Clinton fans make 'Billgrimage' to Arkansas

CNN ^ | 8/16/05 | Staff

[jeepgal]

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- The summer travel season is in full swing, the Clinton Presidential Library is drawing 2,000 visitors a day, and a new tourism phenomenon -- the "Billgrimage" -- is being seen 115 miles away in the town of Hope, Arkansas. "People are coming from the library saying they're making a Billgrimage to Arkansas; it's so cute," giggles Crystal Altenbaumer, director of the Clinton Birthplace museum in Hope. Among those on a recent "Billgrimage" was Ava Carter, a Democrat from Dallas, who convinced her Republican travel partner, James D. Stearns, to give their summer trip a Clinton theme. "I'd never even been to Arkansas, but last year we planned to go to Clinton's birth home in Hope, up to Hot Springs (where Clinton grew up) and here," Carter said. "James said, 'Sure, let's go."' They and other pilgrims to all-things-Clinton are helping to put the Clinton Birthplace back in the black after a period of financial uncertainty. Clinton lived in Hope in a white foursquare house until he was 4 with his mother and his grandparents, Eldridge and Edith Cassidy. The house is now owned by the birthplace museum and is open for self-guided tours. But the birthplace museum ran deficits eight years in a row before finally generating its first operating surplus in the 2003-04 year -- a mere $806, but a big improvement from the $51,000 shortfall the year before. Buzz related to the November 2004 opening of the presidential library in Little Rock apparently increased interest in -- and contributions to -- the birthplace museum. Gary Johnson, who runs the city-owned Hope Visitor Center & Museum down the road, said visitation to the center has increased on average about 40 percent since the library opened.

[Enchante]

Barf Alert!!

Too late, you owe me a keyboard! :^)

Shall we pity or merely despise the poor deluded souls who make such a "Billgrimmage"????

[Mia T]

Is the 9/11 commission calling bill clinton's statement '"unreliable," or did it choose willful ignorance this time, too?

part B