Sunday, April 01, 2007
By JEFFREY MIZE Columbian staff writer
Museum rejects Jefferson Davis marker; now what?
Somehow, some way, the Jefferson Davis monument is back where it was just five years ago: locked inside a city storage unit.
The marker, which triggered debate and disagreement from Vancouver to Olympia in 2002, was removed from outside the Clark County Historical Museum last fall.
Museum officials didn't want the granite monument damaged during construction that added an elevator and remodeled the museum's bathrooms so they are disabled accessible.
The museum, owned by the city of Vancouver and governed by the Clark County Historical Society, doesn't want the monument back. The city, which found itself embroiled in a similar dispute five years ago, has declined to place it on any city property.
All of which leaves the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the group that dedicated the marker along Highway 99 near Covington House in June 1939 and assumed ownership of the monument when it was placed outside the museum in September 2002, looking for a home it hopes will be permanent.
"We feel it is our duty to preserve this particular history," said Brent Jacobs, Oregon division commander for the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Jacobs, who said his great-great-grandfather fought for the South in the Civil War, is taking the lead on the United Daughters of the Confederacy's behalf. He is looking for someone to donate a small piece of land along old Highway 99 or will try to piece together enough money to buy a parcel along the historic route, which stretched along Main Street through Vancouver and continued north through Clark County on what is today Northeast 10th Avenue and Timmen Road.
David Fenton, the museum's executive director in 2002, welcomed the marker five years ago. Susan Tissot, the current director, has a different perspective.
Tissot said the historical society's board of directors decided the monument conflicts with the architecture of the museum, built as the Carnegie Library almost a hundred years ago, as well as the museum's 2005 collections policy, which prohibits long-term loans.
"It was my professional opinion that it shouldn't come back because it had nothing to do with the 1909 Carnegie Library," she said.
"The whole thing is unfortunate," Tissot added. "It really should have never been put here in 2002."
Rob Freed, chairman of the Clark County Historic Preservation Commission, said when the commission approved the museum remodel, it stipulated that the marker must be returned within 60 days of the completion of construction.
"I feel the museum should honor its commitment from the previous museum administrator," Freed said.
"The city is basically overruling that by saying it's not coming back," Tissot replied. "What's happened is that it's kind of left our hands and gone into the city's lap."
1913 highway proposal
The marker's roots stretch almost as far back as the museum itself.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy conceived the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway in 1913 as a transcontinental highway through the South. The highway eventually was extended north along the West Coast, which led to the marker's dedication in 1939. Although the monument proclaims the route "Jefferson Davis Highway No. 99," the name never caught on in Washington state.
The marker sat undisturbed near Covington House for almost 60 years until former City Manager Vernon Stoner, at the urging of then-Councilman Jim Moeller, had it quietly removed and placed in storage in May 1998.
The monument was thrust into the news in 2002 when state Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, urged that the Vancouver marker and a similar one in Blaine be removed. Dunshee wasn't aware the Vancouver marker already had been stashed away, but news coverage opened a debate over the monument's future.
The monument has different meanings to different people: a recognition of Davis' role in commissioning wagon road and railroad surveys in the West before the Civil War; an enduring symbol of Southern pride; and a painful reminder of the stain of slavery and the bloodiest war in American history.
Freed sees a simpler meaning in the marker.
"It seems silly to me that people can't understand the monument signifies the road," he said. "Jefferson Davis, as a senator and congressmen from the state of Mississippi, was incredibly active in getting funding for roads and railroads throughout the West. He was really tied into the Manifest Destiny movement."
Members of the Clark County Historic Preservation Commission felt the monument should be returned to Covington House, Freed said. But Mayor Royce Pollard, in a March 23 letter to the United Daughters of the Confederacy, ruled out relocating the marker to any city property and said Vancouver would return the marker to the Civil War group.
"To give the UDC (United Daughters of the Confederacy) time to make arrangements for the relocation of the marker, the city is willing to continue to store it up for six months but will expect to hear from you regarding disposition by Sept. 30, 2007," Pollard wrote.
Heritage register
Complicating matters further is the monument's place on the Clark County Heritage Register. If the marker won't be returned to the museum, then the historic commission must have a hearing and might remove it from the register, Freed said.
Another historical marker, the Spirit of the Trail monument donated by Daughters of the Pioneers to commemorate the Oregon Trail, was removed from the museum's north lawn before construction, Tissot said. That marker has been given to the Washington Department of Transportation, which intends to incorporate it into the Columbia River Crossing project, she said.
Tissot said she doesn't know what should happen with the Jefferson Davis marker.
"It's a complicated issue because there are so many different takes on the monument," she said. "I don't know where it can go."
Jacobs, of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, also isn't sure where the marker will end up but knows it will remain where it has been for almost 68 years.
"It's definitely going to stay in Clark County," he said. "It's definitely going to stay somewhere on Highway 99, old Highway 99."
Jeffrey Mize can be reached at 360-759-8006 or jeff.mize@columbian.com.
The Debate
Should the Jefferson Davis monument be displayed outside the Clark County Historical Museum?
* Yes: The monument was placed there five years ago and then added to the Clark County Heritage Register. Although Davis is best known as president of the Confederacy, he had other historical roles before the Civil War. As secretary of war for President Franklin Pierce, he directed surveys for railroads and wagon roads in the Northwest.
* No: The monument clashes with the 1909 building's architecture and violates the museum's collection policy. Moreover, the city council gave ownership of the marker to the United Daughters of the Confederacy and said the group would be responsible for finding a new home if the museum someday no longer wanted it.
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