- Joined
- Feb 23, 2013
- Location
- East Texas
Speaking of Vicksburg, does any one have updates on the National Military Park ?
Erosion control, closed drives, general maintenance, ect. After the Park Service lost funding a few years ago ?
This is on the VNMP website this morning; Confederate Ave from Ft. Hill to Graveyard Road is closed due to soil erosion. The USS Cairo Museum and the majority of the Tour Road remain accessible. Call 601-636-0583 for more information.
The Park has reopened Louisiana and Navy Circle on Washington Street.
They have volunteers now who help with the upkeep of the Cemetery.
I’ve been watching South Fort where a new,correct carriage is being installed for the 10 inch Columbiad located there. The cement pad has been poured, but so far no carriage, and the cannon tube is laying on the ground.
During my brief visit there in April the road closing was unfortunate but not too serious: the driving tour followed the usual route along Union Avenue from the Visitor Center to Grant Circle but from there backtracked slightly to a park/historic road (Graveyard?) that connected with Confederate Avenue. From there you could complete the last part of the tour, but to get to Fort Hill, Cairo, and the National Cemetery you had to go through town and enter the northern entrance to the park. In reality, only short stretches of Union and Confederate Avenues were inaccessible. The National Cemetery looked awful - overgrown, unkempt, and un-mowed after months of rain, but even though we didn't enter it after leaving Cairo we could hear lawn mowers at work, likely for the first time in the year. From there, we drove back through town past South Fort, Louisiana, and Navy Circles, all of which were closed, though had we been on foot and felt like it, I don't think there was any reason we couldn't have simply walked into any of them. The "official" reason for the closure given at the Visitor Center was damage from the last hurricane. Of course, the most dramatic recend development at Vicksburg has been the ongoing deforestation program that has opened up many battlefield vistas like the one below; if you haven't visited for a few years, you're in for a surprise if not a shock!
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