It all began in 1985 with the donation by Foundation supporter John Hulston of 7,500 volumes to the park service. Crowded into a small room with no research space or storage of rare books, the collection began to grow and the Foundation saw the need to build an addition to the visitor’s center to house a library, multi-purpose room, exhibit space and administrative offices. With the projects completion the visitor’s center doubled in size and provided much needed library space for researchers, historians and genealogists with plenty of room for expansion. The collection has grown to over 7,500 volumes and is currently the largest such facilities in the park service. The new multi-purpose room is a much needed addition for the more than 8,000 school children who visit the park each year. Funding for the project was provided by the Foundation with matching government funds.
Library Annex, 2003

When the sidewalk to the Visitor Center needed to be replaced, Supt. Ted Hillmer approached the Foundation with the idea of imbedding granite markers into the sidewalk leading from the parking lot to the visitor’s center. The markers going to the visitors center inscribe the names and dates of important events leading up to the battle at Wilson’s Creek while the markers leading away from the visitors center tell the story of important Civil War events after the August 10, 1861 battle.
Granite Sidewalk Marker Timeline, 2005

In 2005 the Foundation completed a project begun 40 years earlier with the restoration of an 1850”s era cabin marking the location of General Sterling Price’s headquarters. The original cabin build at that location was destroyed by fire in the years after the war; however the newly reconstructed cabin was owed by the same family and built by the same builder. Not only is the cabin historically significant as the site of General Price’s headquarters it has cultural significance as well. The Edwards family was among the first settlers in the area and the cabin offers visitors a glimpse of a typical Ozarks homestead.
Edwards Cabin Restoration, 2005

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words and visitors to Wilson’s Creek see a good picture of what the battlefield looked like in 1861 with trailing lights in red and blue representing troop movements of both armies and flashing lights representing fire and cannon fire. The seven-foot diameter map includes landmarks, roads, homes, and vegetation and was installed in the visitor’s center in 1982. After years of daily use the map was in dire need of rehabilitation and modernization. The project included refinishing the surface of the map and installing a technologically advanced fiber-optic light and audio system.
Fiber Optic Map Project, 2006