The Exponent Telegram: Preserving West Virginia’s history can help power our future
One hundred sixty-five years ago this October, in the opening months of the Civil War, Mountaineers held the first referendum on statehood, voting to leave Virginia and create a new state, then called Kanawha. In the years of war that followed, many men from our state gave their lives for freedom. As we honor their memory on this anniversary, we’ve introduced a new bill to help preserve the battlefields where they fought and transform West Virginia’s incredible Civil War history into an engine of tourism and economic development that will help power our future.
Our Shenandoah Valley Access, Legacy, and Outdoor Recreation (VALOR) Act would be a boon specifically to the Eastern Panhandle, where fierce fighting at Hoke’s Run, Harpers Ferry, Shepherdstown, and many other sites left its mark on the landscape. Each of these battles is essential to telling the full story of the Civil War, yet the Eastern Panhandle has largely missed out on the preservation funding and tourism dollars that have flowed to the Virginia side of the Valley since Congress established the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District (NHD) in 1996.
Our bill flips the script. By expanding the NHD to include Jefferson, Berkeley, and Morgan counties, as well as Rockbridge County in Virginia, we will bring a proven model for successful tourism and preservation to our state. Over the past three decades, the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation — a local nonprofit that manages the NHD — has preserved more than 8,000 acres across 11 Virginia battlefields, created museum exhibits and visitor centers, and laid out miles of trails, all of which are free and open to the public.
West Virginians may ask: That’s great, but how does this preservation affect the local economy?
Given the Eastern Panhandle’s prospects for continued economic growth, it’s important to consider the fundamental need to balance historic preservation and development.
The good news is that the heritage area model the NHD operates under exists to strike exactly this balance. In fact, the District was created in the 1990s to help Virginia reconcile the need for preservation with rapid growth spreading west from Washington, D.C. — the very same situation that the Eastern Panhandle faces now.
The NHD model only works with willing sellers and does not allow for property to be seized through eminent domain. That means when the Foundation preserves a battlefield, it’s because a landowner chose to sell, and every property owner in the area remains free to develop their land as they see fit. Moreover, the federal funds granted to the Foundation to preserve battlefield land must be matched one-for-one by private donations or partnerships with state and local governments, further ensuring that its projects have local support and are fiscally responsible.
Done this way, historic preservation can actually complement rather than hinder economic growth, and the numbers prove it. According to a 2017 NPS study, the District attracts just over two million visitors per year, generates $293 million in annual economic impact, supports almost 4,000 jobs, and brings in more than $20 million in tax revenue. In small towns, this can make a huge difference. For example, a 2025 Virginia Tech study found that in New Market, Virginia — a town of just over 2,000 people — the Foundation’s battlefield preservation supports nearly $1.6 million in economic impact, creates more than $76,000 in tax revenue for the local government, and supports the equivalent of 23 full-time jobs.
The possibility of extending this same success to West Virginia is why our bill has earned the support of the Jefferson, Berkeley, and Morgan County commissions. Working together, we envision bringing the benefits of the Foundation’s historic preservation to small towns like Berkeley Springs in Morgan County. In January 1862, Stonewall Jackson’s men fought through a winter storm to seize this small town before taking shelter in its famous spa hotel. Likewise, our bill would help build on existing preservation efforts in towns like Harpers Ferry in Jefferson County, where President Lincoln himself reviewed Union troops after the Battle of Antietam.
These sites and the history they contain are important for all Americans, but especially for West Virginians. Our state was forged in the fires of the Civil War, and our people were shaped by it in ways that no other state can claim. Today, we are transforming the battlegrounds where they fought into common ground. Indeed, even in our increasingly polarized political environment, every member of West Virginia’s and Virginia’s congressional delegations, Republican and Democrat alike, is working together to pass this bill, and we won’t stop until it becomes law.