Gettysburg News

For decades, visitors willing to shell out a few extra dollars at Gettysburg National Military Park could be entertained _ or bored _ watching an electric light display showing troop movements in that pivotal Civil War battle. With the opening of a new museum and visitor center that offers a bigger "wow" factor for the park's nearly 2 million yearly visitors, the National Park Service has decided that its 1960s-era electric battlefield map has outlived its usefulness.

Disabilities-rights activist Marilynn Phillips is prepared to file a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission regarding the newly opened Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center - which she alleges does not "reasonably" accommodate disabled patrons. Phillips' main gripes are with the center's 500-foot sloped sidewalk from the parking lot to the entrance, the low number of handicap parking spaces, a lack of automatic and power-assist doors and the absence of Braille signage for blind persons and audio tapes for the hearing-disabled.

National politicians have a love-hate relationship with national parks. They often cite their accessibility as a cherished American value but don’t want to pay for the steps necessary to ensure that the parks always will be worth accessing. A case in point is the failure of Congress to protect hundreds of parks from encroaching private development that can diminish the parks’ natural or historic value.

Even though he spends his time guiding tourists through the nooks and crannies of a Civil War-era house, retired librarian Harry Conay believes that nature can trump history.He's watched in horror as the National Park Service has tried to make the Gettysburg National Military Park look more like it did on three July days in 1863. Officials are nearly a third of the way through cutting down 576 acres of trees that didn't exist back then.