Officials see tourists, dollars in national designation

National Heritage Area touting Bleeding Kansas sought

History is in Lawrence’s future. And that future is getting closer.

Draft legislation to create a National Heritage Area promoting the region’s “Bleeding Kansas” history has been reviewed by the National Park Service and soon could be introduced in Congress, Lawrence officials said Wednesday.

“Aside from the economic impact, I think the educational opportunity that this provides — both within the community and in terms of our national reputation — is enormous,” Mayor David Dunfield said.

Judy Billings, director of the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau, said she would head next week to Washington, D.C., to meet with officials from existing National Heritage Areas. She also will work to secure support from the state’s congressional delegation.

“The entire Kansas delegation needs to sign on,” Billings said. “We have no indication they won’t be, but we need to get that formalized.”

U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., is expected to help kick off the effort later this month during a visit to Kansas, Billings said. A spokesman for Brownback was unable to confirm that detail; senators and their staffers were out of their Washington offices Wednesday because of the ricin investigation there.

Federal funds

National Heritage Areas are designated by Congress and are part of the National Park Service. The “Bleeding Kansas” area would focus on eastern Kansas’ role in sparking the Civil War.

Officials say the federal designation would draw as much as $10 million in federal funds to help Lawrence and northeast Kansas preserve the area’s history — and promote that history to tourists.

Quincy McCrady, Lawrence, shovels the snow outside the historic Hobbs House, onetime homestead of a leading abolitionist, in East Lawrence. Draft legislation to create a National Heritage Area promoting Bleeding

“It’s economic development based on heritage,” Billings said.

Don Short, executive director of the “Silos & Smokestacks” National Heritage Area in Iowa, said tourism had increased in the state after the federal designation there.

“Those are always subjective figures, but we think we can document a 4 percent increase in tourism dollars spent,” Short said Wednesday. “We know the average tourist, even on a motorcoach, will spend $175 a day. We’re pretty impressed with that.”

Billings said promoters of the “Bleeding Kansas” area had not done any projections of potential economic benefits here.

“It’s pretty hard to project that kind of thing,” she said. “We know that heritage tourism is growing, and we know that this new money we might bring in as a result of the federal designation would give us new opportunities to develop the tourism product.”

Where it is

Under the draft legislation, the area would include parts of Douglas, Allen, Anderson, Bourbon, Cherokee, Clay, Coffey, Crawford, Franklin, Geary, Johnson, Labette, Leavenworth, Linn, Miami, Neosho, Pottawatomie, Riley, Shawnee, Wabaunsee, Wilson, Woodson and Wyandotte counties. Other eastern Kansas and western Missouri counties could be added.

A copy of the draft legislation said there were at least seven National Historic Landmarks, 32 National Register properties, three Kansas Register properties, and seven properties listed on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom within those counties.

Billings said she didn’t know how long it would take to obtain congressional approval.

“Some people have said one session. Some people have said 10 years,” she said. “It really depends on how fast it can move through the political process.”