Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area includes the sites of extraordinary events that forever changed America. In the nineteenth century, the nation was focused on the Missouri-Kansas border, where peoples with different definitions of freedom collided, inciting and fueling a Civil War. The

A free spirit blows through the prairies and forested floodplains of Southeast Kansas. Travel along U.S. Route 160, and you’ll find a town named “Independence,” a fitting tribute to the region’s pioneering heart. And that’s just the beginning.

Solo travelers can embrace this emboldened, carefree way

The swish of pages turning. The faint smell of paper and ink as you crack a cover open for the first time. The magic of books can take you anywhere, but a great bookstore can be a destination in and of itself. An appreciation of books, old and new, has been ingrained in my soul as a librarian’s