Violet T. Clark
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GAMBLING WITH GETTYSBURG: A STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF CASINO GAMBLING ON THE HERITAGE TOURISM INDUSTRY Violet T. Clark August 27, 2010 Version: Final Draft 1 CONTENTS Introduction Gettysburg: The Terrible Cost of Freedom Introduction……………………………….3 Veterans, Preservation, and Dedication: The Early Efforts to Save Gettysburg Statement & Context of the Problem…...7 Statement & Context of the Problem Disappearing Treasures: America‟s Civil Data & Literature Review………………14 War Battlefields Under Siege Heritage Tourism: History‟s Unique Industry Case Studies…………………………….42 Purpose of the Research and Research Design An Analysis of Mason-Dixon‟s Heritage Tourism Impact Report………53 Data & Literature Review Consuming History: The Importance of Gettysburg’s Heritage References………………………………59 Tourism Industry to the Local Economy Creating Jobs Appendices……………………………71 Profile of a Heritage Tourist & Why They Come to Gettysburg Authentic Experiences Protecting the Gettysburg Brand The Importance of Preserving Gettysburg’s Heritage Tourism Cornerstones Case Studies Shift in Brand Identity Leads to Brand Avoidance: Empirical Study of the Effects When Gambling and History Industries Collide Cherokee and Overhill Lands – TN/ NC Analysis of Mason-Dixon’s Heritage Tourism Impact Report References Appendices 2 INTRODUCTION ―We also know very well that we cannot live in associations with the past alone... But, nevertheless, the generation that carried on the war has been set apart by its experience. Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire. It was given to us to learn at the outset that life is a profound and passionate thing. While we are permitted to scorn nothing but indifference, and do not pretend to undervalue the worldly rewards of ambition… it is for us to bear the report to those who come after us.‖1 Oliver Wendell Holmes 20th Massachusetts Infantry Gettysburg: The Terrible Cost of Freedom The American Civil War is the defining moment of our national history. Over three million volunteers struggled in a four-year conflict that pitted American against American. It was a social, cultural, and political clashing of convictions that created a deadly determination to protect and defend personal freedom and definition of it. The Civil War destroyed the idea of secession, ended slavery, and brought the South to its knees with the sheer and utter destruction of a way of life that had existed for over 200 years. The brutality of the conflict is almost impossible to imagine. The casualties incurred during the one-day battle at Antietam Creek on September 17, 1862, totaled three times the American casualties on D-Day, June 6, 1944.2 620,000 Americans, many of which shall remain nameless in mass graves across the country, gave their lives as a price for the evils of slavery and the preservation of the country they loved. One would have been hard-pressed to find a family living in the United States during the four-year conflict that was not touched in some way by the effects of the bloody struggle. One the most horrific battles of the Civil War occurred in the wheat fields and peach orchards of small pastoral village in Pennsylvania. The July 1863 battle of Gettysburg saw 1 An address delivered for Memorial Day, May 30, 1884, at Keene, NH, before John Sedgwick Post No. 4, Grand Army of the Republic. 2 McPherson, 2003a. 3 165,000 soldiers overrun the ridges, creeks, farms, fields, streets and houses throughout Adams County. The extensive losses suffered by Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia proved impossible for the war-stressed Confederacy to replace. With the Union victory at Gettysburg simultaneously occurring with the surrender of the besieged city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, on July 4, 1863, the Union armies were able to seize the initiative that led to the almost-inevitable collapse of the Confederacy. The departure of the armies on July 4th and 5th did not signal the end of the struggle for the citizens of Gettysburg. More than 51,000 casualties had been inflicted along the streets and in fields. Homes, churches, and farm buildings were overflowing with wounded soldiers, left to the care of army surgeons, Gettysburg doctors, and civilians. Crops, fences, and buildings were destroyed; some houses were ransacked. Shot and shell had left many homes totally demolished. Businesses were destroyed, looted, and devastated. Over 5,000 horses and mules were killed in the battle, and the stench their decaying carcasses during those hot days in July lingered for months to come. Men who had died during the fighting were buried where they fell. Heavy rains for days following the battle eroded shallow graves to reveal hands, arms, and heads protruding from the ground.3 Not a thing in this once peaceful hamlet was left untouched by the fiery trials of civil war. The three days of fighting changed the town of Gettysburg forever. Veterans, Preservation, and Dedication: The Early Efforts to Save Gettysburg No one understood the carnage of war quite like the soldiers who lived through it. Established by veterans of the battle and concerned citizens in 1864, the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association set out to preserve portions of the battlefield as a memorial to the Union 3 Lee, 1973; Large, 1999; Sheldon, 2003, Eicher, 2003. 4 Figures 1(a-d). The casualties of war as photographed by Alexander Gardner. Library of Congress. (a) Gettysburg, Pa. Confederate dead gathered for burial near Rose Woods, July 5, 1863. (b) Gettysburg, Pa. Three Confederate prisoners, July 5, 1863. (c) Gettysburg, Pa. Four dead soldiers in the woods near Little Round Top, July 5, 1863. (d) Gettysburg, Pa. Dead Confederate soldiers in "the devil's den", July 5, 1863. 5 troops that fought the battle.4 In 1895, the lands were transferred to the Federal government and Gettysburg National Military Park was established.5 Administered by a commission of Civil War veterans, the park's primary purpose was to be a memorial to the two armies that fought in the battle, and to mark and preserve the battle lines of each army. The veterans placed their monuments as silent testimony to the sacrifices of their former units. Gettysburg became a gathering place for these old soldiers: 54,000 returned in 1913 for the 50th Anniversary of the battle.6 Confederate and Union veterans told and retold their old war stories and walked arm in arm over what was once a killing ground. Administration of the park was transferred to the Department of the Interior and National Park Service (NPS) in 1933.7 The NPS has continued in its mission to preserve and interpret the Battle of Gettysburg for park visitors. Today, the battlefield stands a living testimony that bears silent witness to the importance of the battle and the spirit of unity in a nation undivided and free. 4 Lee, 1973; Eicher, 2003; Sheldon, 2003. 5 Ibid. 6 Lee, 1973; Large, 1999; Sheldon, 2003, Eicher, 2003. 7 Ibid. 6 STATEMENT & CONTEXT OF THE PROBLEM ―What has been done and is still doing on the battlefield of Gettysburg, shows how devoted is the heart of the American nation to the memory of those brave men, who through their loyalty were willing to suffer and to lay down their lives in order that the precious institutions of our land might not perish.‖ Tillie Pierce Gettysburg Resident During the Battle8 Disappearing Treasures: America’s Civil War Battlefields Under Siege Civil War battlefields and sites are a tangible component of America‟s rich heritage. These sites are irreplaceable treasures because of the acts of sacrifice and bravery that occurred there. Relationships forged by the Civil War form a thread in the quilted tapestry of our shared national identity. The soldiers who had fought during those three days in July at Gettysburg could not forget it. Veterans returned for years to walk the places where they had faced death and had witnessed the horrors and carnage of battle unfold before them. It would be hard for any of us to imagine that our nation‟s hallowed ground would ever disappear – after all, a place like Gettysburg is a staple of America‟s treasured past. Sadly, America‟s Civil War battlefields are being ignored by our generation. The short attention span of the American populous allows the passage of time to block the gaps between the modern and the past. In order to maintain personal conveniences, we ignore the cries of desecrated hallowed grounds that are being bulldozed for strip malls and fast food restaurants. Rather than defend our history, we step aside in the name of progress. We are no longer listening to the stories of ancestors, choosing instead to drown them out with French fries and six lane highways. Some of America‟s most hallowed sites are disappearing under the demands of more pavement, rural development, and urban/suburban sprawl.9 A 1993 Congressional study found 8 Pierce-Alleman, 1995. 7 that approximately 10,500 sites across the United States were battlegrounds of the Civil War.10 It was determined that 384 of those sites should be classified as significant to the outcome of the war. Seventy-five battlefields have been lost to uncontrolled and unplanned sprawl. Only 15% of those that remain are protected under state and/or federal law.11 Over the last three decades, battlefields have faced the enormous pressure of developers and city administrators who wish to pave over the lands as a means of community expansion. Community leaders often ignore the historic aspects of preservation for the want and need of more tax revenues to fund cash-strapped budgets. Intrinsic motivation and an appreciation of the past are not convincing arguments in the face of rising costs and growing community needs.