Kansas City travel guide — Kansas City tourism and travel information

Kansas City travel guide

about Kansas City

Kansas City is a city in Clay, Cass, Jackson, and Platte counties in Missouri.

Often abbreviated KCMO, Kansas City is the center of the Kansas City metropolitan area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. As of the 2000 census, the city had a population of 441,545, making it the largest city in Missouri. Combined with Kansas City, Kansas, the population is 588,411, but the entire urban area (in both states) is well over a million and a half.

Kansas City geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 823.7 km² (318.0 mi²). 812.1 km² (313.5 mi²) of it is land and 11.6 km² (4.5 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 1.41% water.

Kansas City history

Significant non-native settlement of the area dates to 1831, when members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) coming from Kirtland, Ohio and New York State purchased about 2,000 acres (8 km²) of land in the Paseo and Troost Lake areas. Conflict between the Yankee Saints and southern Missourians led to the expulsion of the Mormons from Jackson County in 1833.

About this time a dock was established on the Missouri River to land supplies for Westport Landing (now Westport). The land surrounding the dock was bought by "Town Company" in 1838. The area outside of Westport Landing was renamed the Town of Kansas, after the local Kanza Indians, in 1839. The town was incorporated by the state of Missouri as the City of Kansas on March 28, 1853. At the first municipal election in 1853 there were sixty-seven voters from a population of 2,500. In 1889, with a population of around 60,000, the city adopted a new charter and changed its name to Kansas City. In 1897, Kansas City annexed Westport.

The City was connected to the telegraph system in 1858, to the railway in 1864 (with a bridge crossing the river in 1869) and the first aircraft landed at the Municipal Airport in 1927.

Due to its central location, Kansas City became and remains the third largest railroad hub in the United States, behind St. Louis and Chicago.

Initially, the city's major industry was cattle; by the 1860s it had one of the largest cattle markets in America. That industry peaked in the early 20th century.

Pendergast era

Starting in 1915, with the city grown to 250,000 people, the city was run by one man, Tom Pendergast. He maintained control until 1940.

The city also became a center for night life and music, with jazz by musicians such as Count Basie and blues (Kansas City blues) flourishing in areas such as 18th and Vine.

Harry S. Truman, former U.S. president, was county judge of Jackson County, Missouri, under the Pendergast regime, and was initially regarded in his early career as a corrupt politician because of this. However, most people came to regard him as having a great deal of integrity because of his subsequent actions in various political offices.

Perpetual motion

In the 1910s and 1920s, Harry Perrigo (of Kansas City) and a graduate of MIT, claims development of a free energy device. Perrigo claimed the energy source was "from thin air" or from ether waves. Perrigo demonstrated the device before the U.S. Congress on December 15, 1917. Perrigo had a pending application (filed December 31, 1925; Serial Number 78,719) for the "Improvement in Method and Apparatus for Accumulating and Transforming Ether Electric Energy". Investigators report that his device contained a hidden motor.

Near cities to Kansas City

• Kansas City travel guide 4.7 km
• Independence travel guide 15 km
• Overland Park travel guide 15 km
• Lawrence travel guide 58 km
• Saint Joseph travel guide 78 km
• Topeka travel guide 95 km
• Manhattan travel guide 170 km
• Ur travel guide 190 km
• Columbia travel guide 200 km
• Jefferson City travel guide 220 km

Near webcams to Kansas City

• Lincoln - Skycam webcam 260 km
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• Ames - Iowa State University webcam 340 km
• Macomb Downtown webcam 370 km
• St. Louis webcam 380 km
• Monticello - downtown webcam 450 km
• Bethany webcam 480 km
• Little Rock webcam 530 km
• Rochester webcam 570 km

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