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Welcome to Kansas City, Missouri.
Kansas City is a city covering parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties in Missouri, USA. Situated at the junction of the Missouri and Kansas rivers, it lies along the boundary between Missouri and Kansas, and is directly opposite of Kansas City, Kansas.
The Town of Kansas, later to become Kansas City, was established in 1850. The name derived from a trading post in the area that had been dubbed "the village of the Kansa", a reference to the local Kaw (or Kanza) tribe. Kansas City is often abbreviated as "KC" (to refer to the entire metropolitan area), or "KCMO" (to refer to only Kansas City, Missouri). Kansas City is nicknamed the City of Fountains because it ranks second in the world in number of fountains (over 200), exceeded only by Rome. It is also nicknamed the Heart of America because it is within 250 miles of both the geographic and population centers of the nation. Kansas City is referred to informally as Cowtown and the BBQ Capital of the World. People from Kansas City are known as Kansas Citians.
Downtown Kansas City as seen from the Liberty Memorial.
Photo by RavenHawk, November 2004
The French explorers Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette were the first Europeans to spot the area that came to be known as Kansas City, doing so via a six-day canoe trip up the Missouri River in 1673. The French first settled in the lower Missouri Valley at St. Louis in 1765 and later at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers, Francois Chouteau established Chouteau Landing in 1821.
On March 18, 1853 the City of Kansas was created with a newly elected mayor. It had an area 0.98 square miles and a population of 2,500. The boundary lines at that time extended from the middle of the Missouri river south to what is now Ninth street, and from Bluff street on the west to a point between Holmes and Charlotte streets on the east.
Kansas City has served as a launching pad for several storied careers. Ernest Hemingway wrote for the Kansas City Star during World War I. Walt Disney moved to Kansas City and established his first animation studio, Laugh-O-Gram Studio, at 31st and Locust in 1923. Early screen actors Jean Harlow, Ginger Rogers and Craig Stevens, writer Robert Heinlein and director Robert Altman all grew up in Kansas City.
Kansas City is often imagined by outsiders to be flat like Chicago, Dallas or New York, but in fact it has many rolling hills. Kansas City proper is bowl-shaped and is surrounded to the north and south by limestone and bedrock cliffs that were carved by glaciers. Kansas City is situated at the junction between the Dakota and Minnesota ice lobes during the maximum late Independence glaciation of the Pleistocene epoch. The Kansas and Missouri rivers cut wide valleys into the terrain when the glaciers melted and drained. A partially filled spillway valley crosses the central portion of Kansas City, Missouri. This valley is an eastward continuation of Turkey Creek valley.
Kansas City is well-known for its spacious parkways and numerous parks. The parkway system winds its way through the city with broad, landscaped medians that include statuary and fountains. One of the best examples is Ward Parkway on the west side of the city, near the Kansas state line. Swope Park is one of the nation's larger in-city parks, comprising 1,763 acress (2.75 miČ). It includes a full-fledged zoo, two golf courses, a lake, an amphitheatre, day-camp area, and numerous picnic grounds.
Kansas City has long been praised for its varied architecture, which includes many famous and interesting buildings. Its skyline is notable for various structures, including the immense Bartle Hall Convention Center, the adjoined art deco Municipal Auditorium, and numerous skyscrapers such as the Kansas City Power and Light Building and One Kansas City Place (the tallest habitable structure in Missouri), as well as the KCTV-Tower (the tallest freestanding structure in Missouri and 39th tallest tower in the world), and the Liberty Memorial (the national World War I memorial and museum of the United States).
During the heyday of the Kansas City Stockyards, the city was known for its Kansas City steaks or Kansas City strip steaks. The most famous of the steakhouses is the Golden Ox in the Kansas City Live Stock Exchange in the stockyards in the West Bottoms. The stockyards, which were second only to those of Chicago in size, never recovered from the Great Flood of 1951 and eventually closed. The famed Kansas City Strip cut of steak is actually identical to the New York Strip cut, and is sometimes referred to just as a strip steak.
Along with Texas, Memphis & North Carolina, Kansas City calls itself a "world capital of barbecue". There are more than 90 barbecue restaurants in the metropolitan area and the American Royal each fall claims to host the world's biggest barbecue contest.
Kansas City Jazz in the 1930's marked the transition from big bands to the bebop influence of the 1940s. In the 1930s Big City Boss Tom Pendergast was at his zenith of his power and left Kansas City a wide open town in which night clubs were allowed to remain open from dusk to dawn. In this venue an era of musical improvisation developed in which it was not uncommon for a single "song" to be performed all night by competing performers who passed through the city. The era ended in 1936 when producer John H. Hammond began signing Kansas City talent and transferring the acts to New York City.
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Local daily news in Kansas City:
Seasonal flu vaccine clinic opening September 7 for Kansas City, Mo. residents
The City of Kansas City, Mo., Health Department will begin providing adult seasonal flu vaccines on Tuesday, Sept.
Harvesters' BackSnack program
After being gathered, food was vacuum sealed on Wednesday morning, September 1st, 2010 at Harvesters headquarters at 3801 Topping Avenue in Kansas City.
Cosby Hotel dodges the wrecking ball, for now
The historic Cosby Hotel has received a stay of execution - again. Owner Rick Powell has agreed to a request by the Downtown Council to hold off the wrecking ball for at least a week to allow the organization to try to find a buyer who could redevelop the 120-year-old building.
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Places of interest:
North Kansas City, MO (4.5 miles), Westwood Hills, KS (4.6 miles), Westwood, KS (4.9 miles), Avondale, MO (5.5 miles), Mission Hills, KS (6.0 miles), Fairway, KS (6.2 miles), Roeland Park, KS (6.4 miles), Mission, KS (7.8 miles).
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