Gathland State Park

Infobox_protected_area | name = Gathland State Park, Maryland, USA
iucn_category = V

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caption = Gathland State Park
locator_x = 237
locator_y = 75
location = Washington County, Maryland, U.S. Frederick County, Maryland, U.S.
nearest_city =
lat_degrees = 39
lat_minutes = 23
lat_seconds = 55
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 77
long_minutes = 37
long_seconds = 31
long_direction = W
area = 140 acres (0.57 km²)
established =
visitation_num =
visitation_year =
governing_body = Maryland Department of Natural Resources

Gathland State Park is a small state park located near Burkittsville, Maryland in the United States. The park is composed of the remains of the estate of George Alfred Townsend (1841-1914), a correspondent during the American Civil War who wrote under the pen name "Gath". Several buildings remain on the estate, including the War Correspondents Memorial Arch, and the Appalachian trail passes through the grounds. cite web|url=http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/western/gathland.html|title=Gathland State Park|publisher=Maryland Department of Natural Resources|accessdate=January 8|accessyear=2007]

History

The area of the current park includes Crampton's Gap, which saw fighting during the Battle of South Mountain, one of the first battles of the Maryland Campaign during the American Civil War.cite web|url=http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/western/gathland.html|title=Gathland State Park|publisher=Maryland Department of Natural Resources|accessdate=January 8|accessyear=2007] In 1884, Townsend, now a successful journalist, purchased the land as a retreat and began work on what would become Gathland, his estate. His first project was Gapland Hall, an eleven room house built in 1885. This was followed that same year by Gapland Lodge, a stone servants' quarters. In 1890 a large building was erected to house a study, a library, and ten bedrooms.

Townsend's most famous and longest-lasting project was completed in 1896: The War Correspondents Memorial Arch.cite web|url=http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/gathlandhistory.html|title=Gathland State Park History|publisher=Maryland Department of Natural Resources|accessdate=January 8|accessyear=2007] It is claimed that the arch is the only monument in the world dedicated to journalists killed in combat. [cite web|url=http://www.whilbr.org/itemdetail.aspx?idEntry=2559|title=Prelude to great struggle at Antietam|publisher=Western Maryland History Online (whilbr.org)|accessdate=January 9|accessyear=2007] [cite web|url=http://www.sos.state.md.us/MMMC/WarCorrespondents.htm|publisher=Office of the Maryland Secretary of State|title=War Correspondents Memorial Arch, Crampton's Gap, Maryland|http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gathland_State_Park&action=editEditing Gathland State Park - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaaccessdate=January 9|accessyear=2007] (However, at least one other memorial monument specifically dedicated to journalists fallen in combat exists in the United States - the War Correspondents' Memorial marker in Arlington National Cemetery, Washington DC, dedicated in 1986. [" [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0761327452&id=sm08cVJu0yEC&pg=PA9&lpg=PA9&ots=sDJK7kSpN4&dq=war+correspondents+memorial+arlington&sig=i7EwnvLQtRLLtOUPteIrKj87j-Y Journalists At Risk: Reporting America's Wars] ", p9, George Sullivan, Twentieth Century Books, 2005. Also see http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/reporters.htm . In addition, there are at least two prominent US monuments more broadly commemorating journalists killed in combat or otherwise in the line of duty - the Overseas Press Club Memorial Press Center building in New York City which was dedicated in 1954 [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=10153] ; and the Freedom Forum Journalists Memorial in Freedom Park, Arlington, Virginia, dedicated in 1996 [http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itdhr/0297/ijde/memorial.htm] . The Journalists Memorial monument with a similar broad dedication and purportedly the first of its kind in Europe, was inaugurated by Reporters Without Borders in Bayeux, France in 2006 [http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=17943] ] )

The book "George Alfred Townsend" describes the monument:

In appearance the monument is quite odd. It is fifty feet high and forty feet broad. Above a Moorish arch sixteen feet high built of Hummelstown purple stone are super-imposed three Roman arches. These are flanked on one side with a square crenellated tower, producing a bizarre and picturesque effect. Niches in different places shelter the carving of two horses' heads, and symbolic terra cotta statuettes of Mercury, Electricity and Poetry. Tables under the horses' heads bear the suggestive words "Speed" and "Heed"; the heads are over the Roman arches. The three Roman arches are made of limestone from Creek Battlefield, Virginia, and each is nine feet high and six feet wide. These arches represent Description, Depiction and Photography.

The aforementioned tower contains a statue of Pan with the traditional pipes, and he is either half drawing or sheathing a Roman sword. Over a small turret on the opposite side of the tower is a gold vane of a pen bending a sword. At various places on the monument are quotations appropriate to the art of war correspondence. These are from a great variety of sources beginning with Old Testament verses. Perhaps the most striking feature of all are the tablets inscribed with the names of 157 correspondents and war artists who saw and described in narrative and picture almost all the events of the tour years of the war. [cite book|title=George Alfred Townsend: One of Delaware's outstanding writers|publisher=Hambleton Printing & Publishing Company|year=1946|author=Hindes, R.]

The plaque on the monument reads:
SPEED - HEED Sept. 14 - 62 - 96To the Army Correspondentsand Artists 1861-65

Whose toils cheered the fireside
Educated provinces of rustics into
a bright nation
of
readers
and gave incentive to narrate
distant wars and explore dark lands.

Erected by subscriptions 1896

O wondrous youth
Through this grand ruth
Runs my boy's life, its thread
The General's fame, the battle's name
The rolls of maimed and dead
I bear with my thrilled soul astir
And lonely thoughts and fears
And am but history's courier
To bind the conquering years
A battle's ray, through ages gray
To light the deeds sublime
And flash the lustre of my day
Down all the aisles of time
War Correspondent Ballad - 1865cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/archive/anti/monuments/WC_Arch.htm|title=Antietam Battlefield Monuments: War Correspondents Memorial Arch|publisher=National Park Service|accessdate=January 8|accessyear=2007]

Also in the park grounds is the remains of a mausoleum built for Townsend in 1895 but never used. Originally topped with the figure of a large bronze dog, only the chamber remains, with a marble lintel inscribed, "Good Night Gath".cite web|url=http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/western/gathland.html|title=Gathland State Park|publisher=Maryland Department of Natural Resources|accessdate=January 8|accessyear=2007] Although Townsend retained ownership of the property until his death in 1914, maintenance of the monument itself was entrusted to the National Park Service in 1904.cite web|url=http://www.civilwarhome.com/Gathland.htm|title=The Civil War Correspondents Memorial Arch|author=Weeks, R.|publisher=Civil War Home|accessdate=January 8|accessyear=2007]

Controversy

The monument's plaques lists 157 names which are sometimes assumed to be all war correspondents. From the late 1990s, local historian Timothy J. Reese, publicly criticized Townsend's biases in choosing the names listed. Reese asserted that only 135 can claim to be war correspondents or artists (and 33 of these are not identifiable in the historical record). Furthermore, many names are misstated and several important names are missing. Townsend's criticisms of the names have been publicly accepted by the Federal authorities in charge of the monument. "War correspondents arch contains monumental errors", Associated Press, April 2 1998, retrieved via Factiva; [http://hnn.us/articles/1711.html "The Truth About the War Memorial to Fallen Journalists"] , Timothy J. Reese, History News Network, George Mason University, posted October 6 2003, accessed January 10 2007] cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/archive/anti/monuments/WC_Arch.htm|title=Antietam Battlefield Monuments: War Correspondents Memorial Arch|publisher=National Park Service|accessdate=January 8|accessyear=2007]

Conservation

After Townsend's death, Gathland changed hands three times before being acquired by the Department of Forests and Parks and named a state park in 1949.cite web|url=http://www.civilwarhome.com/Gathland.htm|title=The Civil War Correspondents Memorial Arch|author=Weeks, R.|publisher=Civil War Home|accessdate=January 8|accessyear=2007] Gapland Hall was renovated in 1958 and now houses a visitors' center. Gapland Lodge was converted into the George Townsend Museum. Most of the other buildings are in various states of repair, some largely intact and some nothing but foundations, including the library building.cite web|url=http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/gathlandhistory.html|title=Gathland State Park History|publisher=Maryland Department of Natural Resources|accessdate=January 8|accessyear=2007]

Features

In addition to the monument, the historic buildings, and the museum, the park hosts Civil War reenactments and an interactive "living history" weekend with demonstrations of 19th century life.cite web|url=http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/western/gathland.html|title=Gathland State Park|publisher=Maryland Department of Natural Resources|accessdate=January 8|accessyear=2007]

References

External links

* [http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/western/gathland.html Gathland State Park]
* [http://www.unep-wcmc.org/wdpa/sitedetails.cfm?siteid=21890 Gathland State Park in World Database on Protected Areas]

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