Excerpts:
“Stowed in a warehouse with a leaky skylight is one of this city’s remaining valuable assets: a U.S. Cavalry horse’s hoof purportedly found on the battlefield at Little Bighorn, the site of Lt. Col. George A. Custer’s Last Stand in 1876.”
“The hoof was headed for a National Museum of the Old West here in Pennsylvania’s capital. The museum was never built, but the hoof is now part of Harrisburg’s push to escape $310 million in debt.”
“Few people expect a stampede to buy the stuffed buffalo in the corner. “Quite frankly, it looks like something that was in my grandmother’s attic,” Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson recalls saying when she saw the collection.”
“Two weeks ago, the city council filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection. Harrisburg is the second U.S. city to have done so this year. While the move was opposed by Ms. Thompson and Pennsylvania’s governor Tom Corbett, they agree that the city of about 50,000 needs a plan to get out from under its debt. The city is projected to be insolvent within about six months, according to the governor’s office.”
“The word on the street is that everything is for sale,” says Anniken Davenport, a lawyer who has lived here for 25 years.
” Last year, Arizona sold state legislative buildings and other properties for $735 million, leasing them back for 20 years. Pontiac, Mich., sold the Silverdome, former home of the Detroit Lions, for $583,000.”
“The museum idea died when Harrisburg couldn’t pay the debt on the incinerator and ran into grave financial problems. The artifacts cost about $7.8 million, although Ms. Thompson says the records are scattered. A yellowing invoice under an overturned coffee cup in the former water plant shows $12,050 for photographs of William “Buffalo Bill” Cody and scenes from Nevada.”
“Even though Harrisburg looks like a desperate seller, “we are not going to have a fire sale,” Ms. Thompson says.”
