Meetings to map out the next steps of Lawrence’s effort to attract a National Heritage Area designation will be Thursday and Friday at the Eldridge Hotel.

And, in recognition that the area’s “Bleeding Kansas” history extends beyond Douglas County, the summit will include representatives from cities across eastern Kansas, including Fort Scott, Atchison, Leavenworth and Topeka.

The summit “will broaden the focus — geographically get outside Lawrence and Douglas County — and look at the issues in a more regional context,” said Lawrence City Commissioner David Dunfield, a leader in the process.

Officials believe a federal designation of a national heritage area will draw federal dollars to help Lawrence and northeast Kansas preserve the area’s history in helping spark the Civil War — and promote that history to tourists.

Twenty-three heritage areas are already in the national park system, although the land and management remains in private hands.

Proponents hope they can persuade Congress to make the designation by 2004, when Lawrence and the Kansas Territory will celebrate their 150th anniversaries.

“It’ll be ambitious,” said Judy Billings, director of the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau. “In order to do it, you have to have the legislation finished by March. …

“We’ll get it eventually, I’m confident of that,” she said. “But I don’t know how quickly we can get it done, given the politics.”

The summit will be broken into five parts over two days to identify the details of how the heritage area would be created, as well as to explore the economic opportunities. Five facilitators from the National Park Service and other heritage areas will lead the meetings.

Billings said 55 people — including tourism and economic officials from across the state — were already registered for the summit.

“We’re very fortunate to have this rich history to draw upon and the possibility of developing it in the Heritage Area framework is exciting,” said Judge Deanell Reece Tacha, chairwoman of the Douglas County Heritage Area Committee. “It’s an opportunity to translate our heritage into something that’s educational and tangible.”