Future Plans of the Committee
Plans for the Committee as they hope to host a headquarters at the historic Gooch Store, develop the Pea Ridge Overlook, construct pull-offs and more.
As with all grassroots tourism projects, our plans outpace our funds. These are some of the ongoing hopes for projects in the future:
Headquarters (at tour stop #1) in downtown Michie as a starting place for our tours and to capture the tourists who travel between Corinth and Shiloh. The old W.T. Gooch General Merchandise Store would be ideal since it is the center of the town and is the very spot where the generals in 1862 had their headquarters. The building itself is over a hundred years old and was one of the most important buildings to Michie's revival as a community, as it hosted a post office and served as a voting office for the 9th County Civil District for many years in the 20th Century. It is next door to the Old Monterey Cafe, the nearest eatery in the area that could benefit from tourism. The old building needs lots of renovation but would be large enough to set up a Civil War museum to display significant collections of relics that have been dug in the area and host our meetings.
The Pea Ridge Overlook (at tour stop #5) from which can be seen the strategic Civil War significance of Old Monterey. The commanding heights at the top of the ridge is obvious since water towers at Farmington and Corinth can be seen from the Overlook. We hope to improve the road to the site and make a bus turnaround with signage. A nature trail from the overlook through the nearby woods has also been proposed.
Old Sanders' Cemetery (at tour stop #4) near the Overlook. Quite a lot of cleaning work has been done in the cemetery that was started in 1854 for the Sanders' family but had become a general burial ground during the time of the Civil War. As a burial site for over 183 federals (who were removed in 1868) and an unknown amount of Confederate soldiers, this site remains incredibly significant. Due to vandalism in the past twenty-five to thirty years, many gravestones were damaged, removed or broken. We hope to use LiDAR technology to find lost graves and repair & replace damaged tombstones.
Trail Pull-Offs at other numbered sites. The idea is proposed to have pull-offs for each of our marked sites. At present times, this isn't very feasible due to financial & legal constraints, but there are a few that could easily be done because of cooperative land owners and more assessable right-of-ways.
Northern Leg of the Old Monterey Trail. The Old Monterey Trail as it existed before with the southern trail includes 15 sites south of Michie to the Mississippi State-Line. Our original map had several significant sites north of Michie. Because some of them, such as Fallen Timbers, had been marked and signed by the Shiloh National Park, and because of the unwieldy nature of a longer tour, we concentrated on the lesser-known sites south of Michie for our first phase. However, many of the northern route sites, such as home hospitals and creek fords, as well as skirmish sites, have local importance and need to be part of an overall tour from Old Monterey. Eventually, we would also like to cooperate with Mississippi country north of Corinth and Farmington to the Tennessee State-Line.
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