Lawmakers fight to make Quindaro a National Historic Landmark
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Quindaro Overlook. Photo: Courtesy of Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area
A Kansas City, Kansas, Underground Railroad site that sheltered enslaved people lacks federal recognition, and local lawmakers just introduced a bill to change that.
Why it matters: Quindaro Townsite is not open to the public, and the federal funding that comes with a National Historic Landmark designation would make that possible.
Driving the news: Reps. Derek Schmidt (R-KS), Sharice Davids (D-KS) and Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) this week introduced the Quindaro Townsite National Historic Landmark Act, which would designate the site through congressional action after the standard federal process stalled.
- National Historic Landmarks are designated through the National Park Service System Advisory Board, a federal body that formally recommends sites to the Secretary of the Interior.
- In May 2025, a federal committee unanimously recommended that Quindaro be designated. But the NPS advisory board's charter expired before it could act, leaving it without members.
- Schmidt's office told Axios the Interior Department plans to reconstitute the board, but that could take months. The Department of the Interior declined to comment.
Context: Founded in 1857 along the Missouri River in what is now KCK, Quindaro was established by the Wyandot Nation, abolitionists and African American settlers during "Bleeding Kansas," a violent pre-Civil War struggle between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces over slavery's expansion in the territory.
- Quindaro became a sanctuary for enslaved people crossing into free territory in Kansas via the Underground Railroad.
- After the Civil War, it became a center of Black advancement, home to Western University, the first Black school west of the Mississippi River, and Douglass Hospital, the first Black community-owned hospital west of the Mississippi River.
- The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002 and designated a National Commemorative Site in 2019.
What they're saying: Johnny Szlauderbach of Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area, which shepherded the nomination, said his group never heard back from the Department of the Interior after last year's vote.
- "NHL designation is a crucial step for Quindaro, providing the national recognition it deserves and the resources needed to become a driver of tourism and economic development in Kansas City, Kansas," Szlauderbach tells Axios.
- "Designating this site as a National Historic Landmark has been long overdue," Sharice Davids said in a statement.
What's next: The bill still needs to pass both chambers of Congress.