Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 3, 1990 TAG: 9003032563
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But even as Explore was doing so Friday, the president of the Archeological Society of Virginia was attacking Explore, saying its big-name advisory committees are simply fronts that don't provide any real advice.
Explore quickly disagreed, but the archaeological society's complaints echo charges other preservationists have made lately - that Explore is being slipshod as it plans the proposed $185 million living-history state park intended to create Virginia's role in pushing back the Western frontier.
The three people Explore added to its history and geography committee are:
John deKoven Bowen, the police chief in Charlottesville and a great-great-great-great-nephew of Jane Lewis, whose brother was the Lewis of Lewis & Clark expedition fame.
Clare White, a well-known Roanoke historian.
Gilbert E. Butler Jr., a Roanoke lawyer and developer who is a former president of the Roanoke Valley Historical Society.
But Joey Moldenhauer of Salem, president of the state archaeological society, was unimpressed. "Clare's got some credibility, but I haven't heard anything about the other two."
In fact, Moldenhauer sent Explore project director Bern Ewert a four-page letter Friday in which one of his major complaints was the make-up of Explore's advisory committees.
"Your creation of showcase committees which include the likes of Virginius Dabney [a prominent historian from Richmond] and [National Geographic Society president] Gilbert Grosvenor have only created a glittery facade with no professional depth underneath," Moldenhauer wrote.
Explore spokesman Joyce Waugh denied that, saying the advisory committees have been consulted regularly on a number of technical questions - especially history.
Much of Moldenhauer's letter repeated charges recently aired by members of Explore's own advisory committee on preservation and disputed by Explore - that Explore isn't properly researching the old buildings it's moved and that Explore's proposed re-created frontier village is historically inaccurate.
But Moldenhauer also aired a number of new charges - ones that Explore quickly disputed. Ewert noted that Moldenhauer had a copy of the letter hand-delivered to the newspaper but mailed one to Explore, which has yet to arrive. "It's a publicity stunt," Ewert said.
And Moldenhauer agreed. He said he sent copies of his letter to the newspaper and 13 other people - mostly state and federal officials - because "the only way change is going to come about is through public and private pressure."
Among the new complaints:
Explore has promised to do an archaeological survey of the 25-acre site for its Blue Ridge Town, but may have already destroyed key sites when it bulldozed new roads into the site, Moldenhauer wrote.
Explore has bulldozed a short road into the site, but Waugh said for the most part it's used existing logging roads into the site. "No major bulldozing has been done," she said.
"Your `master builder' and `guerilla preservationist' [Ren Heard] has been reluctant to seek outside professional opinions even when it was offered free," Moldenhauer wrote to Ewert.
Explore's Waugh says that's not so, saying it was Heard's idea to set up the project's preservation committee, which is dominated by experts in archeological and architecture.
She charged that Explore critics simply dislike Heard because he doesn't have a college degree and is considered a maverick. "I respect people who have learned something on their own," she said. "To poke at someone because they don't have a degree is just not fair."
Moldenhauer challenged Ewert to seek the professional guidance that the archaeological society and other preservationists would like to see. Depending on what Ewert does, Moldenhauer wrote, "You will either be known as the greatest con man to hit Roanoke or as one of the most influential persons to shape the history in this part of the state."
Ewert dismissed the charges. "Obviously they didn't care enough about it to bring it to me first. You have to question what their motives are."
Instead of moving old buildings, Explore should simply build new ones that look old, Moldenhauer wrote. Explore officials say some of the buildings in the Blue Ridge Town will be new, but insisted it was important to save old ones about to be destroyed, even if there wasn't enough time or money to research them as thoroughly as the experts would like.
"We had no desire to move any buildings," Ewert said, "but we were faced with buildings that were going to be destroyed. We could have sat on the sidelines and do nothing and just point fingers. We made the best of a bad situation."
by CNB