Landowner tries to block DOT project

ROME - The state Department of Transportation wants to expand U.S. 27 in Rome but landowner David Fowler Jr. is determined to block the project because his property contains remnants of a Civil War Confederate fort. <br> <br> Fowler, 39, said he wasn&#39;t ``deep into Southern history&#39;&#39; until last year when the agency told him it planned to condemn a wooded portion of his property to widen nearby U.S. 27. The project also would require moving a railroad trestle further onto his property. <br> <br> ``When the (DOT) started saying they were going to condemn my land, I figured out I had a fort and that was my angle to stop them,&#39;&#39; said Fowler, who grew up on the 10-acre DeSoto Hill property that his family bought in 1958. <br> <br> ``It&#39;s my granddaddy&#39;s land they&#39;re trying to take from me, plus it&#39;s a Civil War fort.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Overgrown berms and ditches stand where Confederate rifle pits and trenches once were. Fort Attaway is one of the city&#39;s three Confederate forts. On May 17, 1864, a skirmish took place just north of it. The confrontation was significant in Rome&#39;s third-tier role in the Civil War, but described by most historians as a ``sideshow&#39;&#39; compared to battles in Chickamauga and Kennesaw. <br> <br> ``Sometimes the biggest zealots are the converts,&#39;&#39; said Charlie Crawford, president of the Georgia Battlefields Association. ``Fowler&#39;s heart is in the right place from a preservationist standpoint, even if he was motivated initially because he saw the fort as buttressing his cause.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Plans to widen U.S. 27 have been in the works since the mid-80s, Rome City Manager John Bennett said. The lanes narrow below the trestle and cause traffic bottlenecks, while the trestle is so low that trucks or buses often get stuck beneath it. <br> <br> Fowler turned down the DOT&#39;s $13,000 offer for the land. The project is expected to begin in October. <br> <br> The DOT surveyed the affected properties for historic and archaeological significance. Raising the trestle will require moving the tracks that run along Fowler&#39;s property, where much of the nearly two-acre Fort Attaway site rests. <br> <br> The state&#39;s Department of Natural Resources asked the DOT to reconsider its historic assessment last week. That could lead to protecting a larger area around the site. <br> <br> ``There&#39;s always disputes,&#39;&#39; said Serena Bellew, of the Department of Natural Resources&#39; historic preservation office. ``Everybody has a different opinion.&#39;&#39; <br> <br>

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