KANSAS CITY, KANSAS

Kansas City, Kansas is a Kansas historical marker in Wyandotte County.

Wyandotte County · US-24, nine miles west of Kansas City · location approximate

Directions to the area ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

IN JUNE, 1804, LEWIS AND CLARK, EXPLORING THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE, CAMPED WHERE THE KANSAS RIVER EMPTIES INTO THE MISSOURI. FORTY YEARS LATER THE WYANDOT INDIANS WERE MOVED HERE FROM OHIO. THEIR TRIBAL BURIAL GROUND, HURON CEMETERY, MAY STILL BE SEEN IN THE HEART OF THE CITY. THE TOWN OF WYANDOTTE WAS LAID OUT ON THE INDIAN VILLAGE SITE IN 1857. HERE THE CONSTITUTION UNDER WHICH KANSAS ENTERED THE UNION WAS FRAMED IN 1859. THRIVING RIVER TRAFFIC SOON MADE WYANDOTTE AN IMPORTANT GATEWAY TO KANSAS. FROM HERE THE UNION PACIFIC IN 1863 STARTED BUILDING WEST ACROSS KANSAS. ALSO WITHIN PRESENT KANSAS CITY WAS QUINDARO, A RIVAL OF WYANDOTTE, FOUNDED IN 1856 BY FREE-STATE MEN. IN THE SOUTH PART OF TOWN IS THE SITE OF THE VILLAGE OF "THE PROPHET," A SHAWNEE WHO LED THE INDIAN FORCES AT THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. WYANDOTTE AND OTHER TOWNS WERE MERGED INTO KANSAS CITY, KANSAS, IN 1886.

Verbatim 1941 text, presented as a historical record, not current interpretation. Kansas rewrote many of these signs in 2011-2012 and retired others, and the current texts use different language about Native people.

The Kansas Historical Society maintains the marker program and its current texts. Current marker program ↗

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Example

under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

From one family's 77-marker roster

Upload your family tree and TreeAlive finds the markers near where your own ancestors lived.

See your family's markers

Start with a tree file, a FamilySearch sign in, or a WikiTree ID.

Report a problem with this page

The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyExpected here. This page shows the older published text, and some signs were recast later. Telling us still helps.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

We may pass what you report to the state's marker program. Please don't include personal details.

Marker data: Kirke Mechem, "Kansas Historical Markers", Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. X no. 4 (November 1941), published by the Kansas State Historical Society

KANSAS CITY, KANSAS

More markers nearby