With one eye on the past and another on the future, John C. Scott has tried to rebuild the past to prepare for the future.
As superintendent of Pea Ridge National Military Park for the past 14 years, Scott has meticulously tried to recreate the 1862 view of this piece of land. Now, he's stepping aside for a younger generation to pick up the reins and move forward.
"The overall highlight is being able to put the texture back in the battlefield -- we've opened up historic roads, put shadow foundations on some of the historic farm sites and houses," Scott said. "It's being able to say that if the actual soldiers came back, they could retrace their steps.
"I think probably, one of my major highlights, we kind of had this campaign, by restoring and protecting these living landscapes, they in turn become the monument to the soldiers who fought and died here and, in some degree, to all of our veterans."
Scott, 64, has announced his retirement. He will leave the National Park Service July 1, but plans to stay in northwest Arkansas.
"We'll stay in Bentonville," Scott said, adding that he plans to stay busy with fishing, flyfishing, gardening, beekeeping and volunteering at various local places, including with Pea Ridge National Military Park Friends Foundation.
"Really, I got up one morning, looked in my closet and realized I had uniforms older than several of our employees," he grinned. "It made me think. I've got 39 years with the Park Service. It's time for some of us old-timers to step out of the way and let some of the younger leaders step up to have opportunities. I needed to make the decision and turn in the paper work and not have a lot of time to dwell on it."
"I want to retire in the summer because I've got so many things going on I won't sit around feeling sorry for myself. As you can imagine, there are real mixed emotions. I've been getting up putting on this uniform in 10 different parks since 1975. It's as much a lifestyle as an occupation."
So, after 39 years and 10 different national parks, he is hanging up his uniforms -- old and new.
Scott, 64, is a native of Springfield, Mo. He began his career in 1975 at Yellowstone National Park.
After working in Yellowstone, Scott went to Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada, then Ozark National Scenic Riverways at Van Buren, Mo.; Crater Lake National Park in Oregon; back to the Ozarks at the Buffalo National River; Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area in Washington; Apostle Islands, Wisconsin; then to Pea Ridge in 2000. Since being here, he has had temporary assignments as acting superintendent at Mount Rushmore and Fort Larned, Kan.
"Besides all that, two county fairs and one goat roping," Scott quipped.
Scott earned his bachelor's degree in science and a masters in freshwater biology. He and his wife, Diane, have been married since 1977. She works at Cooper Elementary School. They have three children -- David and his wife, Jamie, who have three children and live in Wisconsin, Matthew and his wife, Beth, who live in Pea Ridge, and daughter Emma and her husband, Roddyn Martinez, who live in Bentonville.
"It's the smallest park I've ever worked at as far as size and staff," Scott said of Pea Ridge, adding that it's more complicated to manage a smaller park because there are not as many layers of staff to support getting things done. "When we came here, I had no intention of staying as long as I had. My typical tour of duty was five years and then on to something different.
"Something happened -- something about the park, the story, northwest Arkansas -- that got into my system that kept me here," he mused.
"The story, the time in history, part of it was the significance of what that whole Civil War story was -- it's kind of what I call a philosophical wilderness. You study and learn from both the good and the bad decisions that people in our country have made and have an opportunity to change it."
Scott admits that as a student, he didn't particularly care about history.
"I'm like most people of my age, what was taught was dates. Maybe it wasn't until I started working for the Park Service that I started getting interested in the different eras.
"I figured out that what is important isn't so much the date, but the effect. It's like throwing a stone into a pond -- those ripples -- that's what made it all come together for me. The Battle of Pea Ridge is just one small window into the history of our country, but through that window, you can go into a room, then into another room...."
Scott said that as he and the staff began restoring the battlefield, they would uncover a clue that would lead to something else.
"It was basically like detective work ... we found a foundation and would research that. Then, we'd do the archeological work. It provides another piece of information."
When staff conducted controlled fires that burned off vegetation, they could see plow berms -- areas where plows threw up dirt into piles at the edges of fields. With that information staff could identify exactly where fields were located.
"Restoring the battlefield is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Even as much work as we've done, there are still pieces we don't know yet. It's like you put a piece of the puzzle in and it opens up several others."
"My passion for Pea Ridge is being able to restore a Civil War battlefield back to the best scientific knowledge of what it may have looked like at the time minus some of the crops and houses and all of that. To me, the administrative history of how it became a part of the National Park Service, is as fascinating. It's truly an Arkansas product, not only was the battle itself fought in Arkansas, if it wasn't for citizens of Arkansas and their long perseverance in getting (the park) established, it never would have happened."
"I've enjoyed working here. Arkansas has always been willing and easy to work with on doing what's best for the battlefield."
Throughout his tenure, Scott said he has developed great working relationships with other agencies and businesses. Some of those have helped grow his vision such as the National Parks America Tour with Walmart that helped inspire volunteers and rebuilt some of the infrastructure at the park -- miles and miles of fence. He said 70 percent of the fences were built by volunteers.
The residents of the area have provided Scott with a pleasant experience, he said.
"My experience here was unlike some of the other parks I've worked at. They realized it was for a bigger purpose or bigger cause. On a weekly, if not daily, basis, someone stops in who says they had an ancestor who fought here. It's interesting to me that quite a number of local residents are descendants of the civilians who were affected by the battle. That's kind of unique, too.
"What I think we can do here for people is we can put that tangible place -- I can actually say I'm within several feet of where my ancestor might have been," he said.
Trying to pick a highlight of his time here, Scott recalled the years of rebuilding fences, seeing park visitation increase, especially the number of school children, building the new museum and getting a coat worn by Gen. Samuel Curtis, one of the generals who fought on Pea Ridge's field of battle. "I don't want this to sound corny, but every day is a highlight. I learn something new."
Has all that work, all that vision of the past, achieved the appearance he wants for the future visitors to the park to see?
"It's close, but it's not there yet. The forests still need to be somewhat thinner. We're working right now on long-range plans, a cultural landscape plan and vegetation management plan to help the park and future managers to know what condition it needs to get to and how to keep it that way."
"It's been incredible seeing that a lot of the community who are visitors cared about this place as much as I did. Almost always, to a person, when someone would come here who hadn't been here before, would say 'I didn't realize there was that much there.' That's one of the surprises that for the Civil War battlefield that the National Park Service didn't want, it turned out to be the best preserved left in the country today -- it's the ugly duckling story.
"I think most battlefields in the Trans-Mississippi are another surprise. People don't realize how truly important this part of the country was to the Civil War. Most of the people think it happened back East. I don't think these Trans-Mississippi battlefields get as much recognition as they should. It kind of set the stage for things that happened later on."
While Scott lauds all the work, he also deflects credit.
I don't like to take credit for any of this stuff. The whole team routinely steps up and goes beyond -- it's not just me. I think all of the employees have a passion for it. Like anything, we need to refocus and remind ourselves to protect our resources and serve visitors. We're in an era now that tends to get caught up more in processes than in product."
Pea Ridge National Military Park is good for wildlife viewing, enjoying green space, historical education, exercise. Scott said people come there for many different reasons.
"Learn. Study this history. Learn from it so we don't make similar mistakes," Scott said, summarizing his passion for the purpose of the park. "Don't ever take it for granted. It takes the whole community to care about this park -- to care more about preserving a historic viewshed than convenience."
General News on 06/04/2014