By COLLEEN SLEVIN

DENVER (AP) — When the government shut down in 2018, a Mississippi nonprofit interceded to fund a bare-bones crew to keep one of the state’s most-visited cultural attractions operating. Now, the group is committed to doing that for Vicksburg National Military Park once again.

The hilly Civil War battlefield where soldiers fought for control of the Mississippi River in 1863, run by the National Park Service, reopened Thursday thanks to a commitment from the Friends of Vicksburg National Military Park and Campaign to pay $2,000 a day to keep it open during the current shutdown.

“For us it is primarily and first and foremost an issue of protection of the park,” executive director Bess Averett said of the site, home to more than 18,000 graves of veterans from six wars and

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