The News from Valley Forge

Editorial: American Revolution Center

When a military campaign bogs down, it's not uncommon for a commander in chief to change generals in hopes of turning the tide of battle.

By naming distinguished scholar and National Endowment for the Humanities chief Bruce Cole to head up the American Revolution Center in Valley Forge, planners of the museum and conference center may well have a better chance to move their embattled project ahead.

Valley Forge Museum Group Fires CEO

The board of the American Revolution Center, mired in a bitter and expensive fight to build a museum complex on private land inside Valley Forge national park, has fired its hard-charging president and CEO, Tom Daly.

Volunteers Can Get Hands Dirty at Valley Forge for National Public Lands Day

More than 300 volunteers are expected to help spruce up Valley Forge National Historical Park on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008 in celebration of National Public Lands Day.

The annual event, now in its 15th year, is the nation's largest hands-on volunteer effort to improve and enhance the nation's 600 million acres of public lands.

Volunteers Can Get Hands Dirty at Valley Forge for National Public Lands Day

More than 300 volunteers are expected to help spruce up Valley Forge National Historical Park on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008 in celebration of National Public Lands Day.

The annual event, now in its 15th year, is the nation's largest hands-on volunteer effort to improve and enhance the nation's 600 million acres of public lands.

Group Presents Its Side on Valley Forge Museum

If you've heard the buzz surrounding the plan to build a museum complex on private land inside Valley Forge National Historical Park, then you know the builder intends to cut down dozens and dozens and dozens of trees.

And Tom Daly, president and chief executive officer of the American Revolution Center, known as ARC, says that is absolutely correct.

Testimony Criticizes Proposed ARC

The American Revolution Center's proposed museum and conference center will hurt the adjacent Valley Forge National Historical Park's (VFNHP) wildlife habitat, view sheds, drainage and archaeological artifacts, according to Deirdre Gibson, the chief of planning and resource management at the VFNHP.

Behind Valley Forge Controversy, Historical Ignorance

Here's what many people know about Valley Forge: It must have been a lousy place to have spent a 1770s winter, what with all the half-starved soldiers standing barefoot in the snow, but today it's a great place to jog or ride your bike. That's no big surprise.

Compared with their knowledge of World War II or the Vietnam War, Americans tend to be embarrassingly under-schooled on the Revolution. Today, though, that historical illiteracy holds potentially transformative repercussions for Valley Forge National Historical Park.

Valley Forge Development Decried

In late 1777, Gen. George Washington and several thousand of his beleaguered troops fled from Philadelphia, which had been taken over by the British, and trudged 20 miles west to nurse their wounds and try to stay warm during the winter.

Besides seeking sanctuary for the winter of 1777-78, Gen. Washington wanted to put his forces between the enemy and the Continental Congress, which had fled 90 miles west to York.

National parks need protection

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.

As noted by the National Parks Conservation Association, one in five acres inside the boundaries of the Gettysburg National Military Park are privately owned. At Valley Forge, one in 10 acres is privately owned.

National Parks land grab

Without more Congressional funding, the National Park Service may not be able to compete with developers as private properties within National Park lands go on the market. A report released by the National Parks Conservation Association, “America’s Heritage: For Sale” shows how “critical land inside 55 National Parks could be lost for lack of funding.”

One such example is a timber company that owns land inside Mount Rainier National Park that is willing to sell it to the Park Service—if only the Park Service could afford it. “We don’t know how long the timber company will wait,” said Sean Smith, NPCA Northwest regional director, in a statement.

The report points to other circumstances where the landowners did not wait: A retreat center built inside Utah’s Zion National Park, for example. And a hotel-museum complex currently is being proposed on land inside Valley Forge National Historic Park in Pennsylvania.