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Kansas City

City straddling the border of the states of Kansas and Missouri at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers.

In 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark traveled through the area and noted it would be a good place to build a fort.[1] in 1833, John McCoy built a store to serve travelers on the Santa Fe Trail heading west[2]. In 1834, he established Westport Landing on a bend in the Missouri River[3]. Shortly afterwards, a group of investors began to settle the area, calling themselves the Kansas Town Company after the local Indian word “Canzes,” meaning “south winds.”[4]

On February 22, 1853, the settlement was incorporated as the City of Kansas.[4]

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ABOVE: Kansas City, January 1869.[5]

Brasada Spur: In 1867,[6] Roy Stafford received financing from a Kansas City bank to build the Brasada Spur, the bank becoming a capital stockholder.[7]

In 1869, the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad completed the Hannibal Bridge across the Missouri River, making the City of Kansas a direct link between Chicago and Texas.[8] The bridge led to a population boom. By 1870, the city’s population exceeded 32,000.[9]

Point Blank: In July of 1871,[6] Bret Maverick, judging Molly Gleason to be too sophisticated to be from such a small town as Bent Forks, guesses that she may be from Kansas City before she informs him she was from St. Louis.[10]