What threatens Fort Attaway

 

In the proposed project to widen Highway 27, the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) is planning an unnecessary move of 2,000 feet of railroad track 30 feet south.  With this move, the railroad tracks that were built onto the bottom terrace of Fort Attaway in 1890 will be moved further up onto the military face destroying some very significant fortification features, not to mention further digging into Desoto Hill, one of the Seven Hills of Rome.

 

Ever since its formation in early 2002, the Fort Attaway Preservation Society has gathered a mass of information and proof that makes a case against moving the 2, 000 feet of rail line 30 feet up the military face of the fort. In fact, for 50% of the cost, five years ago, Norfolk Southern offered to rebuild the rail line and bridge in place, instead of moving it further onto the fort, and the Georgia DOT declined. Today, the Georgia DOT has not given sufficient reasons to why they can’t build the rail line in place like Norfolk Southern would have done five years ago.

 

Problems with the Georgia DOT

 

The technical name for the highway project that threatens Fort Attaway is GDOT PROJECT STP-017-3 (45). The proposed highway project is managed by the Georgia DOT however it is 80% federally funded, and before the Georgia DOT can get the funds for this proposed project they are required to conduct an environmental review of the area in question and report to the Federal Highways Administration (FHWA) on how the project will affect any special properties (Fort Attaway being the special property in this situation). Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act requires the environmental review to be approved by the FWHA before any federal funds are released.

 

At the beginning of last year, the Fort Attaway Preservation Society requested a copy of the environmental review report that the Georgia DOT produced, which was called the Assessment of Effects Addendum #1 – Finding of Adverse Effect to Fort Attaway (Archaeological Site 9FL424).  We found many discrepancies in the DOT’s data and conclusions made in their Assessment of Effects report. The Georgia DOT is in the principal management position for the proposed highway widening project, which makes them a biased party. Their data and conclusions made in their Assessment of Effects report suited only the purposes of pushing the proposed highway project through. They were willing to compromise Fort Attaway’s integrity and spend $5 Million of tax payer dollars to needlessly move the rail line further onto the fort.

 

Because the Georgia DOT’s environmental review and Assessment of Effects report were so poorly conducted and would cause the destruction of significant fortification features on Fort Attaway, the Fort Attaway Preservation Society wrote a letter to the Federal Highways Administration requesting that the federal funding for the project be withheld until a better assessment of the project’s effects on Fort Attaway was conducted and alternatives to the current proposed highway project were considered. The Georgia DOT was sent back to the drawing board and was required to redo the environmental review.  December 2002, the Assessment of Effects Addendum #2 – Finding of Adverse Effects to Fort Attaway (Archaeological Site 9FL424) was released.  This second environmental review and Assessment of Effect report were again poorly conducted and suited only the purpose of pushing the proposed highway project through. The Georgia DOT did provide alternatives to the current proposed highway project, but they declared every alternative unfeasible, without providing any supporting evidence. One of these alternatives was building the rail line in place like Norfolk Southern planned to do five years ago. The Georgia DOT declared this alternative unfeasible because of lack of space. If you refer to the photo below you will see that there is enough room for new bridge buttresses and the extra lane that is needed to widen this section of Highway 27.

 
This photo shows there is enough room for the extra lane needed to widen this section of Highway 27, which would mean building the bridge in place instead of moving it and the rail line 30 ft. south (onto the fort.)

 The Fort Attaway Preservation Society sent in a 30 page rebuttal to the Assessment of Effects – Addendum #2 and is waiting for further update on the progress of the project.

 Another issue that was brought up is the fact that the Georgia DOT has, since the beginning, claimed that the railroad right-of-way along this strip from 2^nd Avenue to Highway 27 is 100 feet. Extensive deed work has been completed and what was found was that the railroad right-of-way is only 50 feet in the strip from 2^nd Avenue to Highway 27 (the rail line below Fort Attaway.) The Georgia DOT has already paid the Sumo Japanese Restaurant for their property and Douglas Duke for his property both of which did not know about the right-of-way discrepancy. Basically, they took the Georgia DOT’s word on the 100 ft., and were shorted being paid for 25 ft. depth times their frontage on the railroad.

 Advisory Council on Historic Preservation

 The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) is considered the federal watchdog over the Georgia DOT and the Federal Highways Administration. They have been very helpful in their advice and their action in protecting Fort Attaway. At the beginning of April they sent a letter to the Federal Highways Administration advising against proceeding with the proposed highway project without further consideration of the damages that it will cause to the fort. We are waiting on the response from the Federal Highways. A change of plans for this highway project is going to be needed so it will not have an adverse effect to Fort Attaway.

 Support for Fort Attaway 

We have been working to get public support and every word we have put out there the support for the fort steadily grows, however more is sorely needed! Last Sunday we had another article published in the Rome News Tribune, and we are expecting two more articles in the Southern Crier and The Historical News (both have a circulation of 15,000 – 20,000). Our written petition has over 1,000 signatures, but more are needed.

 Organizations such as the American Legion, the League of the South, the Georgia Civil War Commission, the Civil War Preservation Trust, and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources – Historic Preservation Division have all written letters stating their support for Fort Attaway.

 We have had over 100 visitors to the fort including Tanya Gossett, the Preservation Planner at the American Battlefield Protection Program out of Washington, DC, Barry Brown and Dan Childs of the Georgia Civil War Commission, Oliver Keller of the Georgia Battlefields Association, students from Coosa Valley Middle School, and several other visitors from towns surrounding Rome.

 At this point, over $10,000 of private funds has been spent on the effort to save Fort Attaway and the battle is far from over. Any monetary support would be greatly appreciated and any donations of $50 or more will receive a free Fort Attaway t-shirt. The Fort Attaway Preservation Society is a non-profit organization, so all donations are tax deductible and you will receive a receipt. We welcome any size of donation! If you are interested, please make checks or money orders to: Fort Attaway Preservation Society, Inc.  Remember to include your return mailing address and t-shirt size! You can send it to: Fort Attaway Preservation Society, 1202 Desoto Ave, Rome, GA 30165. We will update you with what the funds have been used for. 

Help save Fort Attaway and show your disapproval by contacting your public officials: Phil Gingrey (770) 429-1776, Buddy Childers (706) 291-8203, Sonny Perdue (770) 220-0210, Jennifer Giersch of the Federal Highways Administration (404) 562-3653 and reference Georgia DOT Project Number STP-017-3 (45), Archeological Site Number 9FL424. Over 500,000 soldiers died one at a time during the War of Northern Aggression, so please don’t think one at a time we can’t save what is left of a memorial to a defining moment in Rome, Georgia’s history.

Fort Attaway Preservation Society Website

 In the past eight months www.fortattaway.com has come online. On our website, you can find all the articles that have been written on the fight to save Fort Attaway as well as pictures of Fort Attaway’s earthwork fortifications that show that it far exceeds any remnants at the other forts here in Rome. Its ditches also compare to the ditches at Resaca, Georgia and Vicksburg, Mississippi. Also on the website is an online petition.
Help Save Fort Attaway and sign the online petition!

 There are earthwork pictures (on the website) that show ditches right next to the rail line, which are within the DOT proposed highway project boundaries, which would be the new railroad right-of-way. They placed a boundary around Fort Attaway that did not encompass these ditches. However, they conducted their reconnaissance for artifacts in these very ditches. A new, more accurate boundary was determined by Scott Butler, of Brockington and Associates, and Serena Bellew, of the Department of Natural Resources – Historic Preservation Division, last summer, which encompassed the ditches that reside along the railroad tracks. 

Save Fort Attaway!

 Fort Attaway is a precious and fragile historic resource that once lost can never be recovered. It holds the potential of yielding additional information and once properly protected will be a visual and physical testament to the action that Rome saw during the Civil War. With a water plant atop one of Rome’s forts (Jackson Hill) and a cemetery on the other (Myrtle Hill), Fort Attaway could be the third face card in a tourism full house that would contribute to the economy of Rome. The Georgia Department of Transportation will greatly reduce this significant historic resource for no more reason than their own convenience. We need more people to know about this situation to ignite a proper system of checks and balances that keeps state agencies from railroading the public.