Thursday, August 26, 2010
Historians and veterans organizations are outraged by attempts to establish commercial businesses so close to revered Civil War sites in Pennsylvania and Virginia.
The National Coalition for History and The American Legion are opposing plans to build a casino just outside Gettysburg National Military Park, home of the battle that turned the tide of the Civil War in favor of the North. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board will hold a public hearing on August 31 on a proposal to license the casino.
American Legion National Commander Clarence Hill called the Mason Dixon Resort & Casino project a “national disgrace,” due to its proposed location only a half mile from Gettysburg.
In Virginia, preservationists are suing Wal-Mart over its plans to build a Supercenter in close proximity to the Wilderness Battlefield, where forces under Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant fought in 1864. The civil trial is set to begin on January 25.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Speak Out in Opposition To Gettysburg Casino Proposal! (National Coalition for History)
American Legion Ignores Local Post When Forming Casino Stance (by Scot Andrew Pitzer, Gettysburg Times)
WalMart and the Civil War (by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic)
Historians Battle Wal-Mart Over Key Civil War Site (by Steve Szkotak, Associated Press)
Comments