Prince William-Manassas Selected as Destination for Major Civil War Tour Organized by Filmmaker Ken Burns

MANASSAS, Va., Jan. 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A highly-anticipated Civil War-related tour created by award-winning documentary filmmaker, Ken Burns, is headed to Prince William County, Virginia this year, thanks in part to efforts by the Prince William-Manassas Convention & Visitors Bureau and local tourism partners.

The 2011 Tauck Civil War Event Tour, created by Burns and collaborator Dayton Duncan and organized by Tauck Tours, will take place from May 22-26, 2011. This exclusive five day experience for 300 travelers will bring guests to Manassas National Battlefield Park, the site of two major battles of the Civil War; to Ben Lomond House, which served as a Confederate hospital during the war; and to Historic Occoquan.

According to Ann Marie Maher, executive director of the Prince William-Manassas Convention & Visitors Bureau, CVB representatives worked with officials at the county's Office of Historic Preservation, the Town of Occoquan, Mid-Atlantic Receptive Services -- the CVB's group tour company for the 2011 battle reenactment -- and Destination DC to put Prince William and Manassas on Tauck's radar.

"We are so pleased that Ken Burns and Tauck Tours has selected three historic Prince William County sites for this one-of-a-kind living history tour," Maher said. "Bringing Tauck Tours to our destination was a team effort, and we're confident that visitors who participate in this experience will greatly enjoy our region's unique history and unmatched hospitality."

Inspired to craft this event with Tauck for many of the same reasons he was inspired to create his miniseries, The Civil War, Ken Burns explained, "To understand who we are as Americans, we must understand the four horrible years in our national life when we tore each other in two."

The tour will focus on the "the people's" point of view as opposed to strict historical reporting. Guests will embark on themed adventures designed to give context to the Civil War and the three topics that Ken Burns sees as critical to understanding it: "Lincoln's War," "The Meaning of Freedom," and "The People's War."

For more information on the 2011 Tauck Civil War Event Tour, visit: www.tauck.com.

For more information on tourism in Prince William-Manassas, go to www.visitpwc.com.

The Prince William-Manassas Convention & Visitors Bureau is a non-profit sales and marketing organization which aggressively promotes Prince William County and Manassas, Virginia as a meeting and leisure visitor destination by promoting patronage of area tourism-related businesses and services.

SOURCE Prince William-Manassas Convention & Visitors Bureau