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Tours of Border War sites offered
Tying into the 150th anniversary of Kansas statehood and the start of the Civil War, a new group tour is being offered through the Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce and a Missouri-based tour company. It's aim at giving area residents a chance to learn more about the Missouri-Kansas Border War that took place in the mid-1800s.
During the daylong bus tour, provided by the chamber and Excelsior Springs, Mo.-based D.M. Montague Associates Custom Group Tour Design and Receptive LLC, participants will visit historic battlefields and other sites along the Missouri-Kansas border and learn about a civil war that broke out on the state border several years before the American Civil War began.
The chamber website said the tour, called Civil War and History in the Kansas Border Country, will give passengers "the experience of civil strife and history of the time along our state border from 1842 to 1865." The tour is part of a larger available tour opportunity called Civil War in the Heartland. Excursions are available from April through October.
Diane Montague, owner of the tour company, said she has been working to create the tours for about three years.
"This is a critical aspect of our history that affected the whole country," she said. "People need to know about it."
Battlefields and bunkers, many in pristine condition, still exist on both sides of the Missouri and Kansas line. Towns on the tour include Osawatomie, Pleasanton, Fort Scott and Nevada, Mo. Kansas sites will be toured and interpreted by regional Border War historians serving as tour guides.
Along the tour route, passengers will watch a movie about the Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area trail project, and an introductory film about Vernon County and Nevada, Mo.
Sites on the tour include the John Brown Museum and Adair Cabin in Osawatomie, and the Mine Creek Battlefield Site near Pleasanton.
The group will have lunch at Lyons Twin Mansion in Fort Scott and be joined by a local historian who will guide passengers on a tour of the town. The bus will then travel to Nevada to visit the Bushwhacker Museum and attendees will have refreshments during a fashion show of men's and women's clothing styles of the 1860s.
The three-day Civil War in the Heartland tour also includes a full-day tour focusing on the original history of Kansas City, Mo., and a full-day tour of historic Lecompton near Lawrence. Both tours include visits to historic sites, meals and other activities.
Montague said she has been in the tour and travel business for seven years. She has researched travel to all parts of Kansas and Missouri and developed tours for groups that come into those states.
She also markets the tours, which focus on the history of particular areas, to different organizations across the United States.
"The whole focus is to attract them (tourists) to the Midwest," Montague said.
For more information on the tours, or to book one, contact the chamber at (620) 223-3566.