Side 1:
At the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas (Kaw) rivers, on the great bend of the Missouri, longest of U. S. rivers, this famous city of the vast Missouri Valley was first incorporated, 1850, as the Town of Kansas. The first white man known to have viewed this magnificent location was the French explorer De Bourgmond, 1714. Among trappers who later frequented the area was Daniel Morgan Boone, son of the pioneer. The Lewis and Clark Expedition camped here, 1804, and the first steamboat to pass, 1819, was the "Western Engineer."
Kansas City is an outgrowth of Francois Chouteau's fur trading post, first permanent settlement, 1821, and the town of Westport, established by J. C. McCoy, 1833. Since 1899 a part of Kansas City, Westport, for two decades, was an outfitting center and, for a time, terminus of the Santa Fe Trail.
The Town of Kansas was first laid out, 1838. As immigrants, to what is now Kansas, and traders outfitted here, the town grew. By 1857 it was the Santa Fe Trail terminus and by 1860 the dominant river town and outfitter to western trader and settler.
Side 2:
Kansas City, continental railroad and air travel center, famous livestock and grain market, huge industrial and food processing point, in 1860 had under 5,000 population.
During the Civil War, the city languished under Union occupation in an area almost depopulated by military order and guerrilla warfare. The Battle of Westport, October 23, 1864, ended the Confederate cause in Missouri. In this "Gettysburg of the West," 20,000 Federals commanded by Pleasanton and Curtis defeated 9,000 Confederates led by Price, Shelby, and Marmaduke, in bitter conflict. The site is marked in Loose Park.
In 1865 the Missouri Pacific R. R. reached this point, and here the Missouri River was bridged for the first time, 1869. Now six bridges cross the river here.
Among points of interest are the Nelson Gallery of Art; Liberty Memorial; Proctor's "Pioneer Mother Group" and Dallin's "Scout" in Penn Valley Park; City Hall Observation Roof; Kansas City Museum; Swope Park Zoo; Univ. of Kansas City; Rockhurst College; Art Institute; Lookout Point; and Cliff Drive.
1950s text, presented as a historical document. It uses the period's terms for Native people. The Society's journal printed these inscriptions as continuous text, not in the form they are cast on the markers.
The State Historical Society of Missouri created these markers with the State Highway Commission and tells their fuller story in its book Marking Missouri History. Current marker program ↗