The Old Carolina Road remains much the same as when it was a popular thoroughfare for Algonquins, Iroquois and colonists traders, who traveled to posts on the North Carolina border. “If Lee or Stonewall Jackson came back to life, they wouldn’t say, ‘Where are we?’” says Bob Coyner. “They’d say, ‘What am I doing in Gordonsville?’”
Coyner, mayor of Gordonsville, was speaking in celebration of the nation’s newest National Scenic Byway, which runs from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, through Gordonsville, to Monticello. The designation means that the imposing list of historical attractions along the byway, which roughly follows Rte. 15 to Leesburg, will be put at the “top of the heap” for funding opportunities, said Cate Magennis Wyatt, president of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground (JTHG) Partnership.
“We saw that visitation was trending downward at most, if not every site” along the byway, she said. Wyatt’s organization was instrumental in getting the 180-mile stretch designated a national heritage area by President George W. Bush in 2008.
For the 10 Virginia counties the byway passes through, tourism generated $2.93 billion in revenues in 2007, according to JTHG statistics. Tourism generated $675 million for counties in Maryland and $345 for Adams County, Pennsylvania. Sites along the byway hope to capitalize on the upcoming 150th anniversary of The Battle of Gettysburg, in 2013, which is expected to draw 4 million visitors to Gettysburg alone. This stands to benefit other attractions along the route, including 13 National Park units, important sites from the Revolutionary and French-Indian Wars, the nation’s highest concentration of civil war sites, as well as nine presidential homes—including the local homes of presidents Jefferson, Madison and Monroe.
JTHG also announced a partnership with Mid-Atlantic Receptive Services, a group travel operator. The two groups will collaborate to create two customized tours to the region. The so-called Land of Leadership tour will focus on the historic contributions of those who lived along the route, while the Land of National Beauty tour will focus on the areas’ environmental and cultural attractions.
The partnership has begun implementing an ambitious education program. The Certified Tourism Ambassador program encourages workers in the service industry to be conversational about the entire Journey Through Hallowed Ground region. Several of Monticello’s staff have taken part in the program, said Leslie Greene Bowman, president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.
The only building restriction along the byway is on new highway billboards. However, increasing tourism to the entire region could prove a viable alternative to other development projects. This is a particularly salient point for northern portions of the bypass, where the westward-sprawling Washington, D.C. area threatens to place these rural and historical areas on the chopping block.
The Journey Through Hallowed Ground is the 99th in America to be labeled a National Scenic Byway. Others include the Blue Ridge Parkway, Historic Rte. 66, and The Loneliest Road in America, in Nevada.
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