Gettysburg National Military Park

A rugged area of steep cliffs, deep gullies and massive boulders known as Devil's Den is now part of Gettysburg National Military Park. It was the site major fighting in 1863, but in recent years the historic scene was marred by power lines and a restroom. That's about to change thanks to an upcoming project in the park.

The Cyclorama painting gallery at Gettysburg National Park’s Museum and Visitor Center will be closed the week of January 25-29 to allow workers to revise the program and address some moisture problems.

Civil War buffs will have lots of history to bone up on in the coming weeks as rangers from Gettysburg National Military Park discuss everything from weapons of battle to Lee's retreat during the park's winter lecture series.

These days you can get a perfectly good map of a national park for less than $12. So why would anyone pay $6,500 for a map of Yellowstone National Park?

Mel Poole, the superintendent at Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland, has been named acting superintendent at Gettysburg National Military Park until a permanent successor to John Latschar is found.

The 146th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address is Thursday, November 19. This coming week Gettysburg will be hosting a full slate of Dedication Day and Remembrance Day activities to honor President Abraham Lincoln, his Gettysburg Address, and the soldiers who fought so bravely in the Battle of Gettysburg.

Gettysburg is more than just a summer destination. Here are a dozen holiday activities that make the battlefield park and its gateway community a good choice for a memorable getaway.

In a four-sentence release, National Park Service officials announced Friday that they would conduct a national search to find a new superintendent for Gettysburg National Military Park, where former Superintendent John Latschar had come under scrutiny after sexually explicit content was found on his office computer.

A newspaper reported Thursday that Gettysburg National Military Park Superintendent John Latschar is stepping down as the result of the discovery of pornography on his office computer. National Park Service officials had no comment, citing Privacy Act restrictions regarding personnel matters.

A lengthy investigation into allegations that Gettsysburg National Military Park Superintendent John Latschar acted unethically in running the park found no wrongdoing, but it reportedly turned up thousands of instances in which the superintendent's computer was used to access pornographic images.

Can you act? Looking for a chance to be "on-screen"? This may be your chance: Gettysburg National Military Park is conducting auditions next week for a TV production that will be filmed later this month.

The bad news: Another Gettysburg witness tree has been felled. The good news: The wood harvested from this arboreal geezer will help raise money for the park.

If you enjoy music from the Civil War era—or want to learn something about it—here's a great opportunity for you: The 15th Annual Gettysburg Music Muster is scheduled for Saturday, August 22, 2009, at Gettysburg National Military Park, and the concerts are free.

Quite often we hear about tree removal projects to recreate appearances at Civil War units of the National Park System. At Gettysburg National Military Park, they're planting trees to return the landscape to 1860s appearances.

At Gettysburg, the old visitor center and the Cyclorama Building were constructed atop a key part of the historic battlefield. The NPS has long planned to remove both buildings and return the site to its 1863 appearance. The old visitor center is now being knocked down and toted away, but preservationists have blocked demolition of the Cyclorama Building.

Gettysburg National Military Park celebrates a birthday today, its 114th, but it was the battle anniversaries that interested the Civil War veterans. In 1938, the 75th anniversary of the battle, motion picture crews filmed the aged veterans at the battlefield as they gathered for their final reunion. There’s some amazing film footage on the Internet.

When General Robert E. Lee's troops were battling the Union forces at Fredericksburg, Virginia, on December 13, 1862, his cannons atop Lee's Hill and nearby Howison Hill had clear lines of fire. Today they'd be lucky to hit the proverbial broad side of a barn.

President Bush received a very special tour of Gettysburg National Military Park. To paraphrase Mel Brooks, “It’s Good to be the President.”

Remember the good old days, when you could enter a national park and there was no cost to hike a trail, tour a museum, or enjoy nature? Well, those days seemingly are fleeting. In a move likely to disappoint many, the folks at Gettysburg National Military Park are thinking of charging a fee to access their museum.

As with the southern Pennsylvania countryside surrounding the town of Gettysburg, the struggles between the United States and Confederate armies from 1861 to 1865 often brought war to beautiful places, with many battles fought in the pastoral landscapes of eastern, southern, and middle America— in rolling fields and woods, along rivers and streams, among farmsteads, and often in or near villages, towns, or cities.

A huge old honey locust tree that was a silent witness to the Battle of Gettysburg and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address has been so severely damaged by a storm that it will probably not survive.

Today, well over a century after the Civil War ended in 1865, it is difficult to imagine the battlefields of Antietam, Vicksburg, Shiloh, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga had they been neglected, instead of preserved as military parks. As compelling historic landscapes of great natural beauty and public interest, these early military parks have been familiar to generations of Americans.

The first major land engagement of the Civil War was fought 147 years ago this month. The ensuing four-year struggle entailed more than 2,000 battles or skirmishes and cost more than 600,000 American lives. This quiz tests your knowledge of Civil War national parks and the battles they commemorate. Answers are at the end. No peeking.

The Battle of Gettysburg, a famously important Union victory, ended 145 years ago on July 3rd. We can more clearly appreciate what happened at Gettysburg by visiting Gettysburg National Military Park and trying to understand the battle as a human experience, not just a mammoth clash of arms.

Dozens of movies have depicted actors and actresses cavorting, romancing, running, hiding, fighting, and yes, even dying in national parks or places destined to become national parks. Here are ten of Traveler's favorite movies with a national park connection of some sort. Note that we don’t restrict the field to films shot on location in parks.

At 8 a.m. EDT Monday a door will open into this country's most bitter moment in history when the $105 million Museum and Visitor Center at Gettysburg National Military Park opens for business.

With the 150th anniversary of the launch of the Civil War in the offing, tour operators are lining up to explain the conflict to visitors of such parks as Antietam National Battlefield and Gettysburg National Military Park.

'The Electric Map', among the most popular exhibits at the Gettysburg National Military Park, will soon be cut up and put into long term storage to make way for a new exhibit. This has some folks upset.