[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 2 (Friday, January 5, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E36-E37]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF THE JOURNEY THROUGH HOLLOWED GROUND NATIONAL HERITAGE 
                                AREA ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, January 5, 2007

  Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, today I am introducing legislation to create 
The Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area. Senator 
Warner will be introducing companion legislation in the Senate.
  We remember the words of Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address:

       We cannot dedicate--we cannot consecrate--we cannot hallow 
     this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled 
     here, have hallowed it far above our poor power to add or 
     detract.

  The Journey Through Hallowed Ground winds it way along U.S. Route 15 
from Jefferson's home of Monticello, in Charlottesville, Virginia to 
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Starting as a trail used by the Susquehannock 
and Iroquois, America's early history can literally be traced along 
this corridor. Jefferson's Monticello, Madison's Montpellier, Monroe's 
Oak Hill and Ashlawn Highland, Zachary Taylor's homes, Eisenhower's 
cottage, Teddy Roosevelt's cabin, John Marshall's home, General George 
Marshall's home, and Camp David are situated along this route also 
dotted with numerous Civil War battlefields and sites from the 
underground railroad.
  Designation of this historic route as a National Heritage Area will 
create a partnership between the federal, state, and local governments 
as well as local civic organizations to commemorate, conserve and 
promote the history and resources along the Route 15 corridor between 
Gettysburg and Monticello. It will help link national parks to 
historical sites, package tourism opportunities, and provide financial 
and technical support for sites in the corridor.
  This historic corridor includes a significant part of the 10th 
District of Virginia, which I am proud to represent. I echo the 
sentiments of author and historian David McCullough when he said that 
``[t]his is the ground of our Founding Fathers. These are the 
landscapes that speak volumes--small towns, churches, fields, 
mountains, creeks and rivers with names such as Bull Run and 
Rappahannock. They are the real thing, and what shame we will bring 
upon ourselves if we destroy them.''
  This bill is modeled after the legislation Senator Warner and I 
introduced which created the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National 
Historic District in the Shenandoah Valley in 1996. Through that 
legislation, the Civil War battlefield sites in the Valley are being 
preserved. As with that bill, local, state and federal officials, 
working along with landowners and business leaders will be able to 
better promote the history of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground 
attracting tourism and an appreciation for the unique history of this 
area.
  I would like to thank the Journey Through Hollowed Ground Partnership 
which has been working to forge partnerships that span the four states 
that fall within the proposed boundaries of the heritage area. This 
group has laid

[[Page E37]]

the groundwork in identifying the significant historical properties 
within such a concentrated area along U.S. Route 15. Dozens of towns 
and counties along the corridor have offered letters of support as have 
local civic groups. The Virginia General Assembly also has approved a 
resolution of support.

  This legislation has been painstakingly drafted to ensure that the 
rights of private property owners within the district will not be 
usurped. In fact, designation as a heritage area increases the rights 
of property owners giving them an opportunity to learn more about the 
significance of their own property and allowing them to market their 
property as historically significant. Landowners should have the right 
to choose preservation and protection along with the right to choose to 
build town homes, malls and highways.
  The legislation clearly states: ``Nothing in this Act shall be 
construed to modify the authority of Federal, State, or local 
governments to regulate land use.'' Additionally, the only new federal 
funds accessible to The Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership 
will be for the management of the heritage area.
  The bill also specifically prohibits the use of eminent domain and 
the ability of the management entity to regulate land use. The 
Government Accountability Office, the nonpartisan research service for 
the legislative branch, has investigated the effect of a heritage area 
designation on land use decisions. Its 2004 report states: ``Heritage 
area officials, Park Service headquarters and regional staff, and 
representatives of national property rights groups that we contacted 
were unable to provide us with any examples of a heritage area directly 
affecting--positively or negatively--private property values or use.''
  This legislation is a local effort to recognize the history and 
beauty of this region. The organizers are local landowners who have the 
vision to appreciate that they live among the nation's most precious 
resources and history. The Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership 
conducted a poll of the residents in the heritage area and found that 
81 percent of those polled expressed support for the initiative.
  To understand the importance of this initiative, I refer to the words 
of Thomas Jefferson in his Notes on the State of Virginia:

       You stand on a very high point of land. On your right comes 
     up the Shenandoah, having ranged along the foot of the 
     mountain a hundred miles to seek a vent. On your left 
     approaches the Potomac, in quest of a passage also. In the 
     moment of their junction, they rush together against the 
     mountain, rend it asunder, and pass off to the sea. The first 
     glance of this scene hurries our senses into the opinion that 
     this earth has been created in time, that the mountains were 
     formed first, that the rivers began to flow afterwards, that 
     in this place, particularly, they have been dammed up by the 
     Blue Ridge of mountains, and have formed an ocean which filed 
     the whole valley; that continuing to rise they have at length 
     broken over this spot, and have torn the mountains down from 
     its summit to its base. The piles of rocks on each hand, but 
     particularly on the Shenandoah, the evident marks of their 
     disrupture and avulsion from their beds by the most 
     powerful agents of nature, corroborate the impression. But 
     the distant finishing, which nature has given to the 
     picture, is of a very different character. It is a true 
     contrast to the foreground. It is as placid and delightful 
     as that is wild and tremendous. For the mountain being 
     cloven asunder, she presents to your eye, through the 
     cleft, a small catch of smooth, blue horizon, at an 
     infinite distance in the plain country, inviting you, as 
     it were, from the riot and tumult roaring around, to pass 
     through the breach and participate in the calm below.

  The landscape Jefferson depicts has been inspirational to American 
leaders for hundreds of years. From Susquehannock Indian trading routes 
and to Revolutionary War battles; from the homes of the founding 
fathers to the first brave pioneers to make a home beyond the Blue 
Ridge Mountains; from the Civil War battles which threatened to divide 
the union to the underground railroad, our nation was forged along this 
route. From Blue Ridge Mountains to the west and the fertile Piedmont 
to the east of the corridor the route in many ways exhibits the birth 
and development of our nation's economy, social movements and political 
landscape. Perhaps even more significant than the battlefields that 
cluster along the route are the documents penned in the homes along the 
corridor. The Declaration of Independence, the Monroe Doctrine and the 
Marshall Plan have influenced not only this nation, but the entire 
world.
  Every American citizen should take a trip along this route so that 
they know not only from where our nation has come, but also to where we 
are going. We cannot stand as a nation unless we know what this nation 
stands for.
  As we come upon the 400th anniversary this year of America's 
birthplace at Jamestown, I urge my colleagues to join with me in 
supporting this legislation.

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