The historic maker at the foot of Main Street and 2nd avenue at the Town of Kansas bridge over the RR tracks to a Missouri River overlook marks where it all began for KC MO.
From the Jackson Co. MO website: (
visit link)
Jackson County (Mo.) Historical Society Historical Perspective
by David W. Jackson
Town of Kansas Site in Full View
Recently the Jackson County Historical Society participated in the dedication of an historical marker interpreting the “Town of Kansas.”
The marker is at “the foot of Main Street,” in downtown Kansas City (north of the City Market to be more precise). You just go north on Main until it ends. A foot bridge then takes you out to the River’s edge, where you can see below not only the Muddy Mo passing you by; but, also the little spot where Kansas City was “born.”
Its not every day one can be a part of an historical moment. Recognizing and marking an historical spot like that, perhaps, is the first demonstrable moment that has taken place with regard to the Town of Kansas in a number of years. Do you remember the archaeological dig that took place some years back? Evidence is still carefully preserved beneath the ground.
Our attention to historical places like the “Town of Kansas” connect us with the past. And, with this site, it is a visible heart string to the cradle of Kansas City…the birthplace of the Heart of America, really.
Is it a miracle that the original, one- or two-block town site has been preserved? Seasonal flooding along the riverbank and the early construction of railroads through that narrow strip of land are the likely reason the area below the lowered bluff has remained untouched since the original 1830s-1850s structures collapsed, or were taken down 100 years ago.
When standing at the new interpretive marker, below you at the foot of the bluff was where in 1839 the first general merchandise store for the Town of Kansas was opened by Messrs. Cohn and Black. This was right after John Calvin McCoy had reportedly used a grapevine one rod in length to do the measuring for the laying out, or platting of the Town of Kansas.
A. B. Canville, Anthony Richter and Thomas Smart opened business houses shortly thereafter.
Then, too, was a log cabin of a one-eyed man named Ellis who traded whisky for coon and other pelts to stragglers, Indians and Squatters. He was also Kansas City’s first Justice of the Peace, believe it or not.
Jobbing houses outfitting a small number or residents and growing number of westward travelers came next in 1844 by H. M. Northrup. The next year was James H. McGee’s first brickyard…and his house…the first brick home in Kansas City.
Things took off after the Mexican War ended an embargo initiated in 1843 by Santa Ana, the President of Mexico.
The original southern boundary of the town was Missouri Avenue, or 6th Street. These hills were covered with forests (which is where we got the names of Walnut and Cherry and Oak Streets). When McGee platted one of the first subdivisions around 17th street, people thought he was crazy for moving so far out into the country.
Heck, right at that location at Main between 1st and 2nd Street on this very bluff was where the home of W. S. Gregory…Kansas City’s first mayor, which stood at least until 1910. Every street and corner has a multitude of stories.
Kansas City has been built and re-built 3- 4- and 5 times over.
But, THIS SPOT along the Missouri River…where our history has its genesis…remains untouched.
Historic preservation and scholarship surrounding the Town of Kansas is only just beginning!
We’re excited about the near and far future when we may direct residents and tourists to the Town of Kansas site again. The possibilities for interpretation are boundless. The leadership and direction will come from our esteemed politicians, historians, and historic preservationists." [end]
The text of this marker reads as follows:
[front]
TOWN OF KANSAS
On June 20, 1804, the Lewis & Clark Expedition known as President Jefferson’s Corps of Discovery passed this place on their way west.
In `1825, treaties with the Kaw and Osage Indians opened up for settlement an area between Fort Osage to the east and the Missouri state line.
In 1830,m under the National Indian Removal Act, tribes east of the Mississippi River were moved west of the Missouri River permitting the subsequent establishment between 1830 and 1834 of a westernmost outpost which would become Kansas Coty.
In 1832 Francois Chouteau with his Illinois bride Berenice built the first warehouses for storing westbound steamboat-delivered goods to Francois Chouteau’s Landing in “Chouteau’s Town” at the Missouri River and today’s Olive street.
In 1834 John Calvin McCoy from Kentucky, with J.P. Hickman and J. H. Flournoy, established a frontier village later known as Westport, trading furs with Shawnee, Delaware, and Kansa Indian tribes while outfitting missionaries and settlers westbound on the Santa Fe and Oregon Trail.
In 1834 to avoid a three-day wagon round-trip to the east river port of Independence to replenish his goods, McCoy looked for a closer site to receive his steamship-deliveries. On this site, four miles north of his trading post, he discovered a natural rock ledge on the south bank of the Missouri River, east of the Kansas River, west of Chouteau’s town on property of the original settler, Gabriel Prudhomme. Thereafter, he had his trade goods delivered here, shortening his replenishment trips to one day. Initially referred to as the “west” port, it became known as the “Kansas” or “Westport” Landing.
(continued on other side)
Erected 2010
[back side]
TOWN OF KANSAS
(continued from other side)
After his death, Prudhomme’s property of 257 acres including the landing, despite several steep ravines, was sold by his family on November 14, 1858 for $4220 at a court-ordered public sale to a fourteen-man town company including McCoy. They named it the town of “Kansas” after the nearby Kansa Indian tribe. Both the river to the west and its state were named accordingly. In like fashion, both the Missouri River and this state took their names respectively from another nearby Indian tribe, the “Missouris.”
On June 3 1850, after platting by McCoy, the town was chartered the town of “Kansas” by the County Court of Jackson County (founded 1827); then 1853, as the City of Kansas, and finally in 1889, Kansas City. Because of its strategic location, Kansas City became young America’s second leading cattle market and railroad hub.
Notwithstanding its original importance as a trading center with protection from nearby Fort Leavenworth, for those easterners, European emigrants and a few slaves in search of a better life, Westport Landing became the trails gateway for those westbound on the Santa Fe, Oregon, and California Trails.
Erected 2010" [end]