N.C. Fight resumes at Civil War site: It's preservation vs. racing
SPENCER --It's a clash between two Southern staples -- the Civil War and racing.
The dispute centers on a former textile mill and 130 acres of forest just north of this Rowan County railroad town near the Yadkin River.
Here, former Boston investment banker Dave Risdon, now of Huntersville, is clearing land to build a 2.15-mile "country club" raceway for amateur drivers of souped-up sports cars and motorcycles. The raceway would include a clubhouse and 120 townhomes lining the track.
But for preservationists, the land is sacred. They claim it as part of a Civil War battlefield where Confederates won their last victory in the Carolinas on April 12, 1865 -- three days after Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox, but two weeks before N.C. troops surrendered.
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The dispute centers on a former textile mill and 130 acres of forest just north of this Rowan County railroad town near the Yadkin River.
Here, former Boston investment banker Dave Risdon, now of Huntersville, is clearing land to build a 2.15-mile "country club" raceway for amateur drivers of souped-up sports cars and motorcycles. The raceway would include a clubhouse and 120 townhomes lining the track.
But for preservationists, the land is sacred. They claim it as part of a Civil War battlefield where Confederates won their last victory in the Carolinas on April 12, 1865 -- three days after Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox, but two weeks before N.C. troops surrendered.