Mike Parker: ‘Green Report’ vision still applies today
A little more than 20 years ago, I published a column about the tremendous appeals that bring heritage tourism to our city and county. The June 17, 2002 column is as applicable today as it was 20 years ago – even more so.
Graduate students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill released a report vindicating the vision of some local citizens engaged in protecting historical assets and promoting them to generate tourism.
“Before the constant chorale of nay-sayers begins a new chorus of ‘nothing in Kinston and Lenoir County could draw tourists,’ they need at least to read this report and catch a glimpse of the vision these UNC students unfold,” I wrote then. This report offered 104 pages of our area’s history, geography, and possibilities.
Tourism was steadily growing. In 2000, tourism in this area generated $54 million in economic impact – a leap of 8 percent over 1999 figures, the report found.
The economic impact of tourism resulted in $73 in tax savings for every Kinston and Lenoir County resident, according to the study. When people come here to spend money – stay in our motels, eat in our restaurants, and shop in our stores – their spending means dollars coming into our local coffers with little demand on our present infrastructure.
Lenoir County’s rich heritage represents a gold mine that local and state people are just beginning to mine. The first governor of the free and independent North Carolina came from here – Richard Caswell. We have two Civil War battlefields that to this day have excellent examples of breastworks – if we can save them.
We need to understand Kinston’s pivotal role during the Civil War. New Bern fell to the Federals in 1862, and Kinston became the barrier between Federal troops and the heartland of North Carolina.
The second largest battle fought in North Carolina occurred just east of Kinston at Wyse Fork. Much of that 1865 battlefield has been preserved. These chunks of earth, breastworks, and green spaces spell big bucks for us if we market to heritage tourists.
In addition, the Wyse Fork Battlefield was the site of two Revolutionary War skirmishes, on August 16 and the other on August 21, 1781. The 250th anniversary, or semiquincentennial, of those skirmishes is only nine years away.
By preserving these battlefields and providing interpretative materials to tell their stories, we can look forward to tapping into the growing interest in heritage tourism.
Do we know how many soldiers from various states chewed the dirt along Southwest Creek during the Battle of Wyse Fork? Some people today who live in Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Vermont – to name a few – had ancestors who saw action right here in Lenoir County. They often come to walk the ground where their ancestors fought and perhaps even died.
I traveled to Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia, to visit the battlefield where two of my great-great-grandfathers fought. One was seriously wounded in combat at the Bloody Angle on May 12, 1864. I cannot describe the feeling I experienced looking over the ground where he stood and fought. The connection was nearly mystical.
Heritage tourists come farther, stay longer, and spend more than the average tourist. In 2000, heritage travelers spent, on average, $688 per trip, as compared to $425 for typical travelers, according to the UNC report. Those figures have grown over the past 20 years. We can tap into this spending if we learn to preserve and promote our battlefields.
We offer a complete package. All we need to do is develop, polish, and promote it.
Our State magazine organized a Civil War weekend in Kinston a few years ago. Before the magazine advertised the weekend, the first designated weekend sold out. Our state added a second weekend – and it sold out. That weekend included stops at the CSS Neuse Museum, the CSS Neuse II, and battlefield tours of the First Battle of Kinston and the Battle of Wyse Fork.
Every bus tour of the Wyse Fork Battlefield has sold out.
We have an opportunity to do some genuine economic development that will not produce smog, drain our aquifer, pave over the farmland, and place excessive demands on our infrastructure. We need to get busy tapping this golden vein before we lose more of what will bring heritage tourists here.
One final note: To maximize our marketing, we must save the Wyse Fork Battlefield. If we are not careful, what was once a pristine and preserved battleground will be paved over as part of the coming Interstate 42 – even though that land is on the National Record of Historic Sites.
Do we want a bypass that buries our history?
Mike Parker is a columnist for the Neuse News. You can reach him at mparker16@gmail.com.
