Museums and historical sites close in Kansas due to government shutdown

TOPEKA (KSNT) — A federal government shutdown is beginning to impact Kansas, as national parks close their doors.

The shutdown took effect at midnight the night of Sept. 30-Oct. 1, after federal lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on a funding plan. Now, it’s estimated that more than 100,000 federal workers across the nation have been laid off. For Kansas, this means sites like the Brown V. Board Historical Park will be hit the hardest.

Johnny Szlauderbach with the Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area confirmed with us that these sites are now closed:

• Brown V. Board of Education National Historic Park.
• Fort Scott National Historic Site.
• Truman National Historic Site.
• Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.
• Nicodemus National Historic Site.
• Ford Larned National Historic Site.

“We’re already down to a bare bones operation at so many of these places,” Szlauderbach said. “They’re struggling as it is doing multiple jobs. This is the very last thing that they need at this moment.”

Hundreds of federal Kansas workers are now without pay, and Szlauderbach believes, this shutdown could hurt local economies as well.

“For every lost visitor you also have a lost customer at a local restaurant, you have a lost customer at a local gas station,” Szlauderbach said. “Other local small businesses will all eventually feel the impact of a government shutdown.”

The U.S Senate reconvened on Wednesday morning, to continue to debate and vote on the spending bill that failed to pass before the shutdown.

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