Attachment_04_-_Scope_of_Work_(Revised_8-02-2018).pdf

S C O P E O F W O R K

ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY

HOMESTEAD NATIONAL MONUMENT OF AMERICA

NEBRASKA

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR – NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

PMIS PROJECT NUMBER # 232842

I. Introduction

The National Park Service (NPS), through the Midwest Regional Office (MWRO), requires the performance of research and writing of an Administrative History for Homestead National Monument of America, Beatrice, Nebraska. The history will help complete basic historical documentation of the park’s history and resources as developed and managed by the National Park Service. The information contained in the Administrative History is essential for present and future interpretation and resource management.

This Administrative History is a comprehensive synthesis of primary and secondary source material that is pertinent specifically to Homestead National Monument of America. The study shall conform to professional standards regarding methodology of historical research and writing. Stylistic, bibliographical, and report production standards shall conform to the current edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. The study will include an oral history project whereby twelve (12) current and former NPS employees, partners, and community members important to the history of this park unit will be interviewed in person, digitally recorded, and transcriptions prepared.

The Administrative History, including enumerated appendices, graphics, and index shall be completed within twenty-four months from the date of contract award.

II. DESCRIPTION OF THE RESOURCES

Homestead National Monument of America preserves the T-shaped, 160-acre claim that Daniel Freeman filed on January 1, 1863. It includes the school that some of Freeman’s children attended, a typical eastern Nebraska cabin, and 100 acres of restored tallgrass prairie. The park also includes trails, wayside exhibits, sites of former structures, a creek, and Heritage and Education Center which accommodates visitors as well as provides administrative offices for the National Park Service.

This unit of the National Park System commemorates the 1862 Homestead Act which offered 160 acres of public land free to homesteaders for five years of residence and cultivation and improvement of the land. Under the Act, 270,000,000 acres transferred from public to private ownership. This pivotal legislation helped millions of people realize property ownership for a small sum of money, time, and sweat equity. It resulted in the settlement of the western United States over the course of more than a century. Cycles of boom and bust, soaring hope and deep despair, would temper but not wholly destroy homesteading’s promise. Many failed to “prove up” their claims. Many more—across 30 states, from diverse national, cultural, an economic strata—faced drought, prairie fires, hailstorms, tornadoes, grasshopper plagues, and often crushing loneliness. In 1976, the U.S. Congress repealed the Homestead Act. Over 123 years, homesteading gave hope to many. It offered immigrants a road map that took them from serfdom to citizen and property-ownership. It offered the nation’s own disenfranchised—the formerly enslaved, veterans of civil and world wars, emigrants from northeastern factory town, and southern sharecroppers a chance.

An Ohio man, Daniel Freeman (1826–1908), filed the first homestead claim in the Government Land Office in Brownville, Nebraska, on January 1, 1863. Over time, Freeman acquired more than a thousand acres and ranked as a prominent Gage County landowner. By the mid-1880s, Freeman boasted of being the nation’s first homesteader because of his early filing. Following his death, residents of Beatrice called for the preservation of Freeman’s homestead as a national park. The idea continued until it found a champion in Nebraska’s U.S. Senator George W.

Norris. In the mid-1920s, Norris advocated for a museum of historical agricultural implements be established there. The local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution held a dedication ceremony for a marker it placed there.

By 1934, patriotic-minded Beatrice citizens formed the National Homestead Park Association, and the following year, Senator Norris and Congressman Henry C. Luckey introduced legislation in Congress. The effort succeeded on March 19, 1936, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill establishing “The Homestead National Monument of America” (49 Stat. 1184);

authorizing acquisition of the Daniel Freeman tract, a development program, and annual appropriations. Funding for the new park came in 1938, and land acquisition through condemnation occurred late the same year. Acting Secretary of the Interior Harry Slattery signed an order on January 3, 1939, formally designating the area by declaring “The administration, protection, and development of this national monument shall be exercised by the National Park Service in accordance with the provision of the Act of March 19, 1936.”

World War II delayed any development until the MISSION 66 funding initiative in the mid- 1950s allowed National Park Service to acquire the Palmer-Epard cabin and build a visitor center. Living history demonstrations occurred in the 1970s and 1980s conducted by seasonal interpreters, but this gave way in the 1990s to a broadening of the park’s focus to embrace the Homestead Act’s impact across America, an effort that led to the 2007 dedication of the Homestead Heritage Center. There one can see the “Living Wall” at the building’s entrance which illustrates the percentage of land homesteaded successfully in each state. The center’s roofline resembles a “single bottom plow moving through the sod” and a separate Education Center provides for science of social science presentations that are share with participating classrooms across the country through distance-learning.

There have been two brief administrative histories of Homestead National Monument of America (Mattison, 1962; Tecklenberg, 1981) which have offered limited insight into the development of the park and its programs. Since the time of the last history in 1981, there have been four Superintendents, a significant boundary expansion, partnership involvement, programs shifts, and facility additions. It is imperative that the Monument’s institutional memory of these major changes be preserved in one historical document which also more substantively reexamines the origins of the park and its complete history to inform present and future park administrators, staff, and the general public.

A comprehensive administrative history has been a top priority since the implementation of the 1999 General Management Plan (GMP). The GMP called for major changes in the physical orientation of the park and its interpretive focus towards fulfilling the Monument’s 1936 enabling legislation. Since that time, the GMP has successfully guided the Monument towards major changes – including the creation of new facilities, significant boundary expansions, and a realignment of the Monument’s interpretive focus. These changes, and their preceding institutional context, carry important implications for park operations and the management of its natural and cultural resources moving forward.

Research Project – Develop and Complete the Administrative History for Homestead National Monument of America

This project will provide a comprehensive up to date Administrative History of Homestead National Monument of America, documenting its conception, authorization, and the major issues that have shaped the past and current management philosophies. This document will describe its NPS development and operational history, and how it has been managed by NPS to the present day.

The Administrative History is an urgent necessity for current management as it will examine events while they are still in the recent past and while the individuals who participated in these events are able to provide primary source material from living memory. A historian(s) will be contracted to prepare the Administrative History. It will be based on an analysis of primary and secondary source material from park records and archives, and Kansas City-area Federal Records Center and National Archives branches; primary sources include oral history interviews with former employees and others associated with Homestead National Monument of America.

An NPS Administrative History is a history of a park unit as an institutional entity. Its purpose is to present the history of the National Monument since the time it was first proposed through Congressional authorization and subsequent NPS management. It provides NPS managers a historic context for making decisions on issues relevant to park management. This research project will include a legislative history detailing federal laws relevant to Homestead National Monument of America. It will also focus on all studies, plans, restoration/preservation activities, and management decisions regarding the operation, interpretation, and preservation of natural and cultural resources.

This project will require primary and secondary research into the Administrative History of Homestead National Monument of America. The completed study will include the following elements:

A. Introduction providing an overview of southeast Nebraska’s prehistory and history including geology, American Indian habitation, Euro-American exploration and settlement, Freeman family history, and efforts to preserve and protect the Monument.

B. Legislative history leading to the authorization of Homestead National Monument of American in 1936, and subsequent legislation. The legislative history must be detailed and include

1) critical statements or endorsements by congressional members that influenced authorization; 2) public testimony, (e.g. individual or group) statements and/or endorsements that contributed to the eventual enlargement or change of park boundaries;

and 3) a chronology of legislative benchmark events leading to boundary changes and development ceiling increase. In short, a discussion of history of land acquisition or land swaps.

Nine months after contract award, the contractor will supply draft chapters for A.

and B. to NPS for review and approval.

C. The primary emphasis of the study will provide a description and analysis of the development and administration of Homestead National Monument of America as a unit of the National Park System. The origin and rationale for key management decisions shall be thoroughly discussed and reference made to planning documents, studies, and other historical, archeological, and scientific research reports that resulted in major management decisions. Other topics, in addition to those enumerated above, to examine (in no particular order) include:

Contents of all NPS reports and plans are to be summarized and management decisions explained.

Study will document how and why the administrative operations changed over time. Attention will be paid to the annual budget and staff growth.

Discussion of the original 160-acre homestead claim, including related landscape features such as Cub Creek, bur oak forest and woodlands, restored prairie, Freeman planted Osage orange hedgerow, Freeman grave site, and wildlife found on site. The Freeman School grounds.

Museum collections, including family and oral histories. Development of the lowland bur oak forest. "Grain Grower’s Highway" freight road remnants. Archeological sites related to habitation. The Palmer-Epard Cabin.

Policy development and changes over time.

Annual visitation statistics

Master Plans and General Management Plans

Statement for Management and all planning efforts

Succession of park managers/superintendents and their accomplishments.

Results and summary of Operations Evaluation reports conducted by MWRO.

Relations with Nebraska Department of Roads and Highway 4 alignment through the park and the Cub Creek bridge.

Interpretation and education programs and how they evolved over time. Museum exhibits and collections. Long-Range Interpretive Plan. Wayside exhibits. Web site introduction and development. Interpretive films. Park store. Cooperating association.

Park maintenance/facility management program

Park visitor protection/law enforcement program

Park interpretation and public education program and activities

Summary of natural resource program and activities

Americans with Disabilities Act compliance within park boundaries

Partnerships with local governments and organizations, particularly the Friends of Homestead.

Land acquisition and Friends Land (to be donated).

Technological updates with computer technology; use of radio communications; land line telephone service and cellular service. Distance learning. Public wi fi. Use of digital technology and social media.

Discussion of on-going effort to digitize Homestead Land-Entry Case Files.

First NPS site to use a drone for prescribed fire – was this a first in aviation history?

Cultural resources management. List of Classified Structures (LCS) and Cultural Landscape Inventory (CLI) initiatives and enrolled properties. National Register listings.

Scope of Collections Statement; growth of the museum collection from under 60,000 museum objects to more than 1.1 million museum objects. Dempster collection and the last Homesteaders Tractor.

Role and involvement of Washington Office, Midwest Regional Office (Omaha, NE) and Midwest Archeological Center (Lincoln, NE).

Acquisition of the historic tractor from the last homestead filed under the 1862 Homestead Act, its journey from Alaska to Nebraska, and its restoration and display.

National role Homestead National Monument of America played in the 2017 total solar eclipse.

Detailed discussion of historic preservation work proposed and implemented on historic structures; discussion of historic structure reports; relationship with University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and State Historic Preservation Office.

Cultural Landscape Report (2000)

Foundation Document (2015)

Planning for and construction of the Homestead Heritage Center; remodeling of the Homestead Education Center. Discussion of U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel gave the Friends his fund raising list to help find private donations. Relocation of the Graff House. Congressman Ralph Regula’s visit to the park.

NPS efforts to oppose a windfarm project within the park’s viewshed (and other modern intrusions).

Sesquicentennial of the Homestead Act; National Archives and Records Administration loaned the four pages of the Act signed by President Abraham Lincoln for display at the park.

Park events connected with the National Park Service Centennial.

Adding a Historian to park staff and contributing to understanding the larger, complex story of homesteading and the shift away from concentration on the prairie and Daniel Freeman.

The contractor will provide within six months of contract award a detailed outline of the Administrative History for NPS review and approval.

The Administrative History must place Homestead National Monument of America in context with the evolution of management policies, procedures, and practices of NPS over time. This would include discussion of relationships and services provided by but not limited to inter-agency offices such as the Washington Office, Region Two/Midwest Regional Office, Denver Service Center, Midwest Archeological Center, and Harpers Ferry Center. Contractor will utilize the files, library, and archives of Homestead National Monument of America, and the Federal Records Center/National Archives and Records Administration branch facilities in the Kansas City area.

D. Oral history interviews with key decision-making personnel. Because NPS documentation is not complete, oral history interviews will be especially useful in the Administrative History. Contractor will also utilize any pertinent oral history interviews conducted by NPS

Twelve (12) formal oral history interviews will be conducted in person according to professional standards with current and/or retired NPS employees, community members, and partners pertinent to the park’s history as follows (grouped geographically, names and contact information to be provided following contract award):

Port Townsend, Washington D.G. – former Deputy Regional Director, Midwest Region

Beatrice, Nebraska M.E. – current Superintendent B.S. – area resident advocate L.R. – Friends of Homestead member S.C. – current NPS park employee D.F. – distance learning at Homestead T.G. – park neighbor D.S. – Friends of Homestead member

Alamo, California D.B. – former Nebraska U.S. Congressman

San Diego, California C.D. – former Superintendent

Lincoln, Nebraska R.E. – partner for records/history K.R-T. – museum curator

A list of alternate interviewees will be provided in case any of the above candidates are unwilling or unable for whatever reason to participate. The alternates may be interviewed via telephone and not in-person.

Oral history interviews will be conducted in person, digitally recorded, transcripts produced, a digital photograph of each interviewee taken, and assignment of interview rights forms signed.

All interviewees will be given an opportunity to review and edit his/her interview transcript over a one-month period.

Final deliverables for the oral history interviews include: Archival gold CDs containing folders for each of the interviewees with an MP3 audio recording of the interview, a WORD document of the transcript as edited by the interviewee, and a .jpg file photograph of each interviewee. In, addition, contractor will provide scans of the original Gift Conveyance of Interview Rights form signed by each interviewee along with those original signed conveyance forms. Finally, hard copies of each interview, printed on archival paper, will be submitted to the COR for disposition to the park’s archives.

Within one year of contract award, contractor will provide transcriptions and materials listed above of all oral history interviews for NPS inspection and approval.

E. Bibliography of source materials, including all previous research, surveys, and reports dealing with Homestead National Monument of America.

F. Appendices: Information including, but not limited to, all pertinent legislation, maps and/or drawings, listing of annual budgets, annual visitation statistics, and a comprehensive listing of past and present NPS personnel, will be included in the Administrative History's appendix. The study shall include appropriate maps and other figures within the narrative, including historic and contemporary photographs. The photographs shall have captions and identify their source.

G. Contractor shall also prepare two short articles (1 to 2 pages) on any topic related to this Administrative History to be uploaded to the park’s website or other internet site.

H. A draft of the completed Administrative History with all above specified elements will be prepared and provided to NPS for review and comment according to a planning schedule and matrix outlined between NPS and contractor at the start of the project. Contractor will then incorporate all comments and resubmit a final draft. Following approval of the Administrative History by NPS, an index (generated by the latest version of Microsoft WORD) will be prepared which incorporates all significant names, places, objects, activities, and programs referenced in the document. Used in conjunction with the Table of Contents, the Index will assist readers find particular topics of interest with ease. The final draft will then be reviewed by the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) to ensure all NPS comments have been incorporated, and then submitted for approval signatures.

III. General Proposal Outlines

The prospective contractor must formulate a study proposal and itemized cost proposal in response to this Scope of Work. The proposal must describe in detail the investigator's research strategy and qualifications of personnel responsible for completion of the study. Minimally, the study must individually address each topic (A-H) outlined in Section II, above.

The proposal will consist of:

A. Research strategy

1. A description of the methods, techniques, and procedures of research, including a summary of repositories and other sources of information to be used.

2. A planning schedule and matrix identifying key project milestones and associated products pertaining to the project.

3. A preliminary draft for NPS review, a final review draft, and, following the recommendation of the Superintendent and approval by the Regional Director, 100 printed and perfect bound copies.

B. Personnel qualifications

1. The Principal Investigator The Principal Investigator (PI) is responsible for all aspects of managing the proposed study.

The PI must have a Ph.D. or equivalent in United States History (no exceptions). A level of experience equivalent to a Ph.D. is acceptable and may be evidenced by a publication record demonstrating a professional level of research, analysis, and report preparation. It is expected that the publication record will reflect an understanding and ability to apply research methodology, and education and experience beyond that of a project historian.

2. Project Historian(s) Although the overall research design, guidance, and responsibility for the completed study lies with the Principal Investigator, the PI may utilize the assistance of project historians (PH) and other project staff at their discretion to accomplish the research. The minimum requirements for a PH are a Bachelor's and Master’s degrees in United States History from an accredited college or university followed by two years of graduate study with a concentration in the field. A Master's thesis in history or its equivalent in research and publication are highly recommended.

3. Standards for consultants Personnel hired or subcontracted for their special knowledge and expertise must carry academic and experiential qualifications in their particular area of expertise. Such qualifications are to be documented by means of vitae attachments when the proposal is prepared and submitted.

C. Price Proposal

The prospective contractor must submit a line-item cost proposal for the project, including the following items:

1. Personnel services

a. Principal Investigator

b. Other personnel

c. Miscellaneous personal expenses

2. Supplies and equipment

3. Travel

4. Cost of analysis and report preparation

5. Overhead, Indirect, and In-kind costs as applicable

6. Other expenses

7. Total project cost

The proposal must include a work schedule diagramming the duration of field and archival work outlined in the research strategy section of the proposal.

IV. Additional Contract Requirements

A. General provisions

1. Prospective contractors should note that the research design submitted by the contractor becomes a binding element of the contract and is expected to be carried out. The research performed and reported must meet the minimum requirements.

2. Within 30 days of award of contract, the contractor shall attend a post-award scoping meeting at Homestead National Monument of America in Beatrice, Nebraska, to discuss technical aspects of the contract and to confirm the planning schedule for the submission of the deliverables.

Contractor will within two weeks provide a summary of the meeting and the agreed upon contract schedule.

3. The production of the Administrative History shall be completed within 24 months of contract award.

B. Report standards/format and submission schedule The final report will be in the latest version of Microsoft WORD and include the information required in the specifications listed in Section II, above. It must be typed on 8-1/2 by 11-inch white paper. All pages must be numbered. Copies of photographs (screened for reproduction clarity), maps, drawings, and text must be clean, clear, and legible. The format must comply with the latest edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. The document must be Section 508 compliant.

In addition, all reports must contain the following:

1. Title/Cover page listing the name of the Principal Investigator. If the report is also authored by Project Historians, the title page must identify the author(s) and bear the inscription, "Prepared under the supervision of (name), Principal Investigator." The title/cover page shall also include signature and date lines for three approving officials in the following order:

"Recommended/Associate Regional Director, Cultural Resources, Midwest Region/Date;

Concurred Superintendent, Homestead National Monument of America/Date; and Approved/Regional Director, Midwest Region/Date."

2. Five (5) hard copies of the chapter outline will be submitted six months following contract award for NPS review and approval. The outline shall include descriptions of each chapter containing sufficient detail to demonstrate the complete range of topics and themes to be discussed as well as chronological periods. NPS will provide review comments on the chapter outline to the PI within 30 days of receipt of the document. The PI shall make necessary revisions and submit the final chapter outline to NPS within 15 days of receipt by the contractor.

The outline will provide the basis for the “Table of Contents” for the Administrative History.

3. Five (5) hard copies of the draft report will be submitted twenty months following contract award to NPS for review. The draft will be typed, double-spaced, with numbered reference lines in the left margins on each page of text and will include all maps, graphics, footnotes, and appendices to be included in the final report. The draft will be reviewed by NPS for contract sufficiency and professional quality. Within 45 days of receipt by NPS, the draft will be reviewed and the contractor will be notified when review comments will be transmitted. During the period of revision of the draft, the contractor will consult with NPS to ensure the satisfactory resolution of review comments and submission of a final draft in a timely manner.

4. A final draft report addressing review comments transmitted to the contractor by NPS will be submitted to NPS prior to printing of the final document. The contractor will design appropriate cover art/graphics including the NPS Arrowhead for the camera-ready final document. Printing on the document's spine will include title, author, National Park Service, and year of publication.

Within 60 days of NPS acceptance of the final draft (indicated by the three required signatures specified above) and before expiration of the twenty-four month contract period of performance, the contractor will furnish one (1) camera-ready unbound final document printed on archival paper, 100 dry ink digital printed and separately perfect-bound copies of the report, and a compact computer disk or disks containing the final document in the latest version of Microsoft Word.

5. All formal oral history interviews conducted will be digitally recorded and transcriptions prepared. All interview candidates must sign an interview rights release form (format to be supplied by NPS). Any additional interviews which take place on an informal basis (i.e., telephonically) must be comprehensively documented in a memorandum of telephone call. All additional recordings, transcripts, interview rights release forms, photographs, and memoranda of telephone calls will be transmitted to NPS with the final document.

C. Disposition of data

At the conclusion of research and within 60 days of written acceptance of the final camera-ready report, all notes, records, maps, drawings, photographs, negatives, slides, digital images, tapes, digital recordings transcripts, and other data acquired during the course of this study will be professionally organized for archival purposes and submitted to the Contracting Officers Representative, to be deposited in the archives of Homestead National Monument of America.

D. Progress reports

Quarterly progress reports during the performance of the research and writing phases of this contract are required. The initial due date will be 90 days after contract award. All quarterly reports will be submitted to individual(s) named at the time of award.

V. Payment

Partial payments may be made up to 80% of the contract award amount. Payments must be based on deliverables accepted by the government (see FAR 52.212-4(a), Contract Terms and Conditions – Commercial Items, Inspection/Acceptance & FAR 52.211-1, Time of Delivery).

Payment requests must be in accordance with the clause titled, Electronic Invoicing and Payment Requirements - Invoice Processing Platform (IPP).

VI. Endorsement Proposals submitted for consideration must be accompanied by a signed cover letter. If the proposal is submitted by an organization it must bear the endorsement of both the Principal Investigator and a representative of the organization who is empowered to commit the organization to such an undertaking.