesboro Traffic Director Dana Richardson said the plan would "wipe the slate clean and start again."

The city and the park have been wrestling for months over a plan to build a new interchange on I-24 at Manson Pike, a historic road that forms a mile of the southern boundary of the battlefield park. The new interchange and additional traffic would have led to widening the pike, and development was predicted to follow, severely impacting the park, officials said.

The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), a leading critic of the city, hailed the new proposal as "the ultimate win-win" for all parties.

"This is a magnificent step in the right direction," said Don Barger, NPCA's southeast regional director. "I'm delighted to see the city be willing to look at an alternative." The nonprofit group named Stones River one of its 10 most endangered national parks earlier this year.

Barger said he had not seen the new plan in detail. But he said creation of the new road south of the park would not only significantly reduce the impact of traffic on the existing battlefield, but might provide an opportunity for the park to acquire new battlefield land south of Manson Pike. Under the proposal, the pike would remain as a local road.

"We'd like to see if land could be added [between Manson Pike and the new road]," Barger said. Moving the battlefield boundary would require congressional approval, he acknowledged, but he pointed out that Congress is often happy to support an issue that pleases municipal officials, preservationists and local landowners alike.

The park's 1999 general management plan called for adding 700 acres to the park's boundary, including land south of Manson Pike. But with the fast pace of development in and around Murfreesboro, park officials have been skeptical that such an addition will ever occur.

The proposed highway interchange also prompted the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) to name Stones River one of its 10 most endangered battlefields this year. Spokesman Jim Campi said his organization was "cautiously optimistic" that the new proposal would remove the threat to the battlefield.

Campi said CWPT had kept "a little bit of a finger on the pulse of the community and we've seen more support for preserving what remains of the battlefield."

NPCA's Barger echoed Campi in saying that local residents were beginning to appreciate the battlefield and its tourism potential. "I think you're looking at Murfreesboro about to do something they'll be proud of for years to come," Barger said.