Interesting Post Tour Conversation

Seminary Ridge 6/17/06

Saturday night brought around 40 people to join me on the Seminary. The weather was a little warm, but it was a nice night for a walk. These folks were from Florida, Illinois, Baltimore, and a few other places that slip my mind as I write this. One of the guys from Baltimore was familiar with parts of Connecticut that I know, so that was really nice. I really didn't do anything out of the ordinary with this tour. I did tweak the ending of the closing story a little bit which produced the reaction I was looking for. Good time all around.

Storyteller's Rant... After the tour was over I had a chance to talk with the family from Florida. They told me that they had never been to Gettysburg before and how much they enjoyed the area. I told them to drive around Gettysburg and take in the scenery, the farms, and the viewsheds because in a couple of years a lot of it will be long gone. Paved over by the housing boom that is already striking Adams County. They said the same thing is happening where they live in Florida. The citrus growers down there are being bought out by developers and their orchards built upon acre by acre.

Think about this...You are a farmer and you own 100 acres of land, a developer comes along and offers 6 Million dollars for your land to build 400 homes. It is going to take generations on top of generations of your family working that land to come close to ever earning that kind of money. Are you going to turn it down?

Most of the people in that situation will take the money and run. They're probably buying the homes that were built on those orchards developed down in Florida! There are a few people out there that will put an easement on their property so it can never be developed, but those people are few and far between.

This is a major problem that is inching its way towards Gettysburg and many other communitities. I am not saying that development should stop, you can't stop progress. But you can still do something! Support local preservation groups, land conservancies, and government officials with preservation in mind. Donate your money and your time, when you can, to causes that are actually trying to preserve something. Fight your battles outside of commercial corridors where there's something left to save.

I could go on and on about this, but I'll close with this statement. Do something!

Still ranting and raving...

"Rick Saunders"