If a Midwestern nonprofit for heritage preservation loses all of its federal funding and shuts down, then the historically significant sites in Johnson County that it supports would be at risk of losing resources like grant support and promotions.
That’s according to Johnny Szlauderbach, director of communications and strategic projects at Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area, a nonprofit organization that assists more than 200 historically significant sites in Missouri and Kansas, including 27 in Johnson County.
Despite receiving congressional approval in March, $29.2 million allocated for National Heritage Areas, including about $500,000 for Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area, has been withheld by the Trump administration as proposed legislation now pending in Congress aims at defunding it entirely.
Designated National Heritage Areas are places with a combination of significant historic, cultural and natural resources, with an emphasis on preservation, recreation, tourism and educational projects. National Heritage Areas match and leverage federal funds to achieve these goals, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s website.
One of 62 National Heritage Areas in the U.S., Freedom’s Frontier collaborates with and promotes programs and organizations in areas like Johnson County, with partners that include the DeSoto Historical Society, Johnson County Museum and Shawnee Town 1929 Museum. Congress allocates about $500,000 annually to the organization, which is administered through the National Park Service.
Without the funding, education assistance grants like Bus on Us!, which helps provide funding for schools to bus students to museums and historically significant sites, would be hurt.
“They help fund buses for underprivileged school districts that can’t often (get transportation, where) that is the reason why they cannot make a field trip,” Shawnee Town 1929 Museum Director Charlie Pautler said.
Freedom’s Frontier helps smaller historic sites
Freedom’s Frontier’s goal is to preserves the story of the border war that preceded Kansas’ entry into the union, the enduring struggle for freedom and the settlement of the western frontier, according to its website.
It does that by partnering with National Heritage Areas and assisting them through advocacy and grant programs.
Freedom’s Frontier supports the following partners in Johnson County:
- DeSoto Historical Society in De Soto
- Edgerton Community Museum in Edgerton
- Ensor Park and Museum in Olathe
- Ernie Miller Nature Center in Olathe
- Gardner Historical Museum in Gardner
- Gardner Junction Park in Gardner
- Johnson County Kansas Heritage Foundation in Olathe
- Johnson County Library in Overland Park
- Johnson County Museum in Overland Park
- Kansas City Area Historic Trails Association in Mission
- Lanesfield School Historic Site in Edgerton
- Legler Barn Museum and Depot in Lenexa
- Lenexa Historical Society in Lenexa
- Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm in Olathe
- Merriam Historic Plaza in Merriam
- Monticello Community Historical Society in Lenexa
- Museum at Prairiefire in Overland Park
- Museum of Deaf History, Arts & Culture, Inc (MDHAC) in Olathe
- Olathe Historical Society in Olathe
- Olathe Memorial Cemetery in Olathe
- Olathe Public Library in Olathe
- Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Overland Park
- Overland Park Historical Society in Overland Park
- Shawnee Indian Mission State Historic Site in Fairway
- Shawnee Mission DAR Chapter in Shawnee
- Shawnee Town 1929 Museum in Shawnee
- Virginia School in Shawnee
Though some partners within Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area only use it for small grants, like the Shawnee Indian Mission National Historic Landmark using it for wagon repairs and a new water fountain/bottle filler for field trips and visitors, others who lack funding rely on it more.
“These aren’t typically organizations that know how to apply for funding from, say, Humanities Kansas, or one of the bigger organizations that give money for historical sites,” Szlauderbach said.
Freedom’s Frontier helps guide National Heritage Areas to make sure they’re connecting with the organizations they need to get the funding they desire.
“We get them the credentials that they need to apply for grants, for federal money. It’s a long, complicated process, but we do that because that is our mission, to focus on these small sites, and connect these small sites with bigger organizations,” Szlauderbach said.
If that money goes away, then it will have detrimental effects on those smaller organizations.
“I worry about sites like, like (Monticello Community Historical Society). I worry about sites like the Virginia School in Johnson County, some of these smaller start-up organizations, and even moreso, I worry about the next generation of these sites, like (Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm in Olathe), for example, that really kind of grew up along with Freedom’s Frontier and became the destination that it is today,” Szlauderbach said.
Representatives have asked for funding to be released
On Monday, Kansas Rep. Sharice Davids and Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, released a letter to the Office of Management and Budget asking for the money, which was included in President Trump’s Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act that was signed into law in March, to be released.
“Local sites are struggling to keep staff employed, preserve historic landmarks, and continue educational programs that serve thousands of visitors and students each year,” they stated in the letter.
At the Shawnee Town 1929 Museum, they said while this season’s funding for grants is set, the next one is uncertain.
“Right now, we’re doing OK, but next year, there would be no additional funding other than our (Friends of Shawnee Town) group to help fund the busses.There would be no advocacy, there would be no cross promotion, that kind of thing,” Pautler said.
Smaller historic sites could see bigger impacts
Having welcomed schools that were only able to visit Shawnee Town 1929 Museum through busing provided by the Bus for Us! grants, Hannah Howard, curator of education at Shawnee Town 1929, said the outdoor museum can still get help through the Friends of Shawnee Town group fundraising.
Still, she worries about the sites that don’t have those resources.
“We will have a lifeline to at least partially help. But there’s a lot of sites within the Freedom’s Frontier network that don’t have any resources to help the schools to get bus funding to come to them. So this would eliminate a major resource for making that education possible for other sites within that network,” she said.
Having seen the impact the museum had on students from the Kansas City metro area that visited this year, Howard said she worries about what will happen if that opportunity is taken away because of a lack of funding.
“This was a really important first experience for these kids to not only know their history in this region and in the KC metro, but also just to experience what museums can add to their learning journey and to their life,” she said.
NHA asks people to call their legislators
In order to help get the money released, Szlauderbach is asking people to contact their representatives in Washington, D.C. to advocate for NHA funding.
“If anybody really cares about preserving this history, about this region’s significance on a national level, and about building economic development in these small towns and helping these small sites thrive, I would encourage you to contact your representatives on Capitol Hill and tell them about how important Freedom’s Frontier’s continued existence is,” Szlauderbach said to the Kansas Reflector.
In the interview with the Post, Szlauderbach stressed that the historical preservation of Johnson County communities may depend on that funding.
“Without this network that we provide, and without the grant money that we provide that allows them to go on to receive larger grants,” he said. “I really do worry about the next generation of history enthusiasts and historians in Johnson County, because people really do care about their history in Johnson County, and it would be a true shame if the next generation of history enthusiasts and students didn’t have the same opportunities that the current one does.”
