Congress funds national park expansion in Michigan

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in the Upper Peninsula will be expanded by 11,000 acres and the Keweenaw National Historic Park will get funds to expand presentations on copper mining once President Obama signs the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 which was passed by Congress this week.

The bill, which will expand public lands nationwide, also designates the Raisin River Battlefield in Monroe County as part of the national park system.

A release from Democratic Congressman John Dingell’s office explains:

The River Raisin Battlefield site was the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of the War of 1812. Out of nearly 1,000 American troops that participated in the engagement, only 33 escaped death or capture. This bloody event, arguably the largest land engagement of the war, gave birth to the emotional rallying cry “Remember the Raisin,” which spurred the American forces on to victory at the Battle of the Thames nine months later.

In the almost two hundred years since the fighting ended, the Battlefield was developed for commercial purposes, serving as home to a paper mill at the turn of the last century. During the 110th Congress, Congressman Dingell and Senators Levin and Stabenow helped bring more than $1.5 million in grant money, joining an additional $1.5 million from state and local sources, to pay for the rehabilitation effort, returning the Battlefield to the way it looked 195 years ago. Demolition crews have since brought down the smokestacks and blighted paper mills and archeologists and historians have been shedding new light on this pivotal moment in American history.