Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 23, 1993 TAG: 9312230299
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD MOE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But there are bigger issues at stake than economics alone:
Will the project encourage sprawl beyond the boundaries of the park itself?
There's little doubt that it will. Sprawl is low-density development on the edges of cities and towns, poorly planned, land-consumptive, automobile- oriented, designed without regard for its surroundings - and usually ugly as well. Sprawl has already established a solid beachhead in Northern Virginia, and this project will almost certainly give it a big push westward.
New and widened highways will be built for the 30,000 tourists expected at the park each day, and this will likely lead to the rapid proliferation of fast-food restaurants, motels and strip malls. It is sadly easy to envision this ``road rash'' devastating some of the most beautiful and historic countryside in America.
State and local officials can take steps now to contain sprawl, but the experience of the areas surrounding Disney theme parks in California and Florida is not reassuring. Will Virginia decision-makers willlearn from Anaheim and Orlando, and apply the lessons here while they still have the chance?
What effect will ``Disney's America'' have on public visitation at real historic sites?
Disney spokesmen claim that the park will draw thousands of additional visitors to the area and that all historic sites will benefit. But the park's power to attract new visitors is no sure thing. When Disney steps too far beyond its tried-and-true formula, it can stub its toe. EuroDisney, an American-style theme park near Paris, lost nearly $1 billion in its first year.
Disney may find that selling history to Americans is as great a challenge as selling the Magic Kingdom to Europeans. If the park does draw huge crowds, it will likely do so by cutting deeply into the area's already-established tourist market.
Disney surely knows that a family planning the typical three- to-four-day visit to Washington will be under strong pressure from children - and probably adults as well - to spend at least one day at the theme park. That's bound to be bad news for Mount Vernon, Monticello, Montpelier and scores of other private house-museums, not to mention quasi-public institutions like the Smithsonian or national parks such as the Manassas Battlefield.
What will ``Disney's America'' mean for the teaching of American history? How authentically will Disney portray the awfulness of slavery or the brutality of the Indian wars? Is the "warts and all'' teaching of history too much at odds with modern notions of mass entertainment?
Not necessarily. Ken Burns' television classic, ``The Civil War,'' deeply moved millions of viewers, and David McCullough's series on ``The American Experience'' has reached millions more. Any number of films and plays, ranging from ``Abe Lincoln in Illinois'' to the recently released ``Gettysburg,'' have enriched our understanding of American history.
Can Disney do the same? Perhaps, but the countervailing pressures of authentic history on the one hand and sustained commercial success on the other are probably too great for each other. Can George Washington co-exist with Mickey Mouse? Can the meaning of the Civil War be conveyed next to a roller coaster?
American history, and the republic itself, will survive if the folks at Disney make a botch of this. But if they are determined to go forward, they should at least attempt to enlist some real historians - people like James McPherson and Shelby Foote on the Civil War, John Hope Franklin and Barbara Fields on the black experience, McCullough and James MacGregor Burns on the whole fabric of political and social history.
Whether Disney attempts to involve such authorities - and whether any of them agree to be involved - will say a great deal about the kind of place ``Disney's America'' is likely to be.
Likewise, the seriousness with which officials address the challenge of the park's potential impact on the community will either preserve a stretch of scenic and historic countryside - or leave us hoping for another theme park to remind us of what a beautiful part of Virginia once looked like.
\ Richard Moe is president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and author of ``The Last Full Measure,'' a Civil War history.
by CNB