The York County Culture and Heritage Museums unveiled plans for the research facility last week. The institute will be based at the McCelvey Center in York and will be the only one of its kind in the nation.

The idea is to explore the roles played by the Southern states during the Revolutionary War and to provide a center for study open to visiting scholars, tourists and other history buffs. The center also will house collections of historical documents, copies of Revolutionary War-era manuscripts and other educational resources.

Planners also hope to hold a variety of special events at the center, such as research symposiums, bus tours of Revolutionary War battle sites in the area and lectures by American history scholars.

The center also is likely to fill a crucial niche in the county's effort to capitalize on the war's Southern Campaign.

While not much occurred in this part of South Carolina during the Civil War, the Carolina back-country was a key factor nearly a century earlier. Many believe that, while much has been written about battles in what now is New England, the South also played a key role in the war.

Upstate South Carolina, in particular, was the site of several crucial confrontations that turned the tide of the war in favor of the Americans.

Nearby, the Kings Mountain National Military Battlefield and Kings Mountain State Park in York and Cherokee counties commemorate a decisive defeat of British troops in the bloody battle of Kings Mountain. York County also was the site of the Battle of Huck's Defeat, which was re-enacted Saturday at Historic Brattonsville.

Brattonsville, which consists mostly of Revolutionary War-era buildings and which regularly features costumed actors depicting life in the 18th century, figures prominently in local hopes for a Revolutionary War tourism boom.

Chester County also was the site of several Revolutionary War skirmishes.

The new Southern Revolutionary War Institute should fit well in that mix. It also provides a useful function for McCelvey Center, the historic school that is close to the hearts of many York County residents but which has been something of an orphan in recent years, a great building in search of the right tenant mix.

We hope the new institute will find a happy home there.

IN SUMMARY
New Southern Revolutionary War Institute should fill niche in effort to attract tourists.