History of the Kansas City metropolitan area
The history of the Kansas City metropolitan area started in the 19th century as Frenchmen from St. Louis, Missouri moved up the Missouri River to trap for furs and trade with the Native Americans. The Kansas City metropolitan area, straddling the border between Missouri and Kansas at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers, was a strategic point for commerce and security. Kansas City, Missouri was founded in 1838 and defeated its rival Westport to become the predominant city west of St. Louis. The area played a major role in the westward expansion of the United States. The Santa Fe, and Oregon trails ran through the area. In 1854, when Kansas was opened to Euro-American settlement, the Missouri-Kansas border became the first battlefield in the conflict in the American Civil War.
History of the Kansas City metropolitan area
Also in 1967, work began on the Crown Center complex located around the headquarters of Hallmark Cards. Another development in the 1960s was the approval of a bond issue to move the city's main airport from Kansas City Downtown Airport to the TWA Kansas City Overhaul Base at what was formerly called Mid-Continent International Airport – now called Kansas City International Airport (but which is referred to in baggage tags by its original abbreviation of MCI). Although Kansas City continued to expand outward in the 1960s, the inner city endured numerous heartbreaks, fires and a 1968 riot that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King. White flight continued on a large scale, ironically, resegregating the city even further than it was before the Civil Rights Movement.