TOURISM OFFICIALS STUDY CIVIL WAR THEME

Reviving moments of the Civil War for fun and profit could be a boon to Missouri, state tourism officials said.

Last month the Missouri Division of Tourism created an ad hoc committee by request of Lt. Gov. Roger B. Wilson to explore the possibilities of promoting Missouri's Civil War history, said Laurie Sims of the Division of Tourism.

Most tourism officials agree that the concept has never been promoted effectively on a statewide scale.

"Missouri ranks third in the number of Civil War battles," said Tami Holder, state cultural tourism coordinator. "But they weren't big battles. We had a lot of smaller ones."

Part of the problem has been that some sites have disappeared, said Tom Tucker, executive director of the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission.

Only one of the four Union army forts that existed during the war is historically marked. Fort D at Locust and Fort streets in Cape Girardeau is marked as part of a city park. The other forts, called A, B, and C, made Cape Girardeau one of the most heavily fortified cities during the war, historians say, but only a historian could find them now.

"We want to make this part of cultural tourism," Holder said. "People are interested in our heritage."

This is attested to by the nearly 15,000 who annually attend a re-enactment of the 1864 Battle of Pilot Knob, in which 800 Confederate and Union soldiers died, Tucker said.

"There are a whole lot of people that this kind of tourism appeals to," he said. "It just hasn't been done real well up until now."

Historical tourism is one of the most popular travel themes now, said Ronald Steele, who is producing a brochure on Civil War sites in Southeast Missouri for Tucker.

The ad hoc committee, led by St. Louis attorney Greg Wolk, is brainstorming ideas about how Civil War tourism can best be promoted.

"It might even be something like a virtual trail, showing that this is the route to follow if you want to follow the history of the Civil War," Holder said.

Battle sites like Pilot Knob and historic buildings like Gen. Ulysses Grant's Cape Girardeau headquarters at 19 N. Water St. might be linked through themes such as a Grant tour or a famous fort tour, she said.

The key is to let people know where the battles were and what are their connections, she said.

An appeal to Hollywood might even be in order.

A film like "Ride with the Devil," which tells the story of Missouri Confederate guerilla fighters along the Kansas state line, could be used in tourism promotion, Holder said. It was released in select cities last Thanksgiving.

"It was not shown widely outside of major cities," she said. "But because it is a national film it could still be made to work for Missouri."