KCK’s fading Underground Railroad site should be national landmark, local leaders say
The ruins of a Wyandotte County town site that served as an outpost on the Underground Railroad deserve to be recognized as a National Historic Landmark, according to a bipartisan group of Kansas City area Congressional leaders.
Landmark designation could unlock federal grant money needed for the site’s long-term preservation after decades of lagging progress.
“The Quindaro Townsite is a vital piece of U.S. history that demonstrates our national commitment to liberty and self-determination, which ought to be celebrated and shared with future generations,” said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat, in a Tuesday release.
The petition letter to the National Parks Service from Cleaver and two Kansas lawmakers, Rep. Derek Schmidt and Rep. Sharice Davids, comes in the aftermath of federal agencies scrambling to comply with an executive order calling for the elimination of diversity programs and policies.
Confusion over President Donald Trump’s intent resulted in some agencies scrubbing photos and references to historically significant women and people of color from federal buildings and websites, including the temporary removal of a Harriet Tubman photo and quote from a National Parks Service webpage about the Underground Railroad.
Schmidt, a Republican whose district includes the ruins of the Civil War era boomtown, said Quindaro’s vibrant history deserves to be preserved.
“Recognizing the site as a National Historic Landmark will provide the designation necessary to properly preserve the legacy of this important historical site,” Schmidt said.
Congress declared Quindaro a National Commemorative Site in 2019, but the official designation as a historic landmark could open access to federal dollars for the site’s protection — an effort that has been frustratingly slow moving for historians and advocates.
“Quindaro is a powerful part of Kansas’ history in the fight for freedom and equality, but for too long, local preservation efforts of this important site have lacked much-needed resources,” said Davids, a Roeland Park Democrat whose district includes part of Wyandotte County.
The preservation effort received its largest sum of money to date after the Kansas Department of Commerce negotiated a settlement in 2023 between the Unified Government and the parent company of Sporting Kansas City that included a $1 million donation for the Quindaro Ruins project.
That settlement followed a contentious series of events that saw Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly veto the Legislature’s $250,000 allocation for a Quindaro Ruins strategic plan championed by the late Rep. Marvin Robinson, a Kansas City Democrat who spent decades advocating for the historic site’s preservation.
The $1 million did not become available to the Unified Government until 2024, and a spokesperson for the UG did not immediately provide a comment on the status of the funding Wednesday.
Preserving our past
The Quindaro settlement was established in 1857 by Free Staters whose opposition to slavery brought them to Bleeding Kansas. The parcel of land on the south banks of the Missouri River was purchased from the Wyandot people, who resettled there in 1843 after being forced to leave Ohio by the U.S. government.
The townsite lasted for six years, and its legacy as a safe harbor for enslaved runaways escaping bondage only began to emerge in 1882, when the former co-editor of Quindaro’s newspaper published a memoir in the Wyandotte Gazette.
After residents, historians and preservationists rallied together to stop a plan to build a landfill on the site of the Quindaro ruins in the mid-1980s, archeological teams unearthed the remains of 22 buildings and numerous artifacts.
“Beyond its pivotal role in the anti-slavery movement, Quindaro became a nucleus for post-Civil War African American advancement,” the release states, noting that the Quindaro Freedman’s School — later known as Western University — became the first school for Black students west of the Mississippi upon its establishment in 1865.
The lawmakers’ letter, dated May 9, is addressed to Sherry A. Frear, who serves as chief of the National Register of Historic Places and the National Historic Landmarks Program.
This story was originally published May 14, 2025 at 3:26 PM.
