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Part of Wilderness to be bought In Orange County, trust launches national campaign to preserve scene of Civil War's turning point Date published: 10/28/2010
In record time, preservationists aim to save part of the heart of Orange County's Wilderness battlefield.
The 55,000-member Civil War Preservation Trust announced yesterday that it is working to buy 49 acres beside the battlefield's best-known landscape, Saunders Field along State Route 20. During a press conference at Saunders Field, CWPT President Jim Lighthizer called the effort one of the five most pressing battlefield-preservation efforts in the nation. The tract is "some of the most important battlefield land in America," he said. The property, owned for the past 50 years by Orange County resident Warren Middlebrook, is bordered on three sides by Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park and on the north by Lake of the Woods. It fronts Route 20 and adjoins the site of the park's Saunders Field exhibit shelter, where tens of thousands of visitors come each year to learn about the May 1864 battle. After months of intense negotiations, Middlebrook--who lives on the property--signed a contract with CWPT to sell his land for $1,085,000, a hefty price because of its history, road frontage and location. Middlebrook's final request was for a signed copy of James M. McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom," which he received yesterday as the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian looked on. McPherson, who lives in Princeton, N.J., and Virginia's natural resources chief came to Orange to encourage the trust's new campaign, stressing its importance to the commonwealth and the nation. Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources Doug Domenech, formerly a top official in President George W. Bush's Department of the Interior, praised the deal as one destined to boost what he called the "three E's" of conservation: environment, economic well-being and education. Its acquisition will help achieve Gov. Bob McDonnell's commitment to preserve 400,000 acres of open space, including historic sites, during his tenure, he said. Preservation of such a prime parcel also will contribute to Virginia's observance--beginning next year
Date published: 10/28/2010
Preach it, Einstein.
I love a good strip mall as much as the next guy, don't get me wrong -- but not on the Wilderness Battlefield. Or at Arlington National Cemetery. Or atop Ground Zero.
Some places are sacred. Period. And the Wilderness is one of 'em.
the hallowed ground without his property being bought by the CWPT. The trails were all on park land........well some were, some wound around into Lake of the Woods but none were on his property. Maybe in the future some will be on his property. I know for a fact the "tens of thousands" of visitors a year is wrong. I would give them two thousand a year but that's it. They don't average 28 unique visitors a day 365 days a year. Guess they count people like me every day as a visitor when I'm not.
Ideally this is the way this is suppose to go. Unfortunately the CWPT cannot afford to buy all the land which is why Walmart sought out the unprotected parcel of land near the Wilderness to build their store. With donations they can afford to buy more land and prevent the Wilderness Walmart debacle, www.civilwar.org
for placing the preservation of history and heritage above profit. No doubt a commercial developer would have loved to get their hands on that land for a strip mall or gas station. No doubt you could have squeezed a few more dollars from them. But you did not. Because you did not, I will be able to walk that hallowed ground with my grand children. So, thank you.
Where do we send checks? THIS is the way battlefield preservation should be done. Not in court. Pay the landowner his price and preserve the land. Does anyone know why such efforts were not made on the land owned by the Route 3&20 Partneership, site of the future Wal-Mart?
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