The Economic Benefits of Preserving Battlefields
(taken from Balancing Nature and Commerce in Gateway
Communities by Jim Howe, Ed McMahon, and Luther Propst)
Communities located adjacent to historic battlefields are the recipients of a number of
important economic benefits:
- A battlefield can be a basic industry that provides jobs in a community.
- Battlefields can generate income from visitor purchases and sales tax
revenue. In 1994, tourists at Gettysburg National Military Park, Pennsylvania,
generated $100.4 million in visitor expenditures and $6.5 million in state and local tax
revenues. Even a lesser known battlefield, like Pea Ridge in Arkansas, generates as
much as $10.8 million a year.
- Every dollar spent in a community is spent again in the community at least
twice. For example, at Pea Ridge, the $10.8 million in annual visitor expenditures had
a total economic impact of $20.2 million.
- Expenditures by agencies that manage battlefields bring money into
communities. Below are the National Park Service's 1993 operating budgets for several
Civil War battlefields:
| Battlefield | Annual Budget ($) |
| Gettysburg, Pennsylvania | 3.3 million |
| Fredericksburg and Spottsylvania, VA | 2.8 million |
| Petersburg, VA | 1.5 million |
| Chickamauga, Georgia | |
| Vicksburg, Mississippi | 1.5 million |
| Manassas, Virginia | 1.0 million |
| Richmond, Virginia | 950,000 |
| Wilson's Creek, Mississippi | 830,000 |
| Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia | 792,000 |
| Shiloh, Tennessee | 760,000 |
| Pea Ridge, Arkansaw | 469,000 |
Source: The Conservation Fund: Dollars and $ense of
Battlefield Preservation: The Economic Benefits of Protecting Civil War
Battlefields (1994) |
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