[MSN] Preservationists say history being buried at historic Fort Pitt.

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Preservationists say history being buried at historic Fort Pitt
JENNIFER C. YATES
Associated Press

PITTSBURGH - In 1759, British forces successfully beat back French occupiers
of a triangular point of land where the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers
meet to form the Ohio river. The British built Fort Pitt and named the
adjoining area Pittsburgh.

Today, next to office buildings and sitting underneath modern highways, part
of Fort Pitt is surrounded by a chain-link fence. Inside, construction
equipment scoops up dirt and broken chunks of concrete in preparation to
cover a wall and moat that once surrounded the fort.

State officials say the renovation at Point State Park will create a flatter
space that can be better used for community events. But critics say history
is being buried because so little is known about what actually lies beneath
the land.

"Pittsburgh is throwing away its roots if it buries this," said Richard
Lang, a retired archaeologist who worked to excavate the wall in the 1960s
and is part of the grass-roots Fort Pitt Preservation Society.

The brick wall, known as the Music bastion, and a blockhouse built in the
1700s are the most prominent remnants of the fort that once stood guard on
this patch of land now known to locals as simply "the Point."

As French and British forces fought to seize control of North America, the
French established Fort Duquesne on the site in 1753. Five years later, the
British took control. Fort Pitt was built near the ruins of Fort Duquesne.

"This is a one-of-a-kind place. We wouldn't be the country we are today had
this not happened here," Lang said.

Fort Pitt was dismantled in the late 1700s and underwent many
transformations and alterations in the land in the years that followed, said
Edward K. Muller, a University of Pittsburgh history professor. In the 19th
century, the park was home to industrial buildings, railroad tracks, an
exposition center and housing.

At the turn of the 20th century, Pittsburgh was one of the top 10 largest
cities in the country - and one of the wealthiest - and talk turned to
improving the Point, Muller said. Efforts to make it a national park failed
in the 1930s after it was determined there was not enough historic integrity
left there, Muller said.

In the 1960s, the area was turned into Point State Park and became the
epicenter of the city's annual July 4th celebration. Like the arch is to St.
Louis, the Point became a Pittsburgh icon, one of the city's most
recognizable features.

Most recently, the flood-prone park fell into disrepair, often littered with
trash and graffiti or a refuge to the homeless.

"It is a very significant landmark in Pittsburgh, with historic significance
as well, and we undertook the process because it was clear that it needed a
face lift," said Christine Novak, a spokeswoman for the state Department of
Conservation and Natural Resources.

The plan for the Point includes new pathways for cycling and skating,
wireless Internet access, a new seating area near the park's fountain, and
water landings and marine tie-ups on the shoreline.

Late last year, work began to fill in the 8-foot-tall moat and Music bastion
that once surrounded the fort. The wall, which state officials said contains
only a few original bricks, will be covered with layers of a special fabric,
a mix of sand and gravel and other materials. Granite slabs will be placed
on the surface to mark the outline of the wall.

"It is our understanding from (the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum
Commission) that while it may have a few pieces of the original wall, it's
at a higher level than the original wall and it is a reconstruction," Novak
said.

Planning for the park renovation began several years ago, with help from
groups including the River Life Task Force and the Allegheny Conference on
Community Development. City and local leaders have backed the plan; the park
is owned by the state but maintained by the city.

Muller said there are many examples of historically significant things being
buried and later unearthed. For example, in the 1980s, archaeologists
working on a highway project in Pittsburgh unearthed perfectly preserved
wooden doors that had been buried when a canal was filled in to make room
for the railroads more than 100 years earlier, he said.

Michael Nixon, a lawyer and volunteer with the Fort Pitt Preservation
Society, said the group has no immediate plans for legal action to try to
stop the work. The group recently proposed their vision for the 36-acre
park, which includes covering just a part of the wall and placing a
drawbridge over the moat.

"This is not our last hurrah," said Nixon, a direct descendant of a soldier
who fought at the site in the 1700s. "It's never too late to do the right
thing."

Muller, the historian, said if the Point's history is any lesson, it's
important to preserve what's there because future planners might someday
have a different vision for the land.

"I just think this is only its latest life," he said.

ON THE NET

http://www.savefortpitt.org

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us