Hot Springs' stolen Robert E. Lee plaque: Replace with duplicate or honor Cherokee, Nelson

HOT SPRINGS - After a plaque honoring a Confederate general was stolen off its monument in March 2022, the Hot Springs Town Board has been mulling options on what to do with the bare monument - including whether to replace the plaque with a replica or to go in a different direction.

For more than a year, Alderman Jimmy Moore has been working to have the Robert E. Lee Dixie Highway marker replaced, including working with Mayor Abby Norton in June 2022 to determine who has legal rights to the land.

According to Moore, the town has always maintained the monument, which was donated by the Rumbough sisters in 1926.

Moore said he would like to see a replica plaque installed and is currently in the process of attaining contact information for a plaque supplier.

Additionally, Moore said he would like to see added security measures taken at the monument, located at 311 U.S. 25/70, near Hot Springs Elementary School.

"I'd like to see extra lighting and cameras in that whole area and a fence be put around the property," Moore said. "I'm waiting on the contact info to get a price for a replica plaque to be put back there. There's been several people wanting to donate to have it replaced."

More: Stolen Confederate plaque: Hot Springs Chief says 'a lot of history, hates that it's gone'

Hot Springs Mayor Abby Norton said she'd like to see the plaque replaced with a replica as well, adding that the plaque may have been stolen for its solid bronze metal material.

"We don't know why it was stolen. It could have been because it was solid bronze or because it depicted Robert E. Lee," Norton said. "Either way, it's a piece of Hot Springs history."

Some Hot Springs residents have voiced their disapproval of the idea of replacing the plaque.

Hot Springs resident Phillip Solomon said he felt the town would be better suited devoting the funds to address other needs.

"I think it's a waste of money to replace it," Solomon said last year. "The way society is currently, it's just going to get defiled and defaced again and again and again."

But according to Moore and Norton, there's a possibility that the town would not have to pay for the replacement plaque.

"Alderman Moore is spearheading the project to replace the plaque. He stated that several people have pledged donations, so it's possible there will be enough to restore it with no cost to the town," Norton said. "If it turns out that it's not possible to replace what was there, we have an alternative solution."

More: Hot Springs officials exploring replacement of Confederate plaque stolen in March

Other memorial suggestion

The "alternative solution" Norton referenced is a memorial honoring the Native American tribes, including the Cherokee, who were the first to settle in the town, as well as William Nelson, a Scotsman who bought the property surrounding what is now the Hot Springs Resort and Spa for “two hundred pounds in Virginia currency” and began catering to the visitors, according to the town of Hot Springs website.

Sidney Harrison, a former three-term mayor of Hot Springs, presented the idea — which he said was brought to him by a former Hot Springs resident — to the Hot Springs Town Board in its June 5 meeting.

"It's something that's nonargumentative to anybody," Harrison said. "It was a recognition of the Cherokee people who were here first, and William Nelson, who set up a stock stand down the river, and was probably the first leading citizen. He had probably most of the Hot Springs land going down River Road where the turnpike went through."

The Buncombe Turnpike was completed along the French Broad River through Hot Springs in 1828, connecting Tennessee and Kentucky to the East Coast, the town of Hot Springs website said.

Harrison said the plaque would be the same size as the original but would be made of aluminum.

According to Harrison, the former resident - who wishes to remain anonymous - said he would pay for the Cherokee/Nelson memorial aluminum plaque and its installment, which Harrison said would cost roughly $2,400.

Harrison said the hole left by the missing plaque "looks quite bad" and is "sort of a black eye on the town," adding that he would like to see the town install a replica Robert E. Lee plaque.

"The town may try to put it back the way it was. I hope it works," Harrison said. "I have no problem with Robert E. Lee, but I would just hate to see somebody steal it again.

"We're going through a phase in the United States, even changing the military bases. 'Fort Bragg' is 'Fort Liberty,' and 'Fort Hood' is going to be changed, too," Harrison said. "We can't change history, and I don't think that we think of the Confederacy as a bad thing. It didn't work out, that's for sure. I certainly don't believe in slavery. And I don't believe in looking down at anybody. But this happened, and some people wanted to honor it. There were a lot of these memorials happened around the turn of the century, I understand."

In November 2020, a statue commemorating the Confederate general was stolen outside of the county courthouse in Marshall.

Marshall Police Chief Mike Boone said the department is still investigating the incident.

More: Robert E. Lee plaque reported missing outside Madison County Courthouse

Hot Springs resident Ike Lassiter said he'd prefer the town promote a less divisive message.

"Although the Dixie Highway network covered parts of the North and South and was intended to encourage travel in the eastern United States, it was used by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to honor Robert E. Lee and the 'Lost Cause' by constructing similar monuments in multiple states," Lassiter said.

"In our current era when political division is harmful to all U.S. citizens whatever their party, I favor a new message that honors the past in Hot Springs and Madison County without asking us to choose sides, especially in view of the mixed loyalties locally during the Civil War and the mixed origins of local citizens today. The plaque that Sidney Harrison presented is one attempt to promote unity, not division."

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Hot Springs considers options to replace stolen Robert E. Lee plaque