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Jim Wickers shielded his eyes from the sun baking the rocky hillside at Gettysburg's Little Round Top monument.

Wickers, a Civil War buff from Vero Beach, Fla., looked out across the field and explained its role in the Battle of Gettysburg to his wife, Debbie, as they stood at the statue of Gen. Gouverneur Kimball Warren.

"We don't usually do long car trips, but this is worth it," said Wickers, a retired engineer who spent 35 years with Black & Decker. "We're taking a month to travel up the East Coast, stopping at places like this along the way."

Gettysburg's battlefields are among dozens of significant sites in the newly designated Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area, a swath of land identified by Congress as the nation's most historic heritage corridor.

The corridor begins at Gettysburg and stretches south for 175 miles -- largely along routes 15 and 29 -- from central Pennsylvania through western Maryland and eastern West Virginia, ending in Charlottesville, Va. The region is described by preservationists as the place "where America happened" because it encompasses unparalleled cultural, historic and scenic resources, including 73 national historic districts, nine presidential homes, 15 historic Main Street

communities, the country's largest group of Civil War battlefields and significant sites from the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.

"What's most important to me about this region is that we're able to walk in the footprints of a generation of Americans who created this country," said Cate Magennis Wyatt, president of the nonprofit Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership.

"From the Founding Fathers to common farmers, it's inspiring to see and experience their stories. Every time I take this journey, it refreshes me and reminds me what it is to be an American."

Cooperative effort

The public-private Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership includes representatives from every elected body within the area, as well as more than 150 partnering organizations. In its developmental stages, the legislation establishing the heritage area had bipartisan support from four governors and various state and federal lawmakers, and it was endorsed by every town, county, borough council and board of commissioners in the corridor.

The partnership's goal is to provide education and recreational programs that celebrate the region while drawing visitors -- and their tourism dollars -- from around the world.

Designation as a National Heritage Area -- an honor bestowed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush in May -- enables the nonprofit to apply annually for as much as $1 million in federal funds that must be matched by the partnership. Magennis Wyatt said the organization's business plan eventually will render it self-sustaining.

"Getting this designation is critically important to telling America's story," she said. "This is a truly magnificent, unparalleled swath of land."

U.S. Sen. John Warner, a Virginia Republican, was the lead sponsor of the legislation endorsed by each member of Congress within the corridor. Warner called it an effort that will "bring opportunity to the region and its visitors."

Another Virginia Republican, U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, said the journey "is something that each and every citizen should have the chance to experience."

Something for everyone

Although the new heritage area is founded in history, it's not all about battlefields, monuments and presidents. There are rolling farmlands, fishing streams, wineries, hiking and biking trails, cemeteries, museums, shops and restaurants that offer everything from grass-fed beef to gourmet European cuisine.

Visitors planning to travel the corridor -- whether for a one-tank day trip or a longer vacation -- will find something to suit every taste in the book "The Journey Through Hallowed Ground: The Official Guide to Where America Happened," by David Edwin Lillard.

Tour suggestions, historical facts, admission information, directions, mapped routes and phone numbers are provided for every leg of the trip in the guide, which includes a full-color map of the entire corridor. It suggests specialized itineraries on themes such as presidential homes, black-heritage sites, scenic loops and recreational opportunities.

If that's not enough, personalized service is available through the partnership's director of travel services, Paul McDonald, who rattles off advice about anything from where to find the "must see" attractions to the smoothest wine to the best shopping. The University of Virginia history major, who is based in the partnership's Waterford, Va., office, is a wealth of information about the corridor's historic significance.

McDonald said it's unclear whether gas prices will affect tourism along the journey route. Because the effort is new, the partnership has no history to use for comparison purposes, he said.

He believes, however, that the compact nature of the corridor, the variety of attractions and the significance of the sites will make it a popular destination.

"There's so much to see here that you could just keep coming back again and again," he said, sitting on the shady front porch of Dodona Manor, the Leesburg, Va., home of Uniontown native Gen. George C. Marshall.

Home sweet homes

Dodona Manor opened to visitors in 2005. The green-shuttered home was beloved by the general and his family from the day his wife plucked a "for sale" sign from the yard and paid the seller a $10 deposit.

Today, just as they did 50 years ago, honeysuckle bushes and roses perfume the air, and crisp, green vegetables sprout from neat rows in the rear gardens.

Patricia Black, director of docent training at Dodona Manor, said about 95 percent of the furnishings, art and artifacts belonged to Marshall, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who crafted the plan to rebuild Europe after World War II. There are few reminders, however, of Marshall's Fayette County childhood in the home, which he occupied from 1941 until his death in 1959.

Black described Marshall as a humble man. Still, the home is richly furnished with treasures that include ornate chests and rugs from China, his official State Department portrait and a copy of a painting by Winston Churchill. Marshall's bedroom is austere, with a twin bed, simple furnishings and his clothes hanging in a narrow closet; his spartan first-floor study is furnished with a desk, chair and few other items.

"We joke that this is the office where nothing important was written," Black said.

Six miles south of Dodona, the 22-room Greek Revival mansion at the Oatlands Plantation was built in 1804 by George Carter, the great-grandson of one of early Virginia's wealthiest men.

On a recent muggy Tuesday morning, dozens of third-graders in Colonial costumes swarmed the plantation's home, garden and grounds with their teacher, Debra Oden. The group, from the Mountain View Elementary School in Purcellville, toured Oatlands as part of a pilot project to determine its appeal and educational value to young students.

Chaperone Kathleen Callihan wore a flowered gown and bonnet and dressed her son, Tommy, in a red-plumed tri-cornered hat for the day. The former Brentwood, Allegheny County, woman, a graduate of Carlow College in Pittsburgh, said the students will learn Colonial history when they enter fourth grade under Virginia's education requirements.

"They go to Jamestown; they study the clothes, the foods, the tools and the games that people played in Colonial times," she said. "This is a great local opportunity for them."

Thirty miles away, along Route 20 south of Orange, Va., the plantation home of President James Madison is an architectural gem that is undergoing extensive restoration. Although much remains to be done, Montpelier is open for tours during construction, which includes a complete overhaul of every room of the house used by the fourth president and his family from 1723 to 1844.

Exhibits about plantation life, several galleries and a visitors center are open at the home occupied by the duPont family from 1900 to 1983. In her will, Marion duPont Scott donated it to the National Trust for Historic Preservation and directed that it be restored to the way it looked during Madison's era.

Visitors who are put off by Montpelier's scaffolding can travel about 40 miles south to Monticello, the mountaintop home of Thomas Jefferson. Lush flower and vegetable gardens, a bird's-eye view of the University of Virginia's Rotunda and a pristine home with two-thirds of its original furnishings are highlights of the plantation, which overlooks Charlottesville at the southern tip of the heritage corridor.

Monticello, described as Jefferson's autobiographical masterpiece, is the only private home designated as a World Heritage Site.

Guy and Marie Frick, retirees from Oxnard, Calif., toured Monticello on a hot June Thursday as part of a trip that included stops in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Williamsburg, Va., and Asheville, N.C.

"Our primary interests are architecture, art and galleries," Guy Frick said. "This place is something else."

Historical significance led Dave and Molly Crawford of Boulder, Colo., to bring their sons, Colin and Kyle, to Monticello.

"We didn't worry about the gas prices," Dave Crawford said.

"We wanted them to see this and Williamsburg and Jamestown and Washington, D.C."

History lessons

Army veteran John Markley of Tyrone, Ga., said the region's rich history is reason enough to travel the Journey Through Hallowed Ground. Markley extended a one-day trade show in Frederick, Md., into a week's vacation with his 8-year-old son, Taylor, to visit Civil War battlefields and landmarks in the nation's capital.

On a scorching weekday morning, father and son tramped the dry grassy fields at the 5,000-acre Manassas National Battlefield Military Park in Virginia, the scene of two critical Civil War battles that offered many soldiers their first combat experience.

The earlier skirmish, known as the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861, marks the true beginning of the Civil War, when Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson's troops defeated Union

soldiers in front of crowds of spectators and picnickers. Thirteen months later, the second battle lasted two days, killed more than 3,300 soldiers and injured 20,000 more.

Stories of the conflict that allowed the Confederate Army to move the fight onto Northern soil fascinated Taylor Markley, who followed a map and read informational markers around the battlefield.

"I want to be a junior ranger," he said.

Bob Tucci, 61, of Baltimore has no such aspirations. Still, his interest in the Civil War and a friend's vacation visit to Frederick brought him to the National Museum of Civil War Medicine.

The former Mt. Pleasant man said he enjoys the restaurants, shops and galleries in Frederick's historic district, where boutiques and coffee shops occupy street space in neighborhoods that include places of national interest.

"I like the ambiance of old Frederick," Tucci said.

Frederick's highlights include the home of the fifth United States chief justice, Roger Brooke Taney. The late justice, who served from 1836 to 1864, administered the oath of office to five presidents and is known as the author of the Dred-Scott decision, which denied citizenship to blacks.

George C. Wunderlich, the Civil War medicine museum's executive director, said Frederick -- and the museum, in particular -- played a large role in development of the new heritage area. Planning meetings took place at the museum, which was visited by more than 30,000 people from all 50 states and 47 countries last year.

Filled with photos and artifacts, the museum traces the development of medicine from the war's beginning to its end. Displays feature tools from the first ambulance system to transport wounded soldiers, medical equipment and drugs used by surgeons.

"We also offer management-training programs for hospitals and medical professionals using the Civil War management models to explain logistics and command control," Wunderlich said.

Fun breaks

There is no secret to the logistics of finding fun attractions along the heritage corridor, which encompasses or borders a number of national parks and recreational areas.

South of Frederick in Dickerson, Md., the Monocacy Aqueduct on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal is a popular spot for fishing, hiking, biking and picnicking. The aqueduct, maintained by the National Park Service, is one of 10 remaining on the 184-mile canal built to ship coal and cargo through the Allegheny Mountains to the tidewaters of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Monocacy Aqueduct has been called the finest canal feature in America, but to Bill Burdette of Dickerson, it's simply his favorite fishing hole.

"I've lived here all my life and didn't know there was as much history around here," the 76-year-old said. "I come here to put in time, fishing for blue gills or going out on a flat-bottomed boat with my friend."

Burdette said the area around the aqueduct is rich with wildlife, including a majestic pair of bald eagles, deer and lots of small game. He saw a bear once but normally meets only hikers and bikers on the adjacent trail.

Just as Burdette pulled his fishing pole from the water, Bruce Donato, 48, of Gaithersburg, Md., and his daughter, Katherine, 20, stopped for a picnic in a shady grove of trees. After lunch, their 10-mile bike ride followed a route along the canal.

Donato, a Western Pennsylvania transplant who grew up in Pittsburgh's Brookline neighborhood, said he enjoys the peaceful, wooded trail whenever he has free time.

"I don't always do 10 miles," he said, laughing. "At my age, it depends how I feel."

Travelers in pursuit of relaxation, rather than tests of endurance, can sample the fare at any of the dozens of wineries tucked into farm vineyards and wooded hollows along the corridor.

Tarara Winery, a 475-acre estate along the Potomac River in Leesburg, Va., includes tasting rooms, a concert amphitheater, six miles of hiking trails and an outdoor patio. Built by the late construction magnate Whitey Hubert, who died in April, the winery boasts 15 varieties of grapes planted in rich, red-clay soil.

Bill Gallagher of Ashburn, Va., offers tasting tours at the winery two days a week in the basement of the home occupied by Hubert's widow, Margaret. On a recent stormy afternoon, he guided visitors on a tour of the grounds, where dozens of pink-and-white rose bushes circle a lake in the middle of the woods.

"He built this as a retirement project for something to do, but it's grown into something huge," Gallagher said.

From her office at the nonprofit, Wyatt said that attractions huge and small provide bragging rights to visitors all along the heritage corridor.

"It's wonderful because they can come away from this with a sense of accomplishment, ticking off the places they've seen," Wyatt said.

"I say 'Fill up your gas tank, and see what you can soak up along the way.'"

'There's so much to see and do'

Nestled in the woods, above a gurgling creek laced with bright-green lily pads, the Sachs covered bridge is a far cry from the monuments, T-shirt shops and ghost tours of Gettysburg.

The bridge -- built in 1852 just off Pumping Station Road, painted red and restored by the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association -- is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Still, locals say, it's an infrequent stop for Gettysburg's 1.7 million annual visitors.

Former North Hills residents Don and Diana Wingard of Naples, Fla., count themselves lucky to have spotted the bridge over Marsh Creek during an early-June drive around Gettysburg. Don, a preservation enthusiast and president of the Naples Historical Society, combed the area's battlefields and attractions until he found it.

"It feels good to be here," said his wife while walking along the bridge's wooden planks. "It's just beautiful and so peaceful."

The Sachs bridge is among hidden gems -- many of them accessible free of charge -- that are scattered along the route of the newly designated Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area.

"There's so much to see and do," said Cate Magennis Wyatt, president of the nonprofit Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership. "A lot of the things don't cost anything at all."

Tourists in search of something unique are enthralled by the Graffiti House in Brandy Station, Va., about 100 miles south of Gettysburg. The wood-frame home built in 1858 had been targeted for demolition during the 1990s but was spared when precious assets were discovered under coats of peeling paint.

Dozens of cartoon drawings, sketches and charcoal signatures -- including Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's -- covered the horse-hair plastered walls on the second floor of the home alternately used by Union and Confederate troops. Volunteer Della Edrington, known to visitors as "the lady of the house," said Union troops used the home as administrative offices, while Confederates set it up as a battlefield hospital.

"This is so important because it's the only place that tells the story of both sides," Edrington said.

The story of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America is remembered at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial on the grounds of the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Md. The memorial honors firefighters who died in the line of duty.

Hundreds of firefighters from Pennsylvania are listed on red bricks lining a walkway that leads to the 7-foot stone cairn topped with a bronze Maltese cross. Nearby, a new addition to the grounds is a towering bronze sculpture that depicts New York City firefighters raising a flag at the World Trade Center site.

Just across the fence from the fire academy, the National Shrine of Elizabeth Ann Seton plays an important role in the story of the Catholic Church in America. Seton, a Sister of Charity and the first American-born person to be canonized as a saint, helped widowed mothers and ran a girls school on land that houses an elaborate basilica, museum, retreat center and cemetery.

Inside the basilica, St. Elizabeth Ann is buried in a tomb beneath the Altar of Relics.

Mary Parrish of Hillsborough, N.C., visited the basilica before a conference at the fire academy. Afterward, she stopped at nearby Mount St. Mary's University to tour the Grotto of Lourdes garden, where St. Elizabeth Ann regularly taught children at an outdoor chapel in the woods.

Parrish said the grotto's beauty and serenity brought a measure of peace in the hours before a conference presentation on behalf of her employer, the University of North Carolina.

"I've never been to this part of the country before," Parrish said. "I would never have discovered this place."

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