The Artillery Ridge Campground gave us complimentary tickets to the Gettysburg Diorama so that is where we headed today.
This diorama is the largest military diorama in the United States and it is very impressive. I wished we had done this the first day because it gives the whole layout of Gettysburg and the outlying areas. The show was okay but just seeing the diorama and the location of all the landmarks (many that are still here) is well worth the show.
We also got tickets to the Ghost Lab and all I can say is “hokey.” Gettysburg is known as being one of the most haunted places in the world and there are many “haunted tours”. With haunted places comes lots of history and other stories and since the latter is my interest I usually don’t do the haunted tours unless they include the real history and stories.
Our next stop was the Eternal Light Peace Memorial.
“Veterans of the Union and Confederate armies from across the nation converged on Gettysburg in 1938 – 75 years after the battle – for their last great reunion. All Civil War veterans were invited with expenses paid, and nearly 2000 attended. The majority were in their 90’s and many were over 100.
On the warm evening of Sunday, July 3, they gathered here with others to dedicate a monument to peace and national unity. President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered the dedication speech to a crowd estimated at 200,000.
The monument, designed by Paul Philippe Cret, is built of Alabama limestone and Maine granite, topped by a natural gas touch to be lit eternally to symbolize the unity of the United States.”
More information at: http://www.gettysburg.stonesentinels.com/Other/Peace.php
“The memorial's $60,000 cost was provided by donations from states both north and south. Its base is made of Maine granite, while the shaft is of a lighter colored Alabama limestone. The gas-lit eternal flame burned until 1979 when it was replaced by electricity, but it was restored in 1988. The monument was the inspiration for the eternal flame on President Kennedy's grave at Arlington National Cemetery. “
Views from the memorial:
And more monument views:
We relaxed the rest of the afternoon/evening by watching the movie “Gettysburg” (which I picked up this past summer at a book sale). This movie was filmed here at the National Park and throughout Adams County. Great movie – :-)!
Enjoy today.
