Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area (FFNHA) tells the stories and builds awareness of our region’s past, present, and future: the Kansas-Missouri border war, the Civil War, the settlement of the western frontier and rural America, and the enduring struggle for freedom. FFNHA supports and promotes hundreds of willing partners, including historic sites, museums, historical societies, libraries, and other cultural-heritage tourism destinations in 41 counties across the Kansas-Missouri border.

The National Heritage Area program, established by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, creates economic development by promoting a region’s important history, like the Civil War and the history of the West. Today, heritage areas continue to receive strong bipartisan support. Rep. David McKinley (R-WV) champions the program as a “cost-effective” way to “help preserve our heritage [and] spur economic growth” by bringing tourism dollars to local hotels, restaurants, and other small businesses. There are now 62 National Heritage Areas across 36 states.