JOPLIN, MO. ? Banking on the idea that Civil War tourists spend more time and money visiting historic sites than do pleasure tourists, organizations across Missouri are trying to find ways to promote the state’s sites in time for the war’s 150th anniversary.

The problem is that the anniversary is less than four years away, and, according to one state organization, Missouri isn’t presenting a unified front capable of competing with Civil War sites in other states.

“These (tourists) come to see the big battlefield, but they also want to see this little thing over here and this little skirmish over here,” said Jim Robertson, director of the Missouri Civil War Heritage Foundation. “These people want to know the whole story.”

Robertson was in Joplin last month to talk with area tourism bureaus about creating a statewide list of all the Civil War sites and using it to promote the state as a tourist attraction starting in 2011.

Something unique

Greg Wolk, president of the foundation, said Missouri has to put itself on the map as a destination for serious Civil War enthusiasts.

“We’ve got to let people know what there is to do here, so when people are looking to do some Civil War traveling, they don’t think of Tennessee, they think of Missouri,” Wolk said.

Civil War enthusiasts insist Missouri has something unique to offer tourists. According to the foundation, more Civil War battles or engagements were fought in Missouri than in any other state besides Virginia and Tennessee.

In 1861, the year the war started, 45 percent of all battles and all casualties were in Missouri. Carthage was the site of the first major land battle of the Civil War; Liberty was the site of the first conflict of arms; and Belmont was the site of Ulysses S. Grant’s first battle.

More Civil War generals are buried at St. Louis than at Arlington or West Point.

Events in the works

Kate Massey, director of the Carthage Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the city recognizes the potential for the anniversary celebration and the tourism dollars it could bring in.

She said a board of historians, tourism officials and government representatives has been meeting to plan events. Massey said potential events include a re-enactment of the Battle of Carthage and living-history events.

“Civil War is just like other tourism in that it’s cyclical,” Massey said. “The sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) will bring out more interest in the Civil War, or renew an interest for some people. We realize the potential. We have history in this area, and we have to capitalize on the moment.”

The guerrilla war that raged between Missouri and Kansas 10 years before the official start of the Civil War also offers enthusiasts a number of battle sites, artifacts and stories that some other states don’t have.

Civil War interest growing

Phyllis Abbott, director of the Baxter Springs, Kan., Historical Society, said the city’s museum gets thousands of visitors each year looking for connections to history. She said interest in the war has continued to grow and is spreading across the country.

“I don’t know what they find so fascinating about it, but it’s amazing,” Abbott said. “People are driving across the country just visiting Civil War sites. It’s like an excursion into something.”

Wolk, president of the Missouri foundation, said a Virginia study showed that Civil War tourists spend 50 percent more money per person than do pleasure tourists. They also stay longer.

The study found that spending by 42,000 visitors to one battlefield at a remote Virginia site translated to an average annual income increase of $425 per person in that community.

While states such as Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Georgia are well on their way to promoting the sesquicentennial through driving trails, marketing campaigns, Web sites and maps, the Missouri foundation says the state is late to the game and needs to jump into action.

Unified campaign needed

The foundation stresses the importance of Missouri cities or regions not competing with one another, but presenting a unified marketing campaign to promote the entire state as a destination for Civil War enthusiasts’ three- or four-day tours.

The major part of the marketing campaign is to identify, verify and inventory as many of the historic sites as possible for a master list that can be organized by theme. Examples include the themed trails that Missouri already has identified.

The Gray Ghosts Trail stretches west to east across the top half of the state, swinging through Arrow Rock, Boonville, Columbia and Danville. The U.S. Grant Trail heads east through St. Louis, then south to Ironton, and southeast to Cape Girardeau and finally Belmont.

Of particular interest to southwest Missouri is the Wire Road Trail that follows Interstate 44 from St. Louis to Springfield, then south to Wilson’s Creek Battlefield and into Arkansas.

The J.O. Shelby Trail lists sites in Newtonia, Nevada, Lamar, Carthage, Neosho and Joplin. The Shelby Trail traces the path of an officer touted by some as arguably “the greatest cavalry general of the Civil War.”