Exploration and settlement The Kansas City Pioneer Square monument in Westport features Pony Express founder Alexander Majors, Westport/Kansas City founder John Calvin McCoy, and Mountain-man Jim Bridger who owned Chouteau's Store. James Compton House, and Woodneath are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The area, straddling the border between Missouri and Kansas at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers, was considered a good place to build settlements. Kansas City, Missouri, was incorporated as a town on June 1, 1850, and as a city on March 28, 1853. Celebrated cultural traditions include Kansas City jazz theater, as a center of the Vaudevillian Orpheum circuit in the 1920s the Chiefs and Royals sports franchises and famous cuisine based on Kansas City–style barbecue, strip steak, and craft breweries.įor a chronological guide, see Timeline of Kansas City, Missouri. The city is composed of several neighborhoods, including the River Market District in the north, the 18th and Vine District in the east, and the Country Club Plaza in the south.

Other major suburbs include the Missouri cities of Blue Springs and Lee's Summit and the Kansas cities of Overland Park, Olathe, Lenexa, and Kansas City, Kansas. It serves as one of the two county seats of Jackson County, along with the major satellite city of Independence. Sitting on Missouri's western boundary with Kansas, with Downtown near the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers, the city encompasses about 319.03 square miles (826.3 km 2), making it the 25th largest city by total area in the United States. Confusion between the two ensued, and the name Kansas City was assigned to distinguish them soon after. On June 1, 1850, the town of Kansas was incorporated shortly after came the establishment of the Kansas Territory. Kansas City was founded in the 1830s as a port on the Missouri River at its confluence with the Kansas River from the west. Most of the city lies within Jackson County, with portions spilling into Clay, Cass, and Platte counties. It is the urban central city of the Kansas City metropolitan area, which straddles the Missouri– Kansas state line and has a population of 2,392,035. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090, making it the 37th most-populous city in the United States. Kansas City, Missouri ( KC or KCMO) is the most populous city in Missouri and largest by area.

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