ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 24, 1996 TAG: 9602270085
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CULPEPER
SOURCE: Associated Press
MEMO: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.
A foreclosure auction has killed plans for a Formula One auto racing track on the site of the largest cavalry battle of the Civil War.
The sale Thursday cleared the way for the original owner of the site to sell all 1,543 acres of the Brandy Station battlefield to a preservation group.
``There will be a battlefield saved here. This is the legal closure to this debacle,'' said Bud Hall, a member of the preservationist Brandy Station Foundation.
Elkwood Downs Limited Partnership originally sold a 424-acre tract to Benton Ventures Inc., which proposed the Formula One track. When Benton Ventures fell behind on its payments, Elkwood Downs started foreclosure action last fall.
An auction originally set for October was delayed when Benton Ventures filed for Chapter 11 federal bankruptcy protection. Benton Ventures failed to line up financing by late January, and the court allowed the foreclosure sale to proceed.
Elkwood Downs was the only bidder - $1.25 million - at the auction on the Culpeper County Courthouse steps.
Preservationists claimed for eight years that Benton Ventures lacked financing for the project.
On June 9, 1863, Union Gen. Alfred Pleasonton's cavalry surprised the troops of Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart at Brandy Station. The two sets of cavalry fought a pitched battle until the arrival of Confederate infantry forced the withdrawal of Pleasonton's forces. The battle involved about 17,000 cavalry, with 1,441 casualties.
Historians say neither side could claim victory.
Elkwood Downs is negotiating to sell the 1,543 acres to the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites for $6.2 million.
The deal, believed to be the nation's most costly private acquisition of a Civil War battlefield, could be final within two months.
The association will retain areas where major fighting and casualties occurred and sell the rest - perhaps half of the land - after attaching restrictive easements to it, said Bob Edmiston, the association's real estate director.
Now the preservationists face the challenge of raising millions of dollars. The association has identified sources for $3.5 million, which leaves the task of collecting $2.7 million.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines KEYWORDS: AUTO RACINGby CNB