By Derek Spellman

dspellman@joplinglobe.com

NEWTONIA, Mo. — Another historic site in Southwest Missouri has cleared the first round of congressional hurdles and awaits a study to see if and how it could be included in the National Park Service.

Jeffrey Olson, a spokesman for the National Park Service, said Friday that he did not know when the agency would initiate its study of Newtonia’s Civil War battlefield sites. He estimated the study would cost $250,000 to $300,000 and take between 18 to 24 months.

That study, approved by Congress and signed into law by President Bush in May, authorizes the National Park Service to study whether the battlefields could be made a separate unit of the National Park Service or brought under the management of Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield near Republic.

The law requires the agency to conduct the study within three years of when funding becomes available.

The NPS has about $550,000 available in its budget per year for studies, and the bill signed into law by President Bush last month authorizes a total of eight new studies, including the one for Newtonia. There also are some planned studies ahead of those.

“This is not unusual. This is the process,” said Kay Hively, an advocate for the preservation of the battlefields and the Ritchey Mansion, used as a hospital and headquarters during the war. Two battles were fought at the site, one in 1862 and the other in late 1864.

Meanwhile, local supporters have wrapped up work on the mansion following the May 10 tornado, which tore off all three of the mansion’s chimneys, part of the brick in the front and several large chunks of the roof. It also inflicted other exterior and interior damage.

Repairs were complete a couple of months ago, and Hively said they actually enabled the Newtonia Battlefields Protection Association to improve the electrical, heating and air conditioning and insulation at the mansion.

The association owns the mansion, a historic cemetery and some of the nearby battlefields.

Hively said there is still debris from the storm littering the battlefields. Members of the association and volunteers hope to tackle that cleanup in the future.

“The house is good to go,” she said.

Meanwhile, association members are eyeing the start of work on a mural that will depict the participation of American Indian troops during the first battle of Newtonia on Sept. 30, 1862.

Hively said that the artist, Doug Hall, of Pineville, has decided on the makeup of the mural. Work on the piece should begin next year. About $10,000 in donations from the Eastern Shawnee Tribe, Bordertown Bingo and the Newton County Tourism Council are funding the work.