Forced to choose by the state budget crisis, members of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission will meet in Harrisburg Wednesday to determine the future of half a dozen state-run historic sites and museums. One of them is the Fort Pitt Museum.

For a city that last year celebrated the 250th anniversary of its founding amid the tumult of the French and Indian War, it would shame civic pride if the one institution dedicated solely to that conflict were to be closed.

Happily, the debate has moved from how a community asset might be lost to who is best placed to save it. In fairly short order, three potential rescuers appeared -- the Friends of the Fort Pitt Museum, the Senator John Heinz History Center and Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum.

All three made public presentations last month to take over Fort Pitt, but Soldiers & Sailors is no longer pressing its bid. Interestingly, its president, Ron Gancas, now believes that the History Center has the best resources, manpower and financial heft to run the museum.

That was also the Post-Gazette's initial reaction and today we confirm our earlier judgment. On Wednesday, we believe the state commission should settle on the History Center as the best choice.

This is not to say that the proposal put together by The Friends of the Fort Pitt Museum doesn't have merit. Its proposal calls for the group to manage the museum on an interim basis between July 1, 2009, and June 30, 2010, as a prelude to setting up a public-private partnership called The Forks of the Ohio Historical Site. The Friends' plan says it can make do with $182,000 from the state. All of this seems overly ambitious for a group feeling its way.

The plan offered by the History Center, the pros who actually operate historical museums in different locations, would cost a bit more, but it still would cost about half the annual $500,000 or so the state pays now. For that money, the Fort Pitt Museum would get the expertise, the synergies and the marketing reach that only the History Center seems in a position to bring. It is the obvious choice.