Stretching from 17th to 42nd Street and from Parallel Parkway to the Missouri River, the townsite of Quindaro, Kansas was established in 1856 by settlers who sought to create a safe harbor for escaped slaves crossing the Missouri River into Kansas. Abolitionists in Quindaro made it an important piece of the Underground Railroad for those seeking freedom from slavery and helped stop the practice from spreading west.
The town was named after Nancy Quindaro Brown, a Wyandot Indian married to the town's founder, Abelard Guthrie. By 1862, with the town's population scattered as a result of the Civil War, the Kansas state legislature revoked the town's incorporation.
Quindaro was abandoned and became overgrown, but was rediscovered during an archaeological dig in the 1980s. Its historical significance is an established but growing topic thanks to the diligent work of enthusiasts and the site’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The history of the community is essential to the telling of the larger national story of abolitionist and antislavery politics in the Civil War era, race relations, women’s suffrage, native peoples, the Civil War in the West, and other significant stories of our nation.