THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 3, 1994 TAG: 9410030033
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: MARTINSBURG, W.VA. LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
West Virginia's governor is courting the Walt Disney Co. for the theme park once planned for Northern Virginia.
Gov. Gaston Caperton says his state's Eastern Panhandle has the resources and the location to make it an ideal site for the history-themed attraction.
``The magnet is Washington,'' Caperton said Saturday. ``It has to be near a major international airport. It has to be near a good highway system.''
After the company announced last week that it was dropping plans to build a park near Haymarket, Va., Caperton said he would be interested in bringing a Disney theme park to West Virginiait Caperton said he first contacted Disney officials four months ago when problems began to develop with its Virginia site.
The theme park, which Disney wanted to open in 1998, would generate about 19,000 jobs, the company said.
Critics of the Virginia park said it would be too close to the site of the two battles of Manassas. West Virginia also has a rich Civil War history.
``It would be nice to have something like that here. It would bring lots of tourism,'' said Larry Penwell, district service officer for American Legion Post 14 in Martinsburg. ``As long as it's not near Harper's Ferry, I don't think veterans would be opposed to it.''
Harpers Ferry was the site of an unsuccessful abolitionist raid on the federal arsenal in 1859. Many believe the uprising drove slaveholders out of the Union. ILLUSTRATION: Map
KEYWORDS: DISNEY'S AMERICA by CNB