Those plotting to improve Civil War tourism in Nashville need only look to Franklin for guidance.
The city is site of three historic homes, as well as a 112-acre battlefield that has been carved from the land that once was Franklin Country Club.
“We have received national recognition for battlefield reclamation,” says Deborah Warnick, director of heritage tourism for the Franklin Convention and Visitors Bureau.
She notes that teamwork, among the sites, the city and other interested parties and organizations are responsible for the city’s success as a tourist draw.
The most recent figures available show tourism is responsible for $264.5 million in travel-related spending annually in Williamson County. It also accounts for 2,425 jobs and an annual payroll of $48 million.
Not all of that is Civil War related, Warnick says. Still, the numbers of tourists who come to Franklin are a primary ingredient.
“Another part of it is, the National Trust named Franklin as a Great American Main Street early on, so we have a lot, something for everybody here.
“If a wife accompanies her husband down here, and he’s the Civil War enthusiast and she wants to spend her time shopping, then it’s all right here for us,” she says.
Of course, it could be reverse and the wife is the Civil War enthusiast, especially since Franklin author Robert Hicks’ best-selling novel, Widow of the South, with part of it set at Carnton Plantation on the day of the Battle of Franklin.
“It has been said that the largest reclamation project in the world has happened in Franklin,” says Warnick. “Robert Hicks has been a friend in terms of tourism.”
She says that it has drawn a different type of tourist, Hicks enthusiasts, to the city. “I’ve stood on the porch at Carnton and I’ve seen people walk up the sidewalk with the book under their arms,” she says. “They’ll say the book is what drove them there.
“So you’ve got your Civil War battle enthusiasts, but Robert’s book tapped into people that are not your typical Civil War enthusiast.”
But there’s even more to the success story.
“One other thing that has happened here is there is a Civil War Trails Program that started in Virginia.”
Through markers and maps, the Civil War Trail guides travelers to historic sites in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and Tennessee.
“Williamson County has the first marker in the state, placed on the square. We currently have 14. We have more trail markers than any county in the state.”