Thanks, Jon Kukla, for posting this information. The Civil War Preservation Trust has good reasons to be careful about how it lists Fort Monroe. This very morning, for example, CWPT has Gov. Kaine keynoting a press conference near Fredericksburg concerning battlefield preservation. Gov. Kaine, of course, is principally responsible, more than anybody in Virginia or the Pentagon, for the envisioned mediocritization of Fort Monroe. If those in favor of financially unnecessary overdevelopment do win out, and if Fort Monroe really does become McFort Monroe, it will be largely thanks to Governor Kaine's leadership, or lack of it. But Gov. Kaine in other contexts is genuinely a preservationist, not only of historic lands but of green space. So it's no surprise that the CWPT would phrase things very cautiously this year. A clearer picture of things can be seen, in my view, in this timeline: October 2006: Civil War Preservation Trust resolution calls for a sustainable national park at Fort Monroe encompassing all of Old Point Comfort (http://www.cfmnp.org/pdfs/1014040630.pdf) February 2007: Gov. Kaine's Hampton-dominated approach to planning post-Army Fort Monroe wins out in the General Assembly, ensuring that there will be a Fort Monroe reuse plan heavy on development that is financially unnecessary for Fort Monroe's self-sustenance, and light on establishing appropriately high-level stewardship for this national treasure. March 2007: CWPT lists Fort Monroe "at risk" for the first time, saying "This important Union base, the scene of the battle between the Monitor and Merrimac and a refuge for freed slaves, is slated for closure as a result of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure report. Local preservationists are determined to save it from development." (Note that this is much stronger language than the Civil War Preservation Trust has been willing to use in 2009.) March 2008: CWPT lists Fort Monroe "at risk" for the second time. May 2008: Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park (CFMNP.org) offers criticism of the Fort Monroe reuse plan (http://www.cfmnp.org/comments_on_the_reuse_plan.htm) while noting that it does contain some codification of the good things that everybody has agreed on all along. August 2008: Gov. Kaine officially approves Fort Monroe reuse plan. March 18, 2009: CWPT lists Fort Monroe "at risk" for the third straight year. March 24, 2009: Gov. Kaine serves as keynote speaker at a CWPT news conference to promote battlefield preservation in Virginia. ______________________________________ To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html