Gettysburg battle shapes up over plan for a new casino

It is hard to imagine anything breaking the air of quiet reverence that the pervades the sweeping grasslands, orchards and cornfields that were the stage for the US civil war's most famous battle.

In the streets of Gettysburg, a sleepy Dutch colonial-style town built on the plains beneath the distant Allegheny mountains, elderly ladies thumb through postcards and sip cooling drinks.

But beneath the surface Gettysburg is engaged in its fiercest battle since the smoke cleared on the morning of July 4, 1863 and the shocked and bewildered townspeople were greeted by the apocalyptic sight of more than 50,000 dead and injured men strewn across their fields.

A group of developers led by a prominent local businessman are proposing to build a 200-room hotel and casino within a cannon ball shot of the historic battlefield in an attempt to attract a very different kind of visitor to the town -- the sort who will spend every waking hour dropping quarters into the 3,000 planned slot machines.

Ranged against the developers is a disparate band of residents, historians, traders and re-enactors, determined to stop what they see as the attempt to desecrate sacred ground.

The somewhat reluctant leader of the No Casino Gettysburg group is Susan Star Paddock, a mild-mannered psychologist and resident.

"Something profoundly important for the United States and American history occurred here," she said standing near to a monument erected on the spot where Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg address.

"This whole area is a classroom on that history. Lincoln said that people can never forget what happened here, and this is a hard-working community dedicated to preserving history and hosting people who want to learn about that history. The suggestion that you should bring into that community a gambling casino that exploits the ignorant is deeply offensive," she said.

Paddock's ire is directed against the businessmen, but also Pennsylvania's politicians, who passed a law last year that would permit as many as 61,000 slot machines in the state in an effort to reduce homeowners' property taxes.

It is understandable why the aptly named Chance Enterprises, the casino developers, picked Gettysburg. The town attracts an estimated two million visitors a year, drawn to the scene of the largest battle in north American history.

The lead investor is David LeVan, a local businessman who owns Battlefield Harley Davidson, motorcycle dealership in the town.

Battlefield Harley Davidson referred callers to John Brabender, a public relations executive in Pittsburgh. He did not return calls last week. But in the past Chance Enterprises has insisted that the casino will be tastefully done and not built within sight of the battlefield.

Backers also say it would create as many as 800 jobs and add US$10 million to the local tax base as well as ploughing money back into battlefield preservation.

"I'm a straight-talking kind of person," said Gettysburg Antiques's owner, DiAnne Smith, 60, who has run the store for more than 25 years. "If I thought that a casino would be good for the town I would say so, but I know for a fact it won't."

"You would not believe the number of heritage visitors we have in this shop, and just about all of them say they wouldn't come back if they build a casino. And the people that go to the casino won't be spending any money because they'll have lost it all gambling," Smith said.

Outside the Gettysburg National Military Park visitor's center, there is almost unanimous opposition to the casino.

"Oh, that would be just awful," said Barbara Zagrownik, 51, a cook from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. "This is a monument and memorial and a casino would just cheapen and commercialize the place."