Series: 2023 Preservation Planning Grants Highlights

The American Battlefield Protection Program awards Preservation Planning Grants to preservation partners across the country to research, plan, protect and interpret these important stories. Check out these past award recipients to learn more. Have questions or interested in applying? Email [e-mail] for more information

• Article 1: 2023 Preservation Planning Grant Year in Review

  

  ABPP’s broadest grant opportunity, Preservation Planning Grants (PPG), supports community-driven stewardship of historic battlefields and associated sites by providing financial assistance to eligible applicants. Awarding over $1.2 million in PPG funds in 2023, ABPP supported 10 recipients – 43% of all eligible applicants. Recipient types varied from nonprofits (60%), to state governments (20%), to local governments (10%), to institutes of high education (10%). Read more

• Article 2: Gunpowder and Shot: Researching the Continental Powder Works at French Creek

  

  With support from an ABPP Preservation Planning Grant, East Pikeland Township will conduct an archeological field survey on the Revolutionary War powder mill complex at French Creek, Pennsylvania, and assess the sites current condition. Read more

• Article 3: America’s Infamous Day: Interpreting a Key Portion of the Pearl Harbor Battlefield

  

  With support from an ABPP Preservation Planning Grant, the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum will develop a new interpretive plan that incorporates GIS web mapping to retell the history of Ford Island, including its role in the Japanese surprise air attack of December 1941. Read more

• Article 4: First Meetings: Unearthing the Beginnings of Abenaki-English Contact in Maine’s Boothbay

  

  With support from an ABPP Preservation Planning Grant, the Trustees of Dartmouth College will fund an extensive archeological investigation at several 17th century English colonial sites in Boothbay, Maine that witnessed a series of conflicts with local Indigenous groups. Read more

• Article 5: Spotlighting the Seminole Wars: New Investigations at Florida’s Micanopy Battlefield

  

  With support from an ABPP Preservation Planning Grant, the Gulf Archaeological Research Institute will fund an archeological excavation at the site of the Battle of Micanopy, where Seminole warriors attacked an American garrison during the Second Seminole War in 1836. Read more

• Article 6: The Battle for America’s Shining Sea: Surveying the World War II Shipwrecks of Attu Island

  

  With support from an ABPP Preservation Planning Grant, Ships of Exploration and Discovery will conduct underwater archeology on shipwrecks and other submerged resources associated with the World War II Battle of Attu, to inform future preservation efforts. Read more

• Article 7: The Race to the Dan: The Retreat that saved the Revolution

  

  With support from an ABPP Preservation Planning Grant, the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources will fund a feasibility study for a proposed National Heritage Corridor that would protect and interpret sites related to the Race to the Dan, a strategic retreat of Patriot forces in 1781 during the Revolutionary War. Read more

• Article 8: The Race to the Dan: The Retreat that saved the Revolution

  

  With support from an ABPP Preservation Planning Grant, the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources will fund a feasibility study for a proposed National Heritage Corridor that would protect and interpret sites related to the Race to the Dan, a strategic retreat of Patriot forces in 1781 during the Revolutionary War. Read more

• Article 9: The Humdrum side of War: Investigating Camp Life during the American Revolution

  

  With support from an ABPP Preservation Planning Grant, the Fort Ticonderoga Association will conduct historical research and archeological field surveys on the Revolutionary War camp at Liberty Hill to guide the future development of a heritage trail at the site. Read more

• Article 10: Avenging Danbury: Revisiting the Battle of Ridgefield and American attempts to stop the British Raid of 1777

  

  With support from an ABPP Preservation Planning Grant, the Ridgefield Historical Society will conduct additional archeological field surveys on the town’s Revolutionary War battlefield to help define a coherent boundary in preparation for a future National Register nomination. Read more

• Article 11: Fighting for the Black Hills: Understanding Indigenous Perspectives on the Great Sioux War of 1876-1877

  

  With support from an ABPP Preservation Planning Grant, the American Battlefield Trust will conduct outreach with State Historic Preservation Offices and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices in four states to guide their research and identify the preservation priorities for multiple battlefields relating to the Great Sioux War of 1876-1877. Read more