5/24/2005

Of gaps and Gaths

Mitch Hagmaier was self-guiding himself through a tour of the Maryland Campaign gaps when he encountered the horror called Gathland.

It's what you get when governments manage your battlefield parks. Sample his reaction yourselves.

You see, a certain journalist decided to use the battlefield to commemorate himself and his friends. His constructions on the site are now old - which implies historic - and who could sensibly expect any government to ever make a decisions to give primacy to one old thing over another? Isn't it all history?

"What is truth?" a civil servant once asked.

In days of yore, New Jersey's capital city did a gutsy restoration of William Trent's house (originally finished in 1719). The restoration consisted of tearing down additions to the building made in George Washington's time.

Someone knew the difference between ephemera and historical meaning. Those days are over. Welcome to Gathworld.

*** *** ***
Tim Reese, expert on all things Cramptonian, hosts a panoramic photo of the gaps Mitch visited here.