National Park Service is forbidden by regulation to use original CW/IW weapons for their living history and open display programs. Soooooooo......... They buy replicas. The NPS order by its self makes it worthwhile for Pedersoli to tool up for them and also explains why they are so expensive. The NPS is spending your money so they don't really care what they cost.
"A generation which ignores history has no past and no future." - Jean Boden
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on."
-- Robert Frost