Partnership protects, promotes 'where America happened'

Dozens of images of America’s most historic places — presidential homes, battlefields and pristine landscapes — flash across the screen.

Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, Gettysburg, Harper's Ferry, vast expanses of lush, unspoiled countryside and on and on.

"When we make the claim this is where America happened, that’s not just a jingle," Cate Magennis Wyatt, president of The Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership, explained during a recent slide and video presentation she made to the editorial board of Times Community Newspapers. "It’s actually verifiable."

The nonprofit’s name also refers to a region rich in history that spans four states (Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia) and extends some 175 miles, stretching from Gettysburg to Monticello.

The area includes 48 historic districts, 15 National Historic Landmarks, two World Heritage sites (Monticello and the Academical Village at the University of Virginia), 11,000 years of Native American history and 400 years of European, American and African-American history, Wyatt said.

It features eight presidential homes and claims the largest collection of Civil War battlefield sites.

The French and Indian War, the War of 1812 and the Revolutionary War also were fought in the region.

"When we speak about [the region], it’s more than the bricks and mortar of Monticello, Montpelier, Ashland," she said. "It’s men who put life and livelihood on the line to create this country. What [the Founding Fathers and others] did was treasonous. Had they lost, it would have been lethal" for them.

Established in 2005, the Waterford-based partnership seeks to promote, preserve and create awareness of the region’s historical, cultural, natural and agricultural resources.

The partnership maintains a high profile.

It does so through its Web site (www.hallowedground.org), brochures, community presentations (more than 250) and workshops (24).

Two years ago, the partnership co-published and sold 4,000 copies of the "official" travel guide to the region. In May, National Geographic will publish a follow-up book on the region, which will include photos by Ken Garrett of Broad Run. A National Geographic photographer, Garrett provided images for "Hallowed Ground: Preserving America’s Heritage" (Lickle Publishing Inc., 1997).

Over the years, the partnership and region have been the subject of a 30-minute PBS special, a Voice of America segment and of magazine articles in "Smithsonian," "National Geographic" and "Traveler."

"A big aim of ours is to ensure this corridor remains a place that not only inspires generations about what happened here, but also inspires them, as it did Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, to address the larger challenges that we will eventually face going into the future," Wyatt said.

The region lies within easy driving distance of the Washington-metropolitan area, among the fastest-growing regions in the country.

That presents challenges and opportunities, Wyatt said.

One the hand, area development pressure represents a big threat to the "hallowed ground" region, she said.

But the partnership, which includes scores of local governments, business people and organizations and citizen groups, takes no position on development issues, Wyatt stressed.

Recently, it has been asked to help fight Dominion Virginia Power’s proposed 500,000-volt transmission line through the Piedmont, a casino planned in Gettysburg and a proposed Kmart and 600-home subdivision proposal in Maryland.

"In every case," Wyatt said, "the response has been ‘It’s your community. What are you going to do?’"

However, she and her four-person partnership staff will meet with communities and developers to sort through issues so the parties can make "informed" decisions about important land-use projects, she said.

Wyatt emphasized the partnership has no regulatory or zoning authority.

"Growth is not bad," said Wyatt, who took a leave from her strategic-planning firm to help start the partnership. "I’m a former developer. I will tell you it’s unmindful growth that’s unnecessary. Which is why we have invited every elected body, citizen, civic organization and the development community to review our objectives and work cooperatively in an informed basis to leave a legacy."

The threats of inappropriate development for the region "abound," she said. "The efforts of this partnership are urgent."

Still, "we don’t, as a partnership, individually address" the threats,Wyatt said. "Our approach and our business plan has been that we arm people with facts, everybody around the table — the development community, the elected officials, the citizens — with the same facts."

Just as threats abound, so do tourism/economic development opportunities, Wyatt said.

She called tourism the region’s "largest industry."

"We know it’s a growing sector," said Wyatt, noting that "heritage" tourists, typically well-educated, two-income families, "will spend more when they visit [and] usually leave the place better for having been there."

To lure them to the region, the partnership has prepared tour packages for busy travelers who lack the time to plan them.

It works collaboratively with farmers and the wine and equine industries to support the "working landscape," as Wyatt put it.

The partnership also works with Main Street programs to increase the visibility of towns.

The region’s communities help define the partnership, she said.

"We are them," Wyatt said of the non-membership group, which collects no fees from participants. "This is completely voluntary. We don’t lobby anybody" to join.

The communities determine "what they’d like this region to be in 30 years, 50 years," she said.

The partnership charges no membership fee. Funded through contributions, its annual budget totals about $700,000.

Even so, it had no plans to expand its region. "If you try to be all things to all people, you’re no good to anyone," she said.

Wyatt addressed the Times editorial board in the Fauquier-Times Democrat office at 40 Culpeper St., Warrenton. The newspaper group also includes the Loudoun Times-Mirror, Gainesville Times, Clark Times-Courier, Rappahannock News and Culpeper Times.

E-mail the reporter: ddelrosso@timespapers.com