Kansas City has long been a meeting place and transition point; it is located at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers, and was declared by Lewis and Clark to be a “good place for a fort” when they visited it after the Louisiana Purchase. The first recorded European settler in the Kansas City area was a French fur trader, Etienne de Veniard in the early 18th Century; many other fur traders worked out of the Kansas City area in those early years. Throughout the nineteenth centuries, its central location made it an ideal launching place for travelers passing westward on the Santa Fe, Oregon and California trails.
Union Station
Arabia Steamboat Museum
Today Kansas City is know for both its particular style of Blues, steak, and barbecue, as well as being the City of Fountains, having over 200 fountains; indeed, a fountain forms the logo for the city.
Today Kansas City Union Station provides not only intermodal transportation, but also serves as a destination in itself, with the large interactive science museum, rail exhibit, Irish museum, five-story Regnier Extreme Screen theater and Gottleib Planetarium, the Block theater as well as restaurants, shops and event spaces.
