It is the central city of the Kansas City metropolitan area , which straddles the Missouri β Kansas state line and has a population of 2,, On June 1, , the town of Kansas was incorporated; shortly after came the establishment of the Kansas Territory. Confusion between the two ensued, and the name Kansas City was assigned to distinguish them soon after. Sitting on Missouri's western boundary with Kansas , with Downtown near the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers, the city encompasses about It is one of Jackson County's two seats along with the major satellite city of Independence ; and its other major Missouri suburbs include Blue Springs , Lee's Summit , Raytown , and Liberty.
Celebrated cultural traditions include Kansas City jazz ; theater, as a historical center of the Vaudevillian Orpheum circuit in the s; the nickname City of Fountains ; the Chiefs and Royals sports franchises; and cuisine such as Kansas Cityβstyle barbecue and strip steak. The town of Kansas, Missouri , was incorporated on June 1, , reincorporated and renamed City of Kansas on March 28, , and renamed Kansas City in The area straddles the border between Missouri and Kansas at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers , and was considered a good place to settle.
The Antioch Christian Church , Dr. In past centuries, the area's tribal inhabitants include the Hopewell tradition , Mississippian culture , Kansa , Osage , Otoe , and Missouri. Bourgmont lived with a Native American wife in a village about 90 miles km east near Brunswick, Missouri , where he illegally traded furs. French cartographer Guillaume Delisle used the descriptions to make the area's first reasonably accurate map. The Spanish took over the region in the Treaty of Paris in , but were not to play a major role other than taxing and licensing Missouri River ship traffic.
The French continued their fur trade under Spanish license. The Chouteau family operated under Spanish license at St. After the Louisiana Purchase , Lewis and Clark visited the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers, noting it was a good place to build a fort.
They built the first school within what became Kansas City, but were forced out by mob violence in In , Gabriel Prudhomme Sr. He established a home for his wife, Josephine, and six children. He operated a ferry on the river. He found it more convenient to have his goods offloaded at the Prudhomme landing next to Chouteau's landing than in Independence. Several years after Gabriel Prudhomme's death, a group of fourteen investors purchased his land at auction on November 14, By , the investors divided the property and the first lots were sold in after legal complications were settled.
