Some years ago, when I was heavily into the Texan War of Independence, I came across the story of the Twin Sisters - a pair of cannon that was donated by Cincinnati to the Texian cause. Further research had led me to discover that within Burnet Woods - a City of Cincinnati park - was the Lone Star Pavilion, a structure built to memorialize Cincinnati's involvement in the conflict. Of course I had to visit the site, and was thoroughly impressed and disappointed. Impressed that such a structure existed, with its five pointed star roof and pair of replica cannon barrels, and disappointed in how the city "maintained" the site, it being trashy, in need of cleaning and painting, and instead of being a place for memory or modern events, a location in which drug needles and the detritus of the homeless that used the pavilion as a place to sleep.
I reached out to the city and offered to help with a cleanup and a plan to revitalize the area with native flowers. After meeting with a park official, the same one I had met prior in my capacity as a section supervisor for the Buckeye Trail, I knew this was not going to move forward as my previous experience was less than positive (a lack of response and truly a bureaucratic mindset).
I was going through some folders on the hard drive to clean up items no longer of use or interest when I came across the following I had worked on in relation to getting the Lone Star Pavilion back to a respectful state. It was a document sourced from hmdb.org, but expanded with some additional details. Perhaps you might find it of interest as to why Cincinnati donated guns to the Texian cause, and a bit about the history of those guns.
