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A Partnership Park
Cedar Creek and Belle Grove NHP is a "partnership park," in which the National Park Service works with several Key Partners to create and manage the park and its resources. These Key Partners are all non-profit or governmental organizations and include:
- The National Trust for Historic Preservation
- Belle Grove, Inc.
- Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation
- Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation
- Shenandoah County, Virginia
Cedar Creek and Belle Grove NHP is also a park-in-development, only being created by Congress in 2002. Although there are over 3,700 acres within the park's authorized boundary, over half of this is still privately owned. Therefore, much of the battlefield is not accessible to the public. Nearly all of the remaining land (approximately 1,400 acres) and buildings are preserved and administered by the Key Partners.
This "partnership" also means that the park is essentially run by volunteers. The staffing levels are currently so limited that, at present there are no National Park Service operated visitor facilities (nor a seven-day-a-week operation at the Park headquarters). The Key Partners also have limited staffing, relying heavily on volunteers to provide visitor services.
Two major sites, Cedar Creek Battlefield Visitor Center and Belle Grove Plantation House, are open to the public. Both are good places to start learning the stories of Cedar Creek, Belle Grove and the Shenandoah Valley (see Things to Do).
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