Gettysburg battle shapes up over plan for a new casino

THE GUARDIAN ^ | Tuesday, Aug 16, 2005

[bloggodocio]

It is hard to imagine anything breaking the air of quiet reverence that the pervades the sweeping grasslands, orchards and cornfields that were the stage for the US civil war's most famous battle.

In the streets of Gettysburg, a sleepy Dutch colonial-style town built on the plains beneath the distant Allegheny mountains, elderly ladies thumb through postcards and sip cooling drinks.

But beneath the surface Gettysburg is engaged in its fiercest battle since the smoke cleared on the morning of July 4, 1863 and the shocked and bewildered townspeople were greeted by the apocalyptic sight of more than 50,000 dead and injured men strewn across their fields.

A group of developers led by a prominent local businessman are proposing to build a 200-room hotel and casino within a cannon ball shot of the historic battlefield in an attempt to attract a very different kind of visitor to the town -- the sort who will spend every waking hour dropping quarters into the 3,000 planned slot machines.

Ranged against the developers is a disparate band of residents, historians, traders and re-enactors, determined to stop what they see as the attempt to desecrate sacred ground.

The somewhat reluctant leader of the No Casino Gettysburg group is Susan Star Paddock, a mild-mannered psychologist and resident.

"Something profoundly important for the United States and American history occurred here," she said standing near to a monument erected on the spot where Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg address.

"This whole area is a classroom on that history. Lincoln said that people can never forget what happened here, and this is a hard-working community dedicated to preserving history and hosting people who want to learn about that history. The suggestion that you should bring into that community a gambling casino that exploits the ignorant is deeply offensive," she said.

Paddock's ire is directed against the businessmen, but also Pennsylvania's politicians, who passed a law last year that would permit as many as 61,000 slot machines in the state in an effort to reduce homeowners' property taxes.

It is understandable why the aptly named Chance Enterprises, the casino developers, picked Gettysburg. The town attracts an estimated two million visitors a year, drawn to the scene of the largest battle in north American history.

The lead investor is David LeVan, a local businessman who owns Battlefield Harley Davidson, motorcycle dealership in the town.

Battlefield Harley Davidson referred callers to John Brabender, a public relations executive in Pittsburgh. He did not return calls last week. But in the past Chance Enterprises has insisted that the casino will be tastefully done and not built within sight of the battlefield.

Backers also say it would create as many as 800 jobs and add US$10 million to the local tax base as well as ploughing money back into battlefield preservation.

"I'm a straight-talking kind of person," said Gettysburg Antiques's owner, DiAnne Smith, 60, who has run the store for more than 25 years. "If I thought that a casino would be good for the town I would say so, but I know for a fact it won't."

"You would not believe the number of heritage visitors we have in this shop, and just about all of them say they wouldn't come back if they build a casino. And the people that go to the casino won't be spending any money because they'll have lost it all gambling," Smith said.

Outside the Gettysburg National Military Park visitor's center, there is almost unanimous opposition to the casino.

"Oh, that would be just awful," said Barbara Zagrownik, 51, a cook from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. "This is a monument and memorial and a casino would just cheapen and commercialize the place."

[bloggodocio]

Bloggodocio

[Lancey Howard]

Wow. My son and I spent a few days in Gettysburg a few weeks ago (baseball tournament) and I cannot figure out why this would be a site for a casino. It really is a pretty sleepy town - - all rolled up by 10:00PM. The place is about two-and-a-half hours from Philly and an hour from Baltimore - - it's not really too close to anything. I would think that most gamblers who are close enough to consider Gettysburg would simply head for Atlantic City instead.

[kalee]

Gettysburg ping

[pcottraux]

I guess they're trying to turn it into a big city. I think it's a shameful desecration.

[CurlyBill]

Ping!

[Torie]

The ultimate sacrilege. Casinos are a stain on the fruited plain, but particularly in this place. Smite them, smite them all.

[teacherwoes]

This is another example of how history is nothing more than an obstacle to development.We are losing many acres of battlefields every year to land developers and very few seem to care. If we lose our heritage then where will we go to understand our past?

Support the various organizations that want to preserve our history.

[billnaz]

Gettysburg is one of the most sacred sites on American soil. American blood was spilled from both blue and gray uniforms at Gettysburg. Tourists go to Gettysburg to see the battlefield and reflect on our heritage. A casino has no business being anywhere near Gettysburg.

[Peace will be here soon]

""The suggestion that you should bring into that community a gambling casino that exploits the ignorant is deeply offensive," she said.""

Well, I guess we know how she feels about people who go to casinos.

I am not a gambler, but when I am with some people who drag me to a casino, I find other things to do that don`t require me to gamble. Sometimes I just sit back and watch people, they can be very entertaining. Especially when they are losing, which is often. Craps tables are the best.

[MediaMole]

Some proposed Gettysburg casino names...

Little Round Slots

Pickett's Funhouse

Score Fours and Lucky Sevens

Devil's Den of Fun

[Uncle Joe Cannon]

If this isn't a national landmark, I don't know what is.

[Torie]

Some folks have no sense of history, no taste, no decency, no honor. They are dollar chasing pond scum. But if this excrescence is allowed, it reminds us that Pennsylvania has been, and in some cases, remains, a political cess pool.

[drjimmy]

I visited there for the first time last weekend with my family. What an honor and a privilege it was to walk those hallowed grounds. How could anyone read the following and still think that a casino would be appropriate there:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.


So much brilliance, in so few words.

[Torie]

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here

Lincoln's by virtue of his genius at word crafting, animated by his vision, his heart, his wisdom, single handedy caused the above to be quite wrong. His gleaming jewel of universal immortal sentiment and gratitude about the fallen heroes of a nation in a noble and just cause will live forever, as long as this species has historical memory, and unlike the battle itself, across the globe.

[AGreatPer]

The proposed casino is 5 miles away from any National Gettysberg site and 6 miles from downtown. It is all farm land on the other side of RT81.

If anything, it will bring people in from VA, MD, WV that will go to see the National Site.

I don't see a problem with it since it will have absolutely no effect on the National Monuments and Site.

Shushhhhh, there is talk about building a NASCAR track there to replace the 2nd race that is currently at Pocono. Now, that is an FR exclusive. Don't even ask how I know.

[Mr_Moonlight]

Partying and Revelry work just fine at Times Square in the Big Apple ... it has no place near Big Round Top

[Mo1]

Wow. My son and I spent a few days in Gettysburg a few weeks ago

We went up last weekend .. I don't think I've ever seen so many monument in one place before

It's a very lovely town ... I really enjoyed the trip

IMO ... A Casino in Gettysburg is a really bad idea

[Phantom Lord]

A casino has no business being anywhere near Gettysburg.

Just how far away from the battlefield must property be before the government can not tell the private owner what he can or can't do with it Mr. New London?

[Tribune7]

Betcha Fast Eddie supports this plan.

[drjimmy]

Just how far away from the battlefield must property be before the government can not tell the private owner what he can or can't do with it Mr. New London?

Since casinos are not otherwise allowed by the government, this would be a special privilege that the government would be granting this private owner. So my answer would be, "Just as far away from the battlefield as we damn well think it should be. And if you don't like it, go to Shiloh or Antietam or Bull Run."