Mark Twain National Forest
Missouri
Mill at the Falling Springs Homestead on the Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri.
Credit: National Trust for Historic Preservation
After learning that the Mark Twain National Forest, encompassing 1.5 million acres in southern Missouri, planned to dispose of up to 150 structures, including farmsteads, fire towers, and ranger stations, due in part to a backlog of deferred maintenance and a small annual facilities budget, the National Trust engaged quickly and aggressively to ensure alternatives were fully considered prior to the removal of properties from federal ownership. Both the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the Missouri State Historic Preservation Office participated actively in Section 106 consultation with the National Trust on the development of a Programmatic Agreement for the realignment of historic buildings on the Mark Twain. As a result of consultation, the Forest Service agreed to lower the number of structures slated for realignment to around seventy, comprising twenty-one National Register eligible or listed complexes.
The Rudolph Fuchs House at Markham Springs on the Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri.
Credit: National Trust for Historic Preservation
Consultation also led to a commitment by the Forest Service to match National Trust grant funds to pay for a feasibility study investigating alternative uses for five historic properties. However, the National Trust remains concerned that the Facilities Master Plan (FMP) issued by the Forest Service in October 2005 does not fully consider the historic or cultural value of properties on the forest as required by Section 110 of the National Historic Preservation Act. In fact, the Forest Service omitted historic significance from the criteria that it used to evaluate administrative facilities in the FMP. To reflect its strong concern about the situation, the National Trust listed the historic structures on the Mark Twain National Forest as one of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in 2007.
Resources
Mark Twain National Forest Historic Buildings Alternative Use Study (Apr. 14, 2008)
The U.S. Forest Service Enterprise Unit's alternative use analysis of five historic properties on the Mark Twain National Forest, which received funding from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Check out what we did at Mark Twain National Forest Volunteer days!
The National Trust joined Forest Service staff, Passport in Time and Mennonite Church volunteers and staff from the Missouri Alliance for Preservation, at the Sinking Creek Lookout complex in Missouri’s Mark Twain National Forest for a week of hands-on preservation work.
