Heritage area wins state tourism grant

The Lawrence-based Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area has been awarded a $12,000 state tourism grant.

The grant, from the Kansas Department of Commerce, will be used to develop a Web site promoting attractions in the heritage area, which includes 41 counties in Kansas and Missouri that played an active role in the early stages of the Civil War.

The heritage area will match the $12,000 in grant money with $18,000 in private funding.

Other tourism grants announced: $10,500 to the Rock Creek Valley Historical Society to refurbish a former circus building in Westmoreland; $16,900 to the Coffeyville Historical Society for renovation work on the Brown Mansion; and $60,600 to the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson to create a new “Investigate Space” exhibit.