Black Jack cleanup lacking bankroll

County to consider funding restoration of historic battlefield

The wooded ravines and streambeds were once used as cover by the pro- and anti-slavery forces that clashed in battle nearly 150 years ago.

In more recent times, some of those same grounds were used as dump sites for people getting rid of old tires, appliances, construction debris and much more.

“It’s just about anything you can think of. A lot of people have been dumping here,” Douglas County engineer Keith Browning said of the trash that has piled up over the years at the Black Jack Battlefield site about three miles east of Baldwin.

Most of the trash on the 40-acre site is a short distance southwest of where the main battle took place. Nevertheless, it still needs to be cleaned up, say members of the Black Jack Battlefield Trust, which bought the land in 2003.

“We knew it was here when we bought the land,” said Carol von Tersch, a trust member. “It’s not like we didn’t know it, but it’s such a big cleanup job.”

Carol Von Tersch walks by one of five dump sites on the land adjacent to the Black Jack Battlefield east of Baldwin. Von Tersch and others involved with the battlefield want to make the area a heritage and tourist site and have asked the county to help pay for the cleanup. Von Tersch visited the site Tuesday.

There are five dumping areas on the property. A year ago, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment declared those areas illegal dumping sites, making some state funds available to help with cleanup. The trust is asking the county for additional funds to assist with cleanup.

Cleanup could cost from $43,000 to $90,000, Browning said. The state would provide up to $10,000 for cleanup at each of the five sites if the county will cover the remainder of the cost.

Douglas County commissioners will discuss the cleanup at its 6:35 p.m. meeting today in the second level of the Douglas County Courthouse.

If the county doesn’t provide funds, the trust will have to find the money some other way, von Tersch said.

“We would have to do it, but it would slow us down,” she said.

The trust hopes to eventually improve the battlefield property and turn it into a tourist attraction. The trust and volunteers, including Kansas University students, have been working on weekends on general cleanup of the area. Other outbuildings and an 1880s house on the property need work.

Just last year, the property, known as the Robert Hall Pearson Farm, 163 E. 2000 Road, was placed on the Register of Historic Kansas Places.

The largest dump site appears to be in a dry area of Black Jack Creek. Much of that area is covered with abandoned tires.

Most of the dumping is thought to have taken place years ago, von Tersch said, when it was not uncommon for rural residents to use private grounds for dump sites.

No dumping is thought to have taken place since the trust has owned the land. The property has a locked gate at the entrance, and because of a deteriorating stone bridge and the undergrowth that must be passed over, it would be difficult for trash-laden vehicles to get to the sites.

If the county agrees to pay a share of the funding, von Tersch hopes to begin cleanup work soon. Because of the likelihood of encountering snakes and other varmints during warm-weather months, the cleanup would need to take place during winter, von Tersch said.

“I will be praying for a hard freeze and frozen ground,” she said.

Historic site

Black Jack Battlefield is considered by preservationists to be the birthplace of the Civil War. They say it is where, on June 2, 1856, the first armed battle between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces took place.
The free-staters, led by John Brown, surprised and defeated the pro-slavery group led by Henry Clay Pate that had camped at the battlefield site.
The Black Jack Battlefield Trust is made up of two organizations: Friends of the Black Jack Battlefield and the Lawrence Preservation Alliance. They are seeking a national historic site designation. They also want to restore the 1880s Robert Hall Pearson House on the property.