photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

The Watkins Museum of History is pictured Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022.

Two local history organizations in Douglas County will be using $1,000 grants from a regional group to help bring in visitors this summer and improve their experiences.

The Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area announced in a press release that it awarded grants to 11 organizations across western Missouri and eastern Kansas, including the Watkins Museum of History and the Lecompton Historical Society, for projects ahead of the summer tourism season.

Steve Nowak, the Watkins Museum’s executive director, told the Journal-World the museum received a grant that it will use to add a new interactive family activity on the museum’s second floor. Nowak said that the museum’s staff wants to add a series of panels to teach visitors about the building’s original purpose as a bank. They would be at the teller’s counter in the original 1888 bank lobby and would include prompts for an activity where visitors could make their own “transactions” at the counter area.

“This is one way we can provide a more interesting and engaging experience for all generations of visitors and help them understand our community’s history in fun ways,” Nowak said.

Nowak said the activity would be a “pilot” so that the museum could see if guests like features like this.

“It will create an opportunity to learn how to serve our visitors better,” he said.

For the Lecompton Historical Society, the grant funding will be used to market the the Territorial Capital Museum. Cynthia Breitenbach, a staff member at the museum, told the Journal-World the museum will use its grant to put banners up in various sites around the county during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Breitenbach said the Territorial Museum has “big plans” for the summer, including plans to highlight the stories of military veterans from the area, from modern-day veterans to those who served in the Civil War. It’s an especially big year because of two celebrations that will be going on: the nation’s 250th anniversary and the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

photo by: Bremen Keasey/Journal-World

Lecompton’s Territorial Capital Museum, 640 E. Woodson Ave., as seen on Friday, April 10, 2026.

These aren’t the only historical attractions that will get some extra promotion this summer. The Douglas County Historical Society, which is run out of the Watkins Museum, has received $11,000 in grants for marketing exhibits that will be at six historical sites across the county, as the Journal-World reported.