Mission & Milestones

The Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area is a 180-mile corridor from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania through Maryland and Harpers Ferry, West Virginia to Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia. JTHG is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Following the Walt Disney Company’s failed attempt to build a “Disney’s America” theme park near the Civil War’s Manassas Battlefield in the early 1990s, a number of concerned groups, including the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Civil War Trust, the Piedmont Environmental Council, the Prince Charitable Trust and Scenic America joined in a concerted effort to protect the area’s endangered cultural landscapes. Their advocacy led to the establishment of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground. The region was placed on the National Trust’s list of the 11 most endangered places in the United States in 2005, declared by Congress as a National Heritage Area in 2008, and Route 15/20 was named a National Scenic Byway in 2009.

Our Mission

The mission of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area is to promote and support civic engagement through history education, economic development through heritage tourism, and the preservation of cultural landscapes in one of the nation’s most important historic regions.

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