7/7/2010 Historians and Gettysburg Casino

July 8, 2010

In June, many individual historians as well as the National Council on Public History and the Organization of American Historians wrote to the Pennsylvania Gaming Board to express opposition to a Casino requested for one-half mile from the Gettysburg National Military Park.  Gettysburg was the site of a critical Civil War battle as well as a famous speech given by President Abraham Lincoln in which he invoked the values of the Declaration of Independence and reminded Americans that the men who died there died in order to preserve a “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”  It remains to be seen how the Board will vote, but the proposal has evoked a great cry among preservationists, community members, and historians alike.