Fallen Timbers

That will teach me to leave my National Parks Passport at home. I should know better to ALWAYS bring it with me since there’s no telling what I’m going to encounter.

Case in point Fallen Timbers. Who knew this existed in Maumee? It’s not even listed on the National Park Service’s website. But sure enough, there we were wandering around when we crossed paths with the Fallen Timbers Monument and Battlefield. The only saving grace is that the cancellation station for this site is at the Maumee Library. Because it was a holiday weekend, I wouldn’t have been able to obtain the stamp anyway. Next time! But for all you history buffs, here are the details of the site.

The Battle of Fallen Timbers took place amid trees toppled by a tornado just north of the Maumee River in the present-day city of Maumee. The battlefield was the site of a famous and important event in American history as one of four major engagements during the Indian Wars between 1790 and 1795. It is regarded as one of the most significant US military actions in the period between the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. Yet the exact location where the 1794 battle took place wasn’t discovered until more than 200 years later.

For more than 70 years a monument to the battle has stood on a bluff overlooking the Maumee River. Many speculated that the battle took place there and on the floodplain below. But anthropologist G. Michael Pratt theorized it actually occurred a quarter-mile away. An archeological survey conducted in a farm field in 1995 unearthed a significant number of artifacts dating to the 1700s and subsequent surveys revealed additional evidence that intense fighting took place there as well. At the same time a group of citizens called the Fallen Timbers Battlefield Preservation Commission organized to advocate for the battlefield’s protection. In 2000, Metroparks of the Toledo Area reached an agreement to buy a 187-acre site considered to be a key portion of the battlefield. The same year, Congress established the Fallen Timbers Battlefield and Fort Miamis National Historic Site, and designated it as a unit of the National Park Service.

The purposes of Fallen Timbers Battlefield and Fort Miamis National Historic Site is to recognize, preserve and interpret US military history and Native American culture between 1794 and 1813, and to create links between three separate historic places:

* The 185-acre Fallen Timbers Battlefield site, where General Anthony Wayne fought the native Indian confederacy led by Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, Little Turtle and Blue Jacket. The 1794 conflict led to settlement of the Northwest Territory and statehood for Ohio.

* Fort Miamis, which was occupied by General Wayne’s legion from 1796 to 1798 and later was the site of a battle in the War of 1812.

* The Fallen Timbers Monument, which memorializes the battle and the combatants: General Wayne, the American Indians and the Kentucky Militia.

A bicycle/pedestrian bridge over US 24 now connects the monument with the battlefield, but it is not yet open to the public. It will be interesting to see how all of this develops. Who knows … I may eventually get three stamps for my passport out of it!