agesilaus wrote:
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We've been to a number of Military parks and even with knowledge of the battle, I'm a military history buff, I find the parks underwhelming, They need to come up with a better way to present the history. A stone monument saying the 6th Volunteer Wisconsin lined up here doesn't work. I suspect the topography has changed a lot over 150 years too.
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It is tough figuring out how to setup a military history park.
We went to Gettysburg years ago and loved it. Except - for the brand new visitor center. The scenes and setups inside were very underwhelming. In talking with a fellow camper, he said he agreed - he had been there when the old center was being used, and said it was great. A bit messy and not so organized, but much more "stuff" in the old one to look at. But - I thought the "self guided" driving around the battlefield was great! Pop a CD in, listen to the descriptions of the different sites, stop it when you want a break.
Tank museums - personally, I just want the tanks lined up with space between them so I can walk all around them. All these "diorama" setups look okay, but I can't check out the tanks.
Another placed to check out for Revolutionary War buffs is Cowpens National Battlefield in South Carolina. I had never heard of this, but I think it was the first decisive victory of regular American troops over British regulars. I went over 20 years ago, so it may have changed, but it had a well done visitor center with a large table map that lit up showing you how the battle occurred. Then the actual battlefield has plaques and monuments describing different parts of it. Kind a basic setup, but I found more interesting than it sounds.
Speaking of Revolutionary War... wife and I camped near Lexington and Concord last year. I vaguely remembered going there as a kid, something about a bridge (!). We went to the visitor center, which is setup well with a remarkably good presentation / theater describing what happened. You can walk the path / road that the British were harried on during their retreat, but we didn't have time, so we went to the bridge. The bridge is a drive away from the visitor center. Wow! Was I underwhelmed! This is where the Revolutionary War is accepted to have started (first time colonists fired on British).... And there is literally just the bridge, and a statue of a Minuteman. 5 minutes is about all you need. The large house nearby is sort of a minimal visitor center, but nothing much. This is a place were literally world history changed. At a minimum, the main visitor center with the history presentation should be moved to the bridge - I am not sure why it is so far away. Unless we missed something... I am not talking about commercializing the place, but something more should be done. Just weird that the place where the USA was arguably born is so minimal. I guess you could say that is part of the history, that such a small place could start such great events, but... I don't know. Just seems that something more could be added.
Yikes - didn't mean to make such a large post!
