For two hundred years after the Battle of Cowpens on January 17, 1781, the land that now makes up Cowpens National Battlefield was occupied by homes, farms, and businesses across 842 acres. Congress debated creating a park there as early as 1891, but legislation establishing Cowpens National Battlefield Site was not passed until 1929. The Robert Scruggs House, built circa 1828, served as the unofficial visitor center for the battlefield. In 1856, the Washington Light Infantry built the first monument to the battle seventy-five years later, and in 1881 a statue of Daniel Morgan was built for the centennial in Spartanburg because of vandalism to the Washington Light Infantry Monument. From 1929 to 1932, President Herbert Hoover signed the enabling legislation authorizing Cowpens National Battlefield Site, and the Daniel Morgan DAR Chapter and Cherokee County purchased and donated one acre to the federal government for a monument. From 1932 to 1978, a part-time caretaker managed Cowpens National Battlefield Site. In 1972, President Richard M. Nixon signed legislation changing the name to Cowpens National Battlefield and authorizing purchase of the land encompassed by the park today. In 1978, the National Park Service disassembled the US Monument from the intersection of State Highways 11 and 110 and rebuilt it in front of the future Visitor Center, which opened in 1980.