CORINTH, Miss. (WTVA) – New walking trails? A horse trail? What about historical markers and cannons?
There’s time to make your voice heard on a plan that preserves history and offers new places to get outdoors in North Mississippi.
The community is asked to review and comment on preliminary plans regarding Shiloh National Military Park properties in Alcorn County, as well as two sites in Tennessee.
For Robinette Drumsthe plan is to mimic what is on the Shiloh battlefield with regimental markers and interpretive panels.
Property of Battery Robinett. Photo source: National Park Service.
In the preliminary plan, they are looking to add a walking trail, redo public and employee parking, and build a new maintenance building, which will allow them to remove the current building that is in historic view.
“The biggest thing we want to do is delineate Battery Robinett,” said Ranger Laura Lee McKellips. “We want to outline more like a smooth paver so people can stand on it and it doesn’t get in the way of our maintenance while they cut it and prepare it.”
He said they also want to make a paved path to the battery, to make it easier for people in wheelchairs to see the battery.
For him smuggling campMcKellips said the preliminary plan is to redesign the entrance doors to make them more visitor-friendly and redo the parking lot.
Contraband camp property. Photo source: National Park Service.
Inside the park there is already a walking path and statues, but they would also like to put up information panels to highlight the community that was there during the occupation of Corinth.
“It would have been 10 acres. And they had a whole community. It was the model camp, so they had a school, a church, houses framed and cut down, they actually have street grids, think of Chicago, where they have named streets and their houses have numbers,” McKellips said.
He said they would also like to widen the nature trail and thin out the trees to provide a better view of the Confederate earthworks found at the camp.
“They would have used them for shelter a little bit, but they turn their backs on them,” McKellips said.
Along the east side of Highway 45 is the Confederate siege works.
Property of Confederate siege works. Photo source: National Park Service.
Park guide Anthony Killion shared that this area preserves only a portion of what would have been seven miles of defenses that the Confederate Army built before and after the Battle of Shiloh.
Right now, he said public access to the park is through the private entrance on North Polk Street.
He says the plan is to install an automatic gate and build a parking spot closer to the siege works, allowing people to shorten the current mile-in and mile-out route if they wish.
Battery F It may be the smallest area in the plan and is in a neighborhood.
Property of Battery F. Photo source: National Park Service.
The park wants to put a parking lot on the southeast side of the lot, put up signage, create a path to the earthworks and put up artillery and interpretive paths like at Shiloh.
“The other thing would be, instead of routinely mowing the grass, restore it in this open area to native grasslands,” said Rachel Brady Baldwin of the National Park Service.
There are three Federal Lines properties.
His plan for May 17 Federal Line Adjacent to County Road 151 is parking, creating a walking trail to surviving federal earthworks, as well as work on a former road easement.
Property of Federal Lines 5/17. Photo source: National Park Service.
Ranger Tom Parson said there are no trails in the area at this time. He said there are remains of a trail near the old highway easement.
Due to their difficulties, they opted for access from the north.
Parson said that May 19 Federal Line you get more traffic.
Property of Federal Lines 5/19. Photo source: National Park Service.
He said there is already a walking trail leading about a half mile from Highway 2.
Parson said the earthworks there now are only a couple of feet high, as troops never built them for long-term use.
But this site is one of the best examples of the NPS’s goal of recreating what soldiers themselves would have seen.
“But there are some wonderful features we could show visitors,” he said. “It’s as clear as can be when you come out. You can see that they had a wall prepared for the two cannons, and an embrasure, the holes in the wall where they shot.”
The biggest change here, Parson said, is moving an existing parking lot and restoring it to a historic field.
Also on Highway 2 is the May 28 Federal lines.
Property Federal Line 5/28. Photo source: National Park Service.
There is no official parking lot, so the park is looking for one along Highway 2 or one along North Polk Street.
The Highway 2 option would allow visitors to walk to the surviving earthworks more easily, but at the cost of getting on and off a busy highway.
This places Polk Street as the longest walk, but possibly the safest.
There’s already a nature trail there, so the plan is to expand what’s there.
Another property with options for the public to choose from is Davis Bridge.
Davis Bridge Property. Photo source: National Park Service.
Options on this property range from a horse trail, something that would be unique among the nine properties reviewed.
The Hatchie River also runs through this property, meaning potential trails could give guests a great view of the waterway.
Lastly, there are fallen wood. This small property is the closest to the Shiloh Battlefield.
Property of fallen wood. Photo source: National Park Service.
The park seeks to add markers and parking, and restore the forests to what they once were.
You can let your comment be sent to the NPS online by following this link.
You can also find a newsletter that further details this project by following this link.
Several separate federal laws allow the NPS to purchase historically significant lands as they become available.
Shiloh National Military Park is authorized to own about 9,200 acres, but only about 6,800 acres are under its management.
The park intends to work on other lands under its management at a later time.
Keynote USA
For the Latest Local News, Follow Keynote USA Local on Twitter.