Local officials weigh in on potential sites for Confederate marker
Published 12:15 am Friday, March 12, 2021
The relocation of a roadside marker that notes Bowling Green’s historical significance as the one-time state capital of the Confederacy in Kentucky during the Civil War remains largely unresolved months after the sign was removed from Western Kentucky University’s campus.
Since August, when it was removed from WKU’s campus at the direction of the Kentucky Historical Society – in answer to a formal request from WKU President Timothy Caboni asking for its removal – Marker 67 remains in storage at the Kentucky Department of Transportation at its District 3 facility in Bowling Green.
KHS Executive Director Scott Alvey said it’s likely to remain there until its reinstallation at a new location has enough community buy-in.
Alvey previously told the Daily News the process would begin with “somebody willing to sponsor the marker in the community.”
Reached Thursday afternoon by email, Alvey wrote that “Let me correct that it is not simply someone coming forward to take the marker. We are not giving it away. The Kentucky Historical Society has not received any communication from an organization or individual willing to initiate the process of organizing community support for the marker.”
Alvey said he hasn’t received any inquiries on the marker, apart from the Daily News.
Once a community stakeholder comes forward, a review process can begin, but the KHS will not relocate a roadside marker without any stakeholder support, Alvey previously said.
According to Bowling Green Mayor Todd Alcott, the KHS has not approached the city government about hosting the marker. To Alcott, the ball is essentially in the historical society’s court.
“I would never want to erase our history,” Alcott said, speaking personally.
He said it’s essential to understand and remember history – good, bad or ugly.
“We don’t want to repeat that history,” Alcott said.
That said, Alcott said the decision isn’t his alone and that it would need to be weighed by the Bowling Green City Commission, but only if the request was made of them.
Up to this point, there’s never been an ask, Alcott said.
Alvey said the KHS had considered the Warren County Courthouse as a possible location but had not floated the idea to local officials.
Asked about whether he supports displaying Marker 67 at the courthouse, Warren County Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon responded with a text message to the Daily News that “ … I believe the county courthouse is the appropriate place for historical markers.”
Buchanon rattled off a lengthy list of similar displays currently located at the courthouse. There are monuments or markers for veterans of the American Revolutionary War, the Spanish-American War and one commemorating both Union and Confederate officers, along with various other historical displays.
“The county courthouse is a historical building itself, built right after the Civil War, finished in 1869, and it’s listed on the national historical register,” Buchanon wrote in the text. “History is important, sometimes history inspires us and gives us motivation and determination to do even better, and then sometimes our history disturbs or embarrasses us, then hopefully we learn from the mistakes and sins of our forefathers, we gain perspective and enlightenment. … Either way, our history and the history of our predecessors are important to remember.”
Buchanon said no one has approached the county about the marker. When asked if he would be willing to ask the KHS for the marker to be placed at the courthouse, Buchanon did not respond directly but noted that a marker there already relates that Bowling Green was the Confederate capital.
It remains unclear what would become of the marker if no one comes forward to offer it a new home.
At one point, according to email records obtained by the Daily News via an Open Records Act request, KHS staffers discussed the idea of possibly relocating the marker to a historic, Federal-style home on Park Street.
At the time, KHS researchers were endeavoring to unearth where the provisional government of the Confederacy met in Bowling Green when its forces briefly occupied the town during the Civil War. They suspected the Park Street address might be that site.
However, Alvey previously told the Daily News, the KHS has since abandoned the idea.
The KHS conducted preliminary research on the home but never approached its owners about relocating the marker there, Alvey said. He cited right-of-way issues and said the location would be unsuitable because it only briefly acted as the Confederacy’s effective Kentucky Capitol during the war.
Asked about his wishes on the matter, homeowner Dr. Gordon Newell said he had not been contacted by the KHS about the marker, and he said of Marker 67: “We do not want it in front of our house.”
– Follow education reporter Aaron Mudd on Twitter @NewsByAaron or visit bgdaily news.com.