Lecompton ? Kansas history begins in Lecompton, but interest in that history extends well beyond Douglas County.

Saturday afternoon more than a dozen people stopped in Lecompton to tour the Territorial Capital Museum as part of the 10-day “Civil War on the Western Frontier” commemoration with events in and around Lawrence.

Among those on the tour in Lecompton were Great Bend residents Don and Rita Feist, who were spending the weekend at an area bed and breakfast and touring other area historical sites.

“I’ve enjoyed every bit of this,” said Rita Feist, a retired sixth-grade teacher who taught American history classes. “The guides do a really great job.”

The Feists’ guide for a tour that lasted more than an hour was Charlene Winter, who along with her husband, A.K. Winter, have been showing tourists around the museum for 15 years.

“I tell people I can give you the 20-minute tour or I can go for an hour and a half,” A.K. Winter said.

The Winters, who are museum volunteers from the Lecompton Historical Society, start their tours in the second-floor chapel with a short overview of Kansas territorial history. They name nearly a dozen men who held the position of governor during the 10-year period from 1855 to 1865, which led Kansas to become known as a political graveyard.

“If you wanted to end your political career, go to Kansas,” Charlene Winter said.

The museum, originally built to be the Kansas capital building, was abandoned after two years of construction that started in 1855. Construction was completed in 1882 and became Lane University, named after fiery Kansas abolitionist James Lane. He also became the state’s first U.S. senator.

After leaving the chapel, the Winters take the tourists room-by-room through the building, showing them old pump organs and a cylinder-playing piano in the music room.

Across the hallway in another room are various pieces of 19th-century dresses and art pieces, including a picture made out of human hair.

“It’s over 100 years old,” Charlene Winter said. “Actually, it’s an art form some people are trying to revive.”

On the main floor tourists see Civil War displays that include cannon balls and bullets recovered from the Lecompton area, where there were several battles between abolitionist and pro-slavery groups.

Another major focus of the exhibits is President Dwight D. Eisenhower, an adopted Kansan whose parents lived and married in Lecompton. The marriage took place in the building’s chapel.

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“We jokingly say that if it wasn’t for Lecompton, we wouldn’t have President Eisenhower,” Charlene Winter said with a chuckle.

Don Feist especially was interested in old farm tools that were on display in other exhibits.

“A lot of this stuff I remember seeing my father have,” he said. “We tore a lot of this stuff up trying to find out how it worked. We didn’t think it would be any good.”

Mike and Ruth Brandt, of Pueblo, Colo., were visiting the museum after traveling to Lawrence to see their daughter, Sara Brandt, and her fiance, Kevin Kupzyk, both Kansas University graduate students. They said they enjoyed the tour as well.

“It’s pretty interesting,” Kupzyk said. “It’s a treasure trove of strange and amazing things.”