By Craig Wilson, Published in USA TODAY�on January 10, 2002

For years, visitors to the Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg, Pa., have parked their cars where Union and Confederate soldiers struggled and died. That will soon change.�

The Gettysburg National Battlefield Museum Foundation today will unveil plans for a new $95 million museum and visitors center to be built on land where no significant fighting took place. Right now, facilities and parking lots are built atop some of the most fabled battlefields: the ground where the Union repulsed Pickett's charge, the blood-soaked terrain of Cemetery Ridge, and the greenery of Ziegler's Grove.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to do it right," says Robert Wilburn, president of the Gettysburg National Battlefield Museum Foundation. Gettysburg's plan follows similar efforts restoring Civil War sites � such as the battlefield in Vicksburg, Miss. � to their natural state.

Ground should be broken sometime next year, with completion in 2005. The battlefield will remain open during construction.

The new complex will be less than a mile from the present visitors center, which is housed in a 1921 residence that has been modified more than a dozen times over the years. The old center is equipped to handle 400,000 people annually, although more than four times that many visit the battlefield each year. As many as 2 million visitors are expected in 2002.

"Our mission is to have every visitor come away with a deeper appreciation for what happened here," Wilburn says.

The state-of-the-art complex, to be built in a hollow, will not be visible from the battlefield's many vistas. The controversial 1974 steel observation tower erected near the current visitors center was torn down in July 2000.

"The most intrusive developments remaining now are our visitors center and the Cyclorama Building, both of which were constructed directly on top of the Union defensive positions," says John Latschar, superintendent of the Gettysburg National Military Park. "We must restore these historic battle lines, both to provide better visitor understanding of the battle itself, and to honor the valor and sacrifices of the men who fought and died on that ground for their beliefs."

The famous 40-by-360-foot cyclorama painting, High Tide of the Confederacy (1883), will be removed and restored over the next three years. It will be installed in the new facility, along with 40,000 items in the museum collection and more than 350,000 in the archival collection, which are currently stored in substandard facilities.

The 139,000-square-foot complex will house theaters, exhibition areas, a gift shop and a separate entrance for the tour buses that are ubiquitous in the busy spring and summer months.

"We want to give visitors the serenity to contemplate the events that took place here," Wilburn says. "We want to stir the soul so that Gettysburg remains a part of everyone who visits."

The project is a public/private partnership, with the National Park Service rehabilitating the battlefield and the Soldiers' National Cemetery, while the Gettysburg National Battlefield Museum Foundation constructs and operates the new facility.

Ed Bearss, a Civil War expert, says such joint projects make perfect sense. "The federal government doesn't have the monies anymore to do this kind of important work," he says.

Information: Gettysburg National Battlefield Museum Foundation, 202-216-9030