Journey Through Hallowed Ground A National Park Service scheme, run by a “socially-conscious” aristocracy, designed to radically transform a million acres of Virginia’s heartland and to impose the “appropriate” quality of life on people of the Piedmont. 2 © March, 2006, The Virginia Land Rights Coalition POB 85 McDowell, Virginia FOC 24458 540-396-6217 L. M. Schwartz, Chairman www.vlrc.org Reproduction or publication for any purpose or in any commercial media outlet, news source or internet site, either in full or partially, is strictly prohibited without written permission. Printed and bound copies of this report are available in color or black and white. Please inquire. For more information about preserving America’s Constitutionally protected Rights to Life, Liberty and Property, call, write or visit our website. This report may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information, see: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml “Everyone should do all in his power to collect and disseminate the truth, in hope that truth may find a place in history and descend to posterity. History is not the relating of campaigns and battles, and generals or other individuals, but that which shows principles. The principles for which the South contended were government by the people; that is, government by the consent of the governed, government limited and local, free of consolidated power. Those principles justified the South’s struggle.”—Robert E. Lee 3 Introduction The information in this report is taken from published articles, Congressional hearings, official documents, press releases, and other sources available to the public via the internet and in most large public libraries. A number of authors or publishers were contacted and sources were cross checked to confirm accuracy. The endnotes/references cited cover only a small portion of the material available. Please bring any errors to my attention. Originally started in June, 2005, the effort was intended to be a brief review of the recently-launched National Park Service (NPS) National Heritage Area (NHA) initiative. However, it became apparent the Journey Through Hallowed Ground (JTHG) corridor plan was a tangled skein. The geographic location, near Washington, D.C., the focus of influential, deep-pocketed organizations, politicians and individuals based in the region, and their connections to national and international money and power centers, led to the realization JTHG is not a ‘boiler- plate,’ NPS-NHA project. Virginia’s Piedmont, rich in natural resources and history, is home to a significant number of people who are traditionally cautious about intrusions into their personal and economic affairs, or interference with their property rights. As in most NHAs, “historic preservation,” “protecting the environment,” “tourism” and “economic sustainability” are the bait used to hook an unsuspecting public. The JTHG project is illustrative of the social and material decadence of New Age dogma, a nihilistic ideology adopted by a class of “new barbarians” who intend to impose their vision a on a vast, prosperous and culturally important area of the Old Dominion. It appears the Piedmont is seen as a challenging new experiment in their ‘laboratory’ for restructuring our traditional societal institutions. The goal is to replace those institutions with a highly-controlled, “Third Way” structure of “public-private partnerships” and “governance by consensus.” Local government decisions and democratic processes are to give way to rule by multi- layered regional authority and unelected, non-governmental organizations (NGOs). “Reeducating” the people of the Piedmont is part of the long-term collectivist strategy to radically alter concepts of individual liberty, private property rights and local government powers. The overall strategy for all NHAs is directly based on United Nations’ Protected Area concepts being implemented worldwide. The JTHG plan for Mr. Jefferson’s and General Lee’s Piedmont represents the exact opposite of their visions. They saw the progress, welfare and happiness of the people of Virginia and the nation inextricably linked to the limitation of powers of the state, and to property owned and controlled by millions of individuals. To say the magnitude of the goals of the JTHG partnership is ambitious is an understatement. If allowed to move forward, the Piedmont would no longer be “a small piece of the American landscape permeated with the history and culture of the American nation.” Instead, it would be recast as a mockery of the original.—LMS “Why is history important? Without history, many people have no idea how many of today’s half-baked ideas have been tried, again and again—and have repeatedly led to disaster. Most of these ideas are not new. They are just being recycled with re- treaded rhetoric.”—Thomas Sowell 4 Journey Through Hallowed Ground A National Park Service plan threatens millions of acres of Virginia’s private land By L. M. Schwartz, © March, 2006, The Virginia Land Rights Coalition America’s privately owned lands, vast tracts encompassing towns, businesses, farms, forestlands and homes, have been targeted and transformed by Corridor Preservation initiatives, National Historic Districts and National Heritage Areas. Corridor preservation concepts developed and refined during the last three decades by the United Nations, and the National Park Service and its “partners” are being used with increasing frequency. A new corridor plan affecting a staggering swath of Virginia’s heartland looms on the horizon with the recently announced Journey Through Hallowed Ground Project (JTHG). The “collaborative effort” is a “public-private partnership” allegedly designed to “preserve and protect the historic sites and natural resources” along a “175-mile-long, 10-mile-wide corridor” following Routes 15 and 20. Starting in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the corridor extends south through Frederick, Maryland to Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia.1 On June 2, 2005, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named the Corridor as one of the “11 most endangered historic sites in America.” According to Richard Moe, president of the National Trust, “There aren’t many places that encompass a greater variety of significant historic sites—from Founding Fathers’ homes to Civil War battlefields—or that face a more serious range of threats. Without comprehensive planning to manage sprawl and encourage appropriate growth, much of the region’s heritage could be paved over.” More than ten years ago, the National Trust put the whole state of Vermont on the list because it saw Wal- Marts as a threat. Last year, it relisted the entire state for the same reason; and it added the Colorado plateau, covering parts of four states, to the list several years ago because of “looting and vandalism” of archaeological sites. This year’s list also includes millions of acres of Bureau of Land Management land in 12 states. 2 The JTHG publicity campaign was simultaneously kicked off by its “partners” at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. “There is a staggering number, a million acres of land within that corridor, which is in the National Historic Register,” said Cate Magennis Wyatt, of Waterford, executive director of the JTHG coalition, a former Secretary of Commerce and Trade under Governor Douglas Wilder. “Our objective,” she said, “is to demonstrate that preservation can be economically sustainable, that nothing we are suggesting constrains landowners’ rights, and that it will ensure quality of life for the communities along the corridor.” The JTHG “partners” includes 120 federal, state, and county agencies, and “non-profit” entities. The National Park Service, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, transportation departments of the three states, and “private organizations” such as the Piedmont Environmental Council, Scenic 5 America, Protect Historic America, the Civil War Preservation Trust and the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation are leading the effort. Many of the same “partners” were active in campaigns such as the one to defeat Disney’s plan to establish a ‘historic theme park’ in Haymarket, Virginia in the early 1990s. Wyatt believes the preservation “partners” have learned from their mistakes, and was quoted as saying, “The biggest mistake was they didn’t finish the job. They didn’t buy the land.” The National Park Service, instrumental in the conception of the project, stated JTHG was, “Created through a partnership between the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places, Scenic America, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO), and the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions (NAPC)…an example of a new and exciting cooperative project.” 3 Scenic America, a preservationist organization promoting “scenic highways,” calls it “a small piece of the American landscape permeated with the history and culture of the American nation.” 4 The Piedmont Environmental Council, now one of the “lead partners,” stated in an ominous warning, “The Journey Through Hallowed Ground is facing new challenges. Haphazard sprawl development, the loss of vast tracts of rich farmland,