Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for April 11, 2006 WISH IN ONE HAND...

Hate to be pessimistic this morning, but will this be yet another opportunity missed for Cairo?

Could it be that seeing "Massac" in the lead phrase reminds me of gambling boats...lost.

Could it be the knowledge that Cairo participation in the project will rely on agreement between the Mayor and City Council?

You decide!

From the Southern Illinoisan...

A stage set for national heritage

BY CALEB HALE, THE SOUTHERN

The cannons of Fort Massac, barrels still aimed toward passing ships on the Ohio River, stand as just one reminder that Southern Illinois was indeed a stage that hosted several acts in both the birth and tribulation of the United States.

With this in mind, tourism, state and Southern Illinois University Carbondale officials hope to soon pique the interest of Congress, enough to have Southern Illinois designated as a national heritage destination. If approved, the 17 southernmost counties of Illinois would join 27 other sites in the country as national heritage areas.

The only other place in the state to have the designation is a 61-mile stretch known as the Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor, which was authorized in 1984. Only an act of Congress can make the sites official.

Jim Hanson, business development specialist with the SIUC Office of Economic and Regional Business Development and a project coordinator, said an advisory group in conjunction with representatives from the Southernmost Illinois Tourism Bureau and Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity as well as others, has developed a 103-page feasibility study pinpointing several local historic sites - a majority of them along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers - for development as heritage sites.

"The bottom line is to make Southern Illinois a national tourist destination," Hanson said. "We think the historical element just complements the natural beauty of Southern Illinois."

The bottom-line price is $10 million raised locally to match a grant given by the federal government if and when the region is named a heritage area. The grant would last a total of 12 years, two of those for planning and 10 years for actual implementation, Hanson said.

Sites the advisory group has developed focus around a central theme - "Land Between the Rivers: The Confluence of Freedom in Southern Illinois." Years covered under that theme stretch from George Rogers Clark's campaign to drive the British from the area in 1778-79 until the end of the Civil War in 1865. Sites include, but are not limited to, Fort Massac near Metropolis, the Mound City National Cemetery in Pulaski County, the Jonesboro site of the Lincoln-Douglass debate, the Crenshaw Slave House in Equality and Cave-in-Rock in Hardin County.

Southernmost tourism director Cindy Benefield, who co-chaired the advisory group, said the 17 total sites currently identified aren't the only ones that could benefit from the designation. Other sites can be developed by those outside of the group, utilizing the same national heritage designation.

"The important thing to this heritage initiative is it is not limited to a specific location," Benefield said. "There can be, and there will be, a much broader interest."

A key component to the designation is national marketing the region gets through the National Park Service, the agency that oversees the heritage area program.

"Because we do have a great deal of historical attractions that are considered of national importance ¦ we have all the more opportunity to attract visitors from throughout the country or beyond, who are interested in these different types of history," Benefield said.

Hanson said the group has been in contact with both U.S. Reps. Jerry Costello and John Shimkus. They have also spoken with Sen. Dick Durbin about the project and hope to contact Sen. Barack Obama soon. Hanson said the decision to name Southern Illinois a national heritage area could come as soon as the fall, pending fiscal and political matters in Washington, D.C.