Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area

Last updated
Freedom's Frontier
National Heritage Area
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location within the United States
USA Kansas location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area (Kansas)
USA Missouri location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area (Missouri)
Coordinates: 38°45′N95°0′W / 38.750°N 95.000°W / 38.750; -95.000 Coordinates: 38°45′N95°0′W / 38.750°N 95.000°W / 38.750; -95.000
Country United States
States Kansas and Missouri
Counties41 counties in Eastern Kansas and Western Missouri
EstablishedOctober 12, 2006
Government
  BodyFFNHA Board of Trustees
Area
  Total31,021 sq mi (80,340 km2)

Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area, Inc. (FFNHA) is a federally designated U.S. National Heritage Area located in eastern Kansas and Western Missouri. This heritage area preserves, conserves, and interprets historic and cultural landscapes pertaining to: the shaping of the frontier, the Missouri-Kansas Border War, and the enduring struggle for freedom. FFNHA was authorized on October 12, 2006, with the passage of the National Heritage Areas Act of 2006. The management plan for the heritage area was approved by the Board of Trustees on June 10, 2009, and undergoes official review by the National Park Service to ensure it complies with all components required within the enabling legislation.

Contents

Mission and Themes

The focus of the FFNHA is to share the stories of 19th century Americans and their definitions and struggles with freedom. Many of the sites focus on the Bleeding Kansas and American Civil War years, but there are several locations that deal with 20th century events and the ecology of Kansas and Missouri. According to the FFNHA's website:

Freedom's Frontier is a “story ecosystem” defined by the history that unifies the region. The overarching theme of FFNHA is Freedom. Each of the three sub-themes connects to the ideal of freedom and clearly states why the area's resources and values are important enough to warrant federal designation of the area. The main sub-theme is the Missouri Kansas Border War, consisting of interpretations of the years of uneasy balance established by the Missouri Compromise leaving the territory's future slave status in the hands of settlers and ushering in the Civil War. Additional sub-themes include Shaping the Frontier, interpreting this place where river travel ended and traders, miners, and emigrants began the long overland treks beyond Missouri's western border, pushing Native American populations aside in the process, and the Enduring Struggles for Freedom, interpreting stories of this place that has inspired national policies and ongoing efforts to secure equal freedoms for all Americans. [1]

The FFNHA also gives out several grants and awards as well as supporting educators with additional curriculum and scholarships. [2]

Historic Sites

There are several notable historic sites located in the FFNHA. [3]

National Parks

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arrow Rock, Missouri</span> Village in Missouri, United States

Arrow Rock is a village in Saline County, Missouri, United States, located near the Missouri River. The entire village is part of the National Historic Landmark Arrow Rock Historic District, designated by the Department of the Interior, National Park Service in 1963. It is significant in the history of Westward Expansion, the Santa Fe Trail, and 19th-century artist George Caleb Bingham. The town is well known for the Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre, hosting over 33,000 patrons every year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Independence, Missouri</span> City in Missouri, United States

Independence is the fifth-largest city in Missouri and the county seat of Jackson County. Independence is a satellite city of Kansas City, Missouri, and is the largest suburb on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metropolitan area. In 2020, it had a total population of 123,011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bleeding Kansas</span> Violent political confrontations in the United States centered around slavery

Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas, or the Border War was a series of violent civil confrontations in Kansas Territory, and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859. It emerged from a political and ideological debate over the legality of slavery in the proposed state of Kansas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Leavenworth</span> United States Army installation located in Leavenworth County, Kansas

Fort Leavenworth is a United States Army installation located in Leavenworth County, Kansas, in the city of Leavenworth, roughly 20 miles northwest of Kansas City. Built in 1827, it is the second oldest active United States Army post west of Washington, D.C., and the oldest permanent settlement in Kansas. Fort Leavenworth has been historically known as the "Intellectual Center of the Army."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Fe Trail</span> 19th-century route through central North America between Franklin, MO, and Santa Fe, NM

The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, the trail served as a vital commercial highway until 1880, when the railroad arrived in Santa Fe. Santa Fe was near the end of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, which carried trade from Mexico City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Scott National Historic Site</span> National Historic Site of the United States

Fort Scott National Historic Site is a historical area under the control of the United States National Park Service in Bourbon County, Kansas, United States. Named after General Winfield Scott, who achieved renown during the Mexican–American War, during the middle of the 19th century the fort served as a military base for US Army action in what was the edge of settlement in 1850. For the next quarter century, it was used as a supply base and to provide security in turbulent areas during the opening of the West to settlement, a period which included Bleeding Kansas and the American Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Heritage Area</span> Land designation by the U.S. government to encourage preservation

In the United States, a National Heritage Area (NHA) is a site designated by Act of Congress, intended to encourage historic preservation of the area and an appreciation of the history and heritage of the site. There are currently 55 NHAs, some of which use variations of the title, such as National Heritage Corridor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site</span> National Historic Site of the United States in North Dakota

Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site is a partial reconstruction of the most important fur trading post on the upper Missouri, 1829-1867. The fort site is about two miles from the confluence of the Missouri River and its tributary, the Yellowstone River, on the Dakota side of the North Dakota/Montana border, 25 miles from Williston, North Dakota.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicodemus, Kansas</span> Unincorporated community in Graham County, Kansas

Nicodemus is an unincorporated community in Graham County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the community and nearby areas was 14. The community was founded in 1877 and is named for the Biblical figure Nicodemus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boston African American National Historic Site</span> National Historic Site of the United States

The Boston African American National Historic Site, in the heart of Boston, Massachusetts's Beacon Hill neighborhood, interprets 15 pre-Civil War structures relating to the history of Boston's 19th-century African-American community, connected by the Black Heritage Trail. These include the 1806 African Meeting House, the oldest standing black church in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Gibson</span> United States historic place

Fort Gibson is a historic military site next to the modern city of Fort Gibson, in Muskogee County Oklahoma. It guarded the American frontier in Indian Territory from 1824 to 1888. When it was constructed, the fort was farther west than any other military post in the United States. It formed part of the north–south chain of forts that was intended to maintain peace on the frontier of the American West and to protect the southwestern border of the Louisiana Purchase. The fort succeeded in its peacekeeping mission for more than 50 years, as no massacres or battles occurred there.

There are numerous heritages and cultural attractions in the province of Saskatchewan. Museums, dinosaur digs, aboriginal cultural and heritage sites, art galleries, professional sport venues, spas, handcraft, antique and tea shops, agricultural tours, theatre and archaeological sites comprise over 600 varied Saskatchewan institutions.

The 1st Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was the first black regiment to be organized in a northern state and the first black unit to see combat during the Civil War. At the Battle of Poison Spring, the regiment lost nearly half its number, and suffered the highest losses of any Kansas regiment during the war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Joplin House State Historic Site</span> Historic house in St. Louis, Missouri

The Scott Joplin House State Historic Site is located at 2658 Delmar Boulevard in St. Louis, Missouri. It preserves the Scott Joplin Residence, the home of composer Scott Joplin from 1901 to 1903. The house and its surroundings are maintained by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources as a state historic site. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places and designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Brown Museum (Osawatomie, Kansas)</span> Historical museum

The John Brown Museum, also known as the John Brown Museum State Historic Site and John Brown Cabin, is located in Osawatomie, Kansas. The site is operated by the Kansas Historical Society, and includes the log cabin of Reverend Samuel Adair and his wife, Florella, who was the half-sister of the abolitionist John Brown. Brown lived in the cabin during the twenty months he spent in Kansas and conducted many of his abolitionist activities from there. The museum's displays tell the story of John Brown, the Adairs and local abolitionists, and include the original cabin, Adair family furnishings and belongings, and Civil War artifacts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marais des Cygnes Massacre Site</span> United States historic place

The Marais des Cygnes Massacre Site, also known as Marais des Cygnes Massacre Memorial Park, is a state historic site near Trading Post, Kansas that commemorates the 1858 massacre of the same name. On May 19, 1858, during a period of political instability and sporadic violence known as Bleeding Kansas, a group of pro-slavery border ruffians captured 11 abolitionist free-staters. The prisoners were forced to a nearby ravine, where 10 of them were shot, resulting in five fatalities. The abolitionist John Brown later built a fort near the site. The first commemoration at the site was two stone markers erected by men of the 3rd Iowa Cavalry Regiment in 1864, although these monuments had been destroyed by souvenir hunters by 1895. In 1941, the land where the massacre occurred, as well as an 1870s-era house constructed by a friend of Brown, were transferred to the state of Kansas. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1974. The Kansas Historical Society administers the site, which is interpreted by signage and a hand-cranked audio recording.

The Champlain Valley National Heritage Area is a federally designated National Heritage Area encompassing eleven counties in New York and Vermont surrounding Lake Champlain. The heritage area designation recognizes the area's historical and scenic significance. The region was a strategic corridor between the Hudson Valley of the United States and the Richelieu Valley of Quebec during the American Revolution in the late 18th century, and saw considerable military action during the War of 1812. During the American Civil War the valley was a part of the Underground Railroad network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Island Mound State Historic Site</span>

The Battle of Island Mound State Historic Site is located in a rural area of Bates County, Missouri, in the western part of the state. The site was established to preserve the area of the American Civil War battle that took place in October 28–29, 1862 between Union forces and Confederate guerrillas. The battle was significant as the first time African-American troops on the Union side engaged enemy white troops in the Civil War. A correspondent of The New York Times reported on the battle; the headline noted the "desperate bravery" of the African Americans in achieving Union victory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lexington Historical Museum</span> United States historic place

The Lexington Historical Museum is a museum with a collection of historic items related to Lexington, Missouri. The Greek Revival building was constructed in 1846 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. It is located in the Old Neighborhoods Historic District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Depot Museum</span>

The Old Depot Museum is a history museum located in Ottawa, Kansas. The focus of the museum is primarily on the regional history of Franklin County, and the importance of trains to the development of small towns. It features history of local Native Americans, local industries, and has accurate recreations of historical rooms. The Old Depot Museum is on the National Register of Historic Places.

References

  1. "FAQ – Freedom's Frontier NHA". freedomsfrontier.org. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  2. "Educators – Freedom's Frontier NHA". freedomsfrontier.org. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
  3. "Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2022-03-30.