Storage wars

Prairie Grove artifacts are sticking around

In case you didn’t get the news, the battle of Prairie Grove is over. Old news? Perhaps you think we’re talking about the first battle, which as of last Tuesday was 159 years ago during the Civil War and left an estimated 2,700 soldiers killed, wounded or missing from the Confederate and Union armies.

Naw, we’re talking about the battle in the latter half of 2021. The one convincingly won by the residents in and around Prairie Grove without any shedding of blood. In fact, it appears the only thing shed was maybe a little bit of dust and some mold.

Early in the summer, word came with the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism planned to take stored artifacts from Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park to a collections management facility at Jacksonport State Park in Newport. Apparently, the rank-and-file state employees at the park were not part of the decision-making process.

Those artifacts were everything from weapons to artillery shells, uniforms, saddles and furniture. Historic preservationists said many items have been donated over the years by local families.

It sounded at the time tantamount to the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro storing all of its rentable tools up at Lake Fort Smith. It made about as much sense.

It wasn’t really that anyone was being mean-spirited about it. The storage area at Prairie Grove simply wasn’t designed to preserve artifacts effectively. The move to Jacksonport was intended to take better care of them. Can’t fault anyone for caring.

In late June, the secretary of the state agency visited Prairie Grove in recognition of the concerns in the community. She probably recognized those concerns even more when 65 people showed up to have their say.

“We are public servants and we appreciate and value the passion and ownership that you all have for this place,” Stacy Hurst told those gathered. “So I want you to know that. I am a public servant. I take that very seriously.”

And she did. A little more than a week ago, Hurst returned to Prairie Grove to explain that mold problems had been remediated and plans are moving forward to keep artifacts safely in Prairie Grove at the state park.

The original one- day Battle of Prairie Grove ended more or less in a draw. This most recent skirmish ended, more or less, the same way, except it was a win-win for the state and those people in and around Prairie Grove who put themselves on the front lines.