Battlefields big business for Va.

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (AP) - There's no assembly line. No smokestack. No tractor-trailers carrying off newly manufactured goods.

Perhaps it's not surprising that Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park is rarely viewed as the revenue generator that it is.

But a new report from Washington shows that the 8,400-acre park pumps $49.6 million a year into the area's economy.

The study by the National Park Service says the park supported 594 jobs in 2007 -- 517 through visitors' spending and 77 through its payroll spending.

Park Superintendent Russ Smith says many places across the country would do "nearly anything" to get the tourism money-maker that the park has been for the Fredericksburg area.

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Information from: The Free Lance-Star, http://www.fredericksburg.com/