Virginia Dyer’s favorite family trip as a child is a tie between Glacier, Montana, and Appomattox Court House in Virginia.
Appomattox Court House is the sight of the final engagement of the Confederate States Army before it surrendered to the Union Army under Lt. Gen.
Ulysses S. Grant, according to Wikipedia, and the location of the signing of the treaty that ended the Civil War April 9, 1865.
“My parents took us on twoweek vacations every summer to national parks and Civil War historical sites,” she said.
“It’s a connection via actual people to the past,” she said, of the interpretations and volunteersin Civil War clothing she saw there as a child.
“It was only five years, but there is so much that came out of the Civil War.
It impacted every part of American society,” she said.
Dyer is the new park ranger at Pea Ridge National Military Park, hired on full time after graduating May 14 from Missouri State University with a master’s degree in History.
She is from Owensville, Mo., and received her undergraduate degree from Evangel University in Springfield, while working summers at Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield in Republic, Mo.
She is the first ranger to be hired to fill a new position in 10 years, said park ranger Troy Banzhaf.
Every few years, the park gets the opportunity for an Operations Formula Systems increase, allowing them a little extra money in their budget. The OFS system contains all unfunded budgetary requirements for ongoing or operational needs for the next five fiscal years, according to the National Park Service. This year, it was used to pick up a new ranger.
Dyer is particularly interested in the social side of the Civil War - women’s involvement and slavery, the civilian side, cultural and denominational splits.
“This park tells the story of who fought and what happened (during the war),which is very important.
But there are 400-something documented cases of women who fought as soldiers. All the men had to face so much, but on the homefront the women were taking care of the farms and caring for plantations, dealing with the government for the first time in a lot of cases.
“It’s all about opinion, some argue women didn’t impact the war. But one in three families were significantly impacted by the Civil War,” she said.
Dyer said Pea Ridge Military Park offers a multi-ethnic side of the war that other historical sites do not.
“It’s the only significant battle that Native Americans fought in. Hispanics fought here, and Germans,” she said.
“She’s going to be working on a new website for us, and a cell phone tour.
She’ll be doing a monthly Civil War Sesquicentennial display,” Banzhaf said.
“We were able to hire her as a student ... so she has three years of experience already with the Park Service. The taxpayers have already paid for her to be trained, and that money hasn’t been wasted,” he said.
In 1916, the National Park Service was developed through the U.S. Department of Interior. Prior to that, the U.S. Army operated and preserved Civil War battlefields.
News, Pages 1 on 05/25/2011