Kaw Point is part of Kaw Point Park, in the Fairfax District of

Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City (commonly known as KCK) is the third-most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As ...

. Kaw Point Park is administered by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

as a destination along the

Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail The Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail is a route across the United States commemorating the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804 to 1806. It is part of the National Trails System of the United States. It extends for some from Pittsburgh, ...

. The point is along the shores of the confluence of the

Kansas River The Kansas River, also known as the Kaw, is a meandering river in northeastern Kansas in the United States. It is potentially the southwestern most part of the Missouri River drainage, which is sometimes in turn the northwesternmost portion of ...

(Kaw River) and the

Missouri River The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...

, at the eastern termination of the Kansas River, and where the Missouri River turns its southerly course eastward through the state of

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

to the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

History

Kaw Point is within the land claim bought by the United States as part of the massive

Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase () was the acquisition of the Louisiana (New France), territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. This consisted of most of the land in the Mississippi River#Watershed, Mississipp ...

in 1803; it was previously claimed by Spain, then by France. The

Lewis and Clark Expedition The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gro ...

party camped at Kaw Point from June 26–28, 1804, on its way from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean. The

reports the modern belief that at that time, the confluence was located north of the present Kaw Point. Patrick Gass's journal entry for June 26 said: "It was agreed to remain here during the 27th and 28th where we pitched our tents and built six-foot-high brush and log

bowers Bowers may refer to: Persons *Bowers (surname) Places ;Antarctica * Bowers Mountains * Bowers Piedmont Glacier ;United Kingdom * Bowers, Staffordshire, England * Bowers Gifford, Essex, England ;United States * Bowers, Delaware * Bowers, India ...

in front of them. Canzan or Kanzas, is 230 yards and a quarter wide, and navigable to a great distance." The team hunted, took calculations, and repaired pirogues. Captain William Clark wrote on June 27, 1804, that "the about the mouth of this river is fine." The expedition's journals noted that the location would be appropriate for a fort, and teemed with deer, elk, bison, bear, and many "Parrot queets", the now extinct Carolina parakeet. Lewis observed that the water in the Missouri was muddier than the water from the Kaw. At 94 degrees 36 minutes west

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east- west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek lett ...

, Kaw Point defined Missouri's western border from

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

when it became a state in 1821. South of the Missouri River, that longitude still forms the border between Kansas and Missouri. North of the Missouri River, the state of Missouri extended its boundary farther to the west in 1836 with the

Platte Purchase The Platte Purchase was a land acquisition in 1836 by the United States government from American Indian tribes of the region. It comprised lands along the east bank of the Missouri River and added to the northwest corner of the state of Misso ...

. Kaw Point became part of

Kansas Territory The Territory of Kansas was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the United States, Union as the Slave and ...

in 1854 when the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...

passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which opened the area for white settlement. In 1859, the city of Wyandotte, which included Kaw Point, was incorporated. Kaw Point became part of

as part of the consolidation of 1886. The National Park Service established Kaw Point Park, a 10-acre area including Kaw Point, a wooded area, a boat launch ramp, an amphitheater, and a tribal memorial. NPS designated this a Lewis and Clark Destination Site on the

References

External links

* {{Commons category-inline, Kaw Point Geography of Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City metropolitan area Parks in Kansas Protected areas of Wyandotte County, Kansas