RESACA, Ga. -- After a long struggle with the state over the fate of a key Civil War battle site, preservationists and Gordon County officials have purchased a portion of the Resaca battlefield and say they hope to open it to tourists by next year.
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"We will have our site up and running long before our state of Georgia wakes up and opens up the state battlefield site," said Ken Padgett, vice president of Friends of Resaca Battlefield, the group that contributed to the purchase.
"It's so sad for us to come to this point and see nothing done" by the state, he said.
Since 2000, the state spent about $2 million for more than 500 acres of land, about 60 miles northwest of Atlanta. State officials had said they planned to spend millions more building a visitors center and museum, as part of an effort to save Georgia's vanishing Civil War battlefields.
But recent state revenue shortfalls have prompted Gov. Sonny Perdue to order budget cuts for all state agencies, effectively halting those plans.
Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman Kim Hatcher said the department had to put development of Resaca and other state lands on indefinite hold.
"It's not just Resaca," she said. "A lot's been tabled."
Alvin Long, vice chairman of the Gordon County Board of Commissioners, said the county was committed to developing its own battlefield property despite the state freeze.
"Resaca is the diamond in the necklace of all the (Georgia) battlefields," Long said. "It was an extreme turning point for the Confederate Army... History behooves us to do it as well as the economic growth of Gordon County. Tourist dollars could have a major effect on our local economy."
The county paid $195,000 for the 65 acres, using $133,000 of state green space money. Friends of Resaca Battlefield won a grant covering the rest of the money from the Roanoke, Va.-based Center for Civil War Living History Inc. and kicked in $2,500 of its own funds.
The property, where 160,000 men clashed in May 1864, includes a fortified encampment - called Fort Wayne, after a local commander - first built by Georgia Confederate militia.
Keith Beason, president of Friends of Resaca Battlefield, said the fortifications were in "pristine condition."
