I’ve always hoped that, just as I spend most of my working (NOT waking) hours documenting and preserving the history of the gaming industry, there is someone, somewhere who is cataloging the decline and demise of gaming. My wish has come true. From the Evening Sun:
The battle fought over a failed proposal to build a casino near Gettysburg is now history. Literally.
Ben Neely, the collections manager of the Adams County Historical Society has been gathering items from No Casino Gettysburg and Pro Casino Adams County to document the recent controversy. He will place them in the society’s archives for study, and predicts they eventually could become an exhibit.
“There is a lot of emotional response from seeing these items,” Neely said. “We will wait for more time to pass before putting it on display.”
On Wednesday, he made a trip to Gettysburg Antiques at 15 Baltimore St. to pick up a neon sign that reads “No Casino” and has hung in the window since April 2005.
…
Neely is looking for items representing both sides of the debate that are unique and have “enduring historical value.”The society archives contain a collection of items from the Gettysburg Electric Railway, a trolley system once built across the battlefield. It was eventually was taken by the National Park Service by eminent domain and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court, who affirmed the seizure. The trolley system was taken down, and represented the conflict of entrepreneurs and preservationists in much the same way as the casino, Neely said.
The preservation of those artifacts help modern historians understand that controversy, and he hopes the casino artifacts will serve the same function.
So Neely is the Anti-Monitor to my Monitor. The anti-casino people would see it the other way around, I’m sure. Or maybe he’s the Black Guardian to my White Guardian. Except I’d never send someone on a season-long hunt for the Key to Time; I’ d just ask their casino’s PR department to put the Center on their distribution list.
Seriously, it’s great that someone is doing the important work of preserving the artifacts of the Gettysburg casino campaign.