Kansas City

About Kansas City

Kansas City is the largest city in Missouri, set where the Kansas River flows into the Missouri River on the state's western border, with its twin city of Kansas City, Kansas, just across the state line. The area grew from a riverside trading post in the 1820s into the Town of Kansas, a starting point for the Santa Fe, California and Oregon trails. After the railroads arrived in the 1860s it became one of the great cattle and grain markets of the country, and its stockyards gave birth to the city's legendary steak and barbecue traditions.

Today Kansas City has more than 500,000 residents in the city and over two million in the metro area. Known as the City of Fountains, it claims more fountains than any city except Rome, and its tree-lined boulevards were among the first in the country. Kansas City was also a cradle of jazz in the 1920s and 1930s, when musicians like Count Basie and Charlie Parker played all night in the clubs of 18th and Vine, and it is one of America's barbecue capitals, famous for burnt ends and slow-smoked ribs.

The city is packed with things to do. The Country Club Plaza, built in 1922 in Spanish style, is one of the first shopping centers designed for cars, and Union Station, the Crossroads Arts District and the Power and Light District bring life downtown. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, with its giant shuttlecocks on the lawn, is free to visit, and the National WWI Museum and Memorial is the nation's official museum of the First World War. The American Jazz Museum and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum share the 18th and Vine district, and fans pack Arrowhead Stadium for the Chiefs and Kauffman Stadium for the Royals.