KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? The Quindaro Ruins preservation project should be linked in a National Heritage Area with other sites from Kansas’ territorial period, project officials said.

The Quindaro Ruins Archaeological Park Project, at the site of a town that thrived as an abolitionist community in the mid-1800s, was named to the National Register of Historic Places in July 2002.

Steve Collins, one of the project’s three directors, said a National Heritage Area designation would boost tourism and grant opportunities for a host of interconnected historical sites across eastern Kansas.

The Quindaro group’s proposal would link more than 12 dozen historical areas in Wyandotte County with other sites containing connections to the state’s Territorial Period, May 1854 to March 1861.

The dates mark the span of time from the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act to the date Kansas was officially admitted to the Union as a free state.

To determine which historical sites will be included in the NHA application, a feasibility study must be completed.

“The designation will be based on how tightly the primary sites are linked,” Collins said. “We’re going to try to put everything we can together.”

Primary sites in Wyandotte County include the Huron Cemetery, Kaw Point, White Church, Grinter Place and Chapel, the Wyandotte County Historical Museum and the burial site of Chief Neconhecon, assistant chief of the Kansas Delaware Tribe and head of the Wolf Clan in the mid-19th century.

Collins also hopes to include other local sites such as the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, Oak Grove Cemetery, Prairie Cemetery and Fort Leavenworth Road.

Collins estimates nearly 90 percent of all historical sites in the designation application would be included.

Most of those will be east of Wabaunsee County’s western border, where the westernmost location of the Underground Railroad in Kansas was located.

Studies show that visitors to historic sites spend nearly $25 per day more than traditional tourists, Collins said.

A meeting about the proposal is set for Wednesday at Kansas City, Kan., Community College.