Superintendent Taking Memories With Him
Smith Managed Battlefield Park for 28 years
Last updated Saturday, October 29, 2005 10:10 PM CDT in News
By Heidi Stambuck
The Morning News
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PRAIRIE GROVE -- Ed Smith welcomed sons of Civil War veterans to the Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park and helped kindergartners understand how different the world was in the 1860s.
He remembers when a woman proud of her Southern roots discovered to her dismay during a visit to the park that her ancestor belonged to a Union unit.
He meets adults who tell him they were the child chosen to try on a Civil War uniform when they visited the park in elementary school. Five thousand schoolchildren visit the park each year.
Smith, 51, will take many memories with him when he leaves the park Monday after 28 years as its superintendent. The park that commemorates the Dec. 7, 1862, Battle of Prairie Grove served as his family's home since he came there in 1977 from a job as a park ranger at Lake Dardanelle State Park.
Now, he plans to build a house, manage rental property and volunteer in the community through a charitable organization called Life Ministries and his church, First Baptist of Prairie Grove. He and his wife, Judy, have five children, three grown and two who attend Prairie Grove High School. Smith plans some mission work, including a trip to India, which he has visited before.
Greg Butts, director of the state park division of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, heaped praise on Smith, saying his ability to communicate with landowners resulted in the battlefield protection plan that added significant acreage to the park in the 1990s.
The state purchased hundreds of acres to bring the park's size to 838 acres under Smith's leadership. The American Battlefield Protection Program recognizes the Prairie Grove park as one of the most intact Civil War battlefields in the nation.
"Ed is an extraordinary human being to start with," Butts said. "His work both professionally and personally in the community is outstanding. We're going to miss the guy. We wish him well.
"There are lots of different kinds of leaders in public service. He's one, I think, who brought the best out of people."
Butts expects to announce a new superintendent in November.
History, Community
In 1862, the Confederate Army of the Trans-Mississippi clashed with the Union Army of the Frontier in Prairie Grove, resulting in about 2,700 casualties in a day of fierce fighting. When the Confederate army withdrew from the bloody battlefield on the night of Dec. 7, it was clear Missouri and Northwest Arkansas would remain in federal hands.
Smith began a battlefield re-enactment the year after he started work in Prairie Grove. About 1,000 re-enactors take part in the event held in even-numbered years.
Civil War soldiers used the battlefield as a reunion ground immediately following the end of the war, and the United Daughters of the Confederacy bought 9 acres of battleground in 1908 to serve as a place of remembrance.
Expansion of the park years later generated some controversy, Smith said, but people tell him they are glad he pursued the land purchases. The expansion preserves a large greenspace in the town of Prairie Grove, in addition to protecting the battlefield, Smith said, while all around more houses are built.
The park serves as more than a piece of history, he said. People use it for recreation -- company picnics, walking, bicycling, Sunday afternoons on the playground -- and Smith also described it as a nature preserve.
Greg Reed, president of the Arvest Bank at Prairie Grove, worked with Smith on the annual Memorial Day tribute at the park that the bank co-sponsors with Prairie Grove Telephone Co.
"He is head and shoulders above anybody else," Reed said. "He promoted the park and Prairie Grove and would do anything in the world to help you. It has been a blessing to have him."
Boyce Davis, an attorney who practices a few miles up the highway in Lincoln, served on the Friends of the Battlefield Park board. Smith was instrumental in putting the group together, Davis said, and it helped raise funds and support the park in other ways.
Davis described the park's land acquisition as an investment in the future, he said.
"(The park) is a massive educational experience, even for people my age," he said. "This was the last battle fought west of the Mississippi (River), the last one where Cherokees were involved."
New Lessons
Smith grew up on a farm north of Berryville and dates his interest in the Civil War to his childhood. He once found a horse's curry comb with the words U.S. Army printed on it that he figured was from the Civil War era, and he has always been interested in museums and history. He majored in recreation and parks at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, and worked summers at the Pea Ridge National Military Park.
He and his wife stopped at the Prairie Grove park when traveling through Northwest Arkansas while Smith worked at Lake Dardanelle. The Prairie Grove superintendent had retired that week, Smith said, and the state park division didn't have anyone else working at that time who was knowledgeable about Civil War history.
"I had really good timing for once in my life," Smith said about being hired to manage the Prairie Grove park at the age of 23.
He sees teaching people about the Civil War as a way of protecting the nation's reputation, enhancing citizenship and fostering understanding for the people affected by war today. Battlefield Park offers a unique look, not only of the battle fought in Prairie Grove, but also of how the war affected life in the Ozarks, he said. The park features several historic homes from the area.
"Now, soldiers go away and fight, but it was a totally different experience when war was at home," Smith said. "If we get that idea across, people may understand better what it might be like where war is happening in Iraq."
Instilling a sense of that history -- both the courage and patriotism of the Civil War combatants and the way Americans accept and encourage diversity -- can affect people's lives, making them better citizens, better husbands and wives, Smith said.
"One of the things we teach is to have people think about war and what a horrible thing it is, a thing to be avoided if there is any way," he said. "Looking at the Civil War opens up all kinds of opportunities for dialogue."
For some, the park simply offers a place for recreation, and many have fond memories of times there.
"I run into people, and this makes me happy, who say, 'That park is my favorite place in the world,'" Smith said.
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