Do you think the state government should be funding the CSS Neuse museum project?

The CSS Neuse has been a total disappointment for years. I think that tourists will be greatly disappointed to just see the hull of a boat. That money would be better spent on helping people, not a pile of old wood. About 5 gallons of kerosene would be the best option and save the remaining $9 million for more worthwhile projects. I think the results of your web poll should tell our elected officials that this project is not what the public wants. It's time to let the CSS Neuse float on its own without the taxpayer footing the bill.

Yes, I think we should save the CSS Neuse. It is our family history. It seems that the Confederate history is being left in the passed. I feel that the CSS Neuse will bring a lot of tourism to our communities and towns. If fixed up properly it will bring well over 1 million dallors a year to our community. It is Southern history that should not be fogotten about and should be passed down to our children and grandchildren.

NO!! go back and look and see how many people visited the CSS over the last yr. Who is going to pay for the "controlled" temperature in the building?????
Take the money and pay the bill that the city owes for power they buy and maybe our light bills will come down and not have an increase for a while!!!!!!!!

Look the same people who voted no probably our the same people that don't want God in our schools!!!!! They are probably the same people who don't want southern in the south!!!! Yes it would be great to save the CSS Neuse. The money from the toursim will pay for the coast of the up keep, temperature ect... Plus bring millions to our community. Which will help our small bussines owners. Which will cause a ripple effect, for example: help us keep our jobs. Plus it is an historical and our states lagest artafact. There is only 2 still around today. The civil war museum in GA. It is makeing large proffits, right at a 1/2 million dallors a year!!!! So this local museum will bring in millions and stimulate NC economy!

Saving this piece of history would be great for our area. Lenoir and Pitt counties have done little to preserve history. Much has been thrown away to neglect and no interest. I feel this project is part of our heritage, and to have it preserved would be of benefit for generations to come and bring revenue back into the area!

It should be private funded, I mean who really stops in Kinston to see an old boat? Our state needs that money for helping PEOPLE right now.. maybe go back to funding it when our economy is better! It just seems like such a waste.. maybe someone will buy it and the state can make some money from it..

Yes, we should preserve our HISTORY, it's No.Carolina History. I had graduated Hi Sch, & Moved away from the area, by the time it was being raised, would have been great to see it being pulled up. Anyone who visits
Kinston & sees the ACTUAL SIZE REPLICA OF THE C.S.S. NEUSE, in down-
town, it's remarkable. Some people just as well, bull doze Ft.Sumter, Ft.
Macon, & every other fort, it's our history. It's disgusting that some people
can't stand the past, 1800's to 1900.

Only a small number of the Civil War battlefields in this State have been preserved and only the remains of three Civil War Ironclads remain to be seen counting the CSS Neuse. With it's hull and the full size copy, this will become a major tourist draw. Fort Macon is the most visited State Park with well over a million last year in a slowing economy. Most of the coastal tourist pass Kinston and over the next seven years we'll see the 150th anniversary of the events during the war. Don't lose more of what is the history of North Carolina.

History...it's all about history.

Unfortunately our society has evolved into a throwaway society with everything being fair game. The C.S.S. Ram Neuse is viewed as part of this scheme and no different in some folk's eyes. I think the poll will show the majority believe otherwise.

This grand piece of our past will be a drawing card that will entice Civil War buffs from all points of the globe to visit. It's my opinion they'll not only visit Kinston, home of the C.S.S. Ram Neuse, but all of eastern North Carolina that's rich in Civil War history.

Most people that aren't educated as to what part North Carolina played in the WBS should learn of the contribution we made and be proud of our heritage as well as the sacrifices our forefather's made. North Carolina provided more troops and dead bodies than any other Southern state.

This project with the C.S.S. Ram Neuse would simply be a cornerstone to bigger and better things that will help generate tourism dollars for ALL of eastern North Carolina.

The gunboat was and is a historical fact. If you do not believe that she is a "tourist draw", take a look at the ship's logbook aboard her replica at Gordon and Heritage Streets in your fair city of Kinston. There you will see names and addresses from around the world and many return visits of visitors there to observe changes in the display of the "replica" and its site. The new downtown "Civil War Museum", which will contain the original gunboat's remains and its former contents, will be an even greater tourist draw than the gunboat replica for Kinston and eastern North Carolina. Some of North Carolina's most knowlegable economic advisors have suggested history tourism (the gunboat is only a part of North Carolina's history) as the way to go for Kinston's economic development. The museum and the gunboat, which it will contain, will be a great investment for Kinston and our state. I hope that our people will be wise enough to support the "C. S. S. Neuse" project,
which will bring in those tourist dollars and, at the same time, honor the creativeness and bravery of our North Carolina citizens of the past (history).

A look at history pays dividends other than dollars. David McCullough, Pulitzer Prize-winning author said, "Indifference to history isn't just ignorant; it's a form of ingratitude...I'm convinced that history encourages, as nothing else does, a sense of proportion about life, gives us a sense of how brief is our time on earth and thus how valuable time is." Those are some of the not-so-obvious dividends of an investment in history tourism.

Keeping this bit of Civil War History is extremely important for Kinston and Lenoir County. It may be just a "pile of old wood" but it stands for so much more. The community as well as the local economy can directly benefit from the tourism that Civil War followers generate. Let's be proud of what our town has to offer to North Carolina and the rest of the U.S. rather than demolishing it.

When I was growing up,my Dad carried me to see them dig up The C.S.S. Ram Neuse.I remember it to this day and I'm 58 now.I want to see the Ram
Neuse moved to a more safe building to protect it from the weather.It was saved from its watery grave,now it needs saving again!!!

The building it is in could be restructed for half the price and keep it at a more respectable place to visit and enjoy from not being overcrowded. When you take children to see artifacts they need a safe and spacious place away from traffic to stay out of harms way. We should always step back and weight the pros and cons of any sbject to be considered. Queen Street doesn't have the space needed for all the site seeing they are predicting. There is and easiesr and less costly way to do this.

Of course it should be moved indoors as protection against the elements. It is almost idiotic to suggest otherwise - lose a priceless 140-year old historical relic for the sake of a measely million dollars? The government blows through that amount about every thirty seconds.

What other projects are more worthwhile? More foodstamps and welfare for crack cocaine addicts?

Besides which there over a thousand smaller civil war relics recovered with the ship that need to be displayed in this museum e,g, artillery shells, bayonets, personal items of soldiers, etc. There are people who want to see these things and they belong in a museum in the area they were found.

The Neuse gunboat needs to be preserved as part of the Civil War history corridor that stretches from New Bern to Kinston and on to Goldsboro! All three towns have realized that Civil War tourism makes money. Re-enactments of battles fought at these three cities (Union Gen. Foster's December, 1862, campaign) have already been successful and more are planned. Battlefield preservation efforts are well underway at all three locations. With the hull of the Neuse as the centerpiece, a museum featuring the river and land war in eastern North Carolina will add greatly to the public's appreciation of eastern North Carolina's crucial role in the War Between the States. Money spent along this historic corridor is money well spent!

Yes, I just wish that the law established in the case of the Fort Branch Cannons had been established 12 years earlier. The ownership of the boat would have fallen to the state, therefore the recovery would have been under trained state archeoligists supervision. I usually side with the amatures but once you see the photos of the recovery operation on the Nuese by the men who decided to try to dig it up, one will see that what remains today is about half of what was initially uncovered. For Christ sakes, the deck of the boat was in tact. There are pictures of men working on the inside of the vessel. High water took the deck away in late 61 - early 62. I feel that trained professionals would have recovered what would be a truly unique artifact today, Almost the entire hull of the CSS Nuese