Historic Preservation

Camp Verde worries as state park is threatened with closure

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Jack Stewart (left) of Flagstaff and Jesse Rodrigues of Prescott, volunteers at Fort Verde State Historic Park (Photo: Andrea Wilson)

[Source: Andrea Wilson, Cronkite News Service] — Dressed in a handmade cavalry uniform, Jack Stewart gives a crisp salute to a veteran touring the adobe buildings at Fort Verde State Historic Park.  In the museum, Peggy Morris, outfitted in a prairie dress, explains to a visitor how a painting accurately depicts when Gen. George Crook commanded the fort in the late 1800s.  Other volunteers churn butter, cook hardtack and tend a garden to let visitors feel what life was like when the garrison protected settlers in the Verde Valley.  “The park and its artifacts are priceless,” said Morris, a retired widow who lives in neighboring Camp Verde. “Our hearts are really in this.”

“This place is cherished and loved,” said Stewart, who drives from Flagstaff for his volunteer duty.  “I shudder to think what would happen if it was abandoned.”

A roadside display topped by a cannon bills Camp Verde as “Home of Historic Fort Verde.”  But Fort Verde could soon close due to state budget cuts, a move that would sever community ties extending far beyond the park’s economic value.  Mary Taylor, chairwoman of the Camp Verde Chamber of Commerce, dropped by the park on a recent weekday to check in with the rangers.  She’s among the area residents with a family connection to Fort Verde: her great-grandfather was a doctor here, something that makes the prospect of the park closing especially painful.  “It’s hard because it’s personal,” Taylor said.

Mayor Tony Gioia said losing Fort Verde would take away the main draw for downtown Camp Verde, where many businesses are designed to complement the park’s historic flavor.  “The town functions on sales tax,” Gioia said.  “Now, in these economic times, tourism is especially vital.”  [Note: To read the full article, click here.]

Florence’s McFarland State Historic Park closes for “stabilization”

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[Source: Mark Cowling, Florence Reminder] — McFarland State Historic Park at Main and Ruggles streets closed indefinitely Friday afternoon. Although certain state park closures have been discussed in the current round of state budget cutting, this closing was called a “stabilization closure” for repair and reinforcement of the building’s weakening adobe, not a “budget closure.” Whatever the terminology, the news came as a blow to Florence.

The park is a key downtown attraction and its closing is a big loss to its neighbors, Florence Main Street Program Manager Jennifer Evans said. “They [state officials] have no idea of the impact on a community,” she said.  The three park staff members will be reassigned to other parks, although one will be back once a week to answer mail and pay bills.

In other state parks news, it was announced this week that the annual Civil War reenactment has been canceled next month at Picacho Peak State Park. [Note: To read the full article, click here.]

San Xavier could be hurt by decision that saves Arizona state parks

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Budget sweeps caused group restoring San Xavier Mission to lose a grant for east tower restoration. (Photo: Jonathan J. Cooper)

[Source: Jonathan J. Cooper, Cronkite News Service] — Late last year, crews removed scaffolding that covered the west tower of San Xavier Mission.  Preservation experts had spent years removing a concrete coating, replacing disintegrating brick and restoring the original lime mortar cover.  

Restoration work was supposed to move this year to the mission’s east tower, where the structure is disintegrating from the inside. But the scaffolding could stay on the ground and the tower could continue to slowly crumble now after lawmakers closing the state’s budget deficit swept millions from a fund that had committed $150,000 in lottery proceeds to the work here.  “The whole thing is frustrating because you want to believe the state lives up to its word,” said Vernon Lamplot, executive director of Patronato San Xavier, a nonprofit organization created to restore the 212-year-old mission south of Tucson.

An Arizona icon dubbed “The White Dove of the Desert,” San Xavier stands a vision of contrasts.  One tower is gleaming white, while the other has yellowing paint and mold.  The exterior is cracked, with stucco falling from the brick walls.  The restoration at San Xavier is one of about 120 projects, some already under way, that stand to lose grants from the Heritage Fund, which designates up to $20 million of state lottery revenue annually for parks, trails, historic preservation, and wildlife conservation.  Voters created the fund in 1990.

There is some hope for the grants.  A bill by Rep. Warde Nichols, R-Chandler, was amended to reallocate money to help prevent some state parks from closing and, among other things, replace the $4.9 million swept from the Heritage Fund.  A House committee endorsed the bill, but it would require a three-quarters vote from both chambers to pass.  The plan may prove unpopular because it would take the money from the Growing Smarter Fund voters created in 1998 to conserve land.

The dozens of Heritage Fund grants around Arizona are especially important now to stimulate the economy and encourage tourism, said Doris Pulsifer, grants director for Arizona State Parks, which administers much of the money.  “To develop these projects provides jobs because someone has to go out there and build them,” she said.  “And money is spent on the equipment and the materials.”

Dennis Hoffman, an economics professor at Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business, said the Heritage Fund grants probably do create some jobs and have a small economic benefit.  But he said it’s hard to argue that one state program is more beneficial than another as they all fight for a dwindling number of dollars.  “You’ve got a million ducks fighting over two croutons,” Hoffman said.  “We need more croutons.  There’s just not enough money going around to fund everything that most Arizonans would agree needs to be funded.”

Beth Woodin, president of the Arizona Heritage Alliance, an organization that lobbies the Legislature to continue supporting the Heritage Fund, said the sweep shows a lack of commitment to historic preservation, parks, and wildlife.  “It would seem that sane and reasonable and educated people would care about the Heritage Fund,” she said.  [Note: To read the full article, click here.]