Kansas City has benefited from its location at the crossroads of the east-flowing Kansas River and south-flowing mid-Missouri River since before the founding of the city. The confluence was a logical site for trade among both Indigenous and Euro-American residents. In the 19^th century, the junction of the two rivers made the city a natural location for the transfer of cargoes moving by steamboat along the Missouri to smaller vessels navigating the Kansas River and to overland freight along trails to both the southwest and northwest.

Level ground along the Kansas and Missouri Rivers were a natural corridor for railroad development in the second half of the 19^th century. During the latest ice age, the continental ice sheets stopped at about the location of the current Kansas River valley. They forced the flow of water coming off the melting glaciers south of the current course of the Missouri River, creating a level thoroughfare through what became Kansas City that was later use by railroads for access to the west.

For further reading, see James Shortridge’s Kansas City and How it Grew (University of Kansas Press) and Richard Gentile’s Geology of the Kansas City Area (monograph from University of Missouri, undated)

The work of James Shortridge deserves some attention here. Professor Shortridge is a geographer at the University of Kansas, known for his richly detailed stories of the history and landscape of the Midwest, and of the very idea of the midwestern United States. The story of the Kansas City railroads following the path of an old river channel comes from Shortridge’s book on the settlement and growth of Kansas City, and it illustrates both his keen eye for the landscape and his ability to ground 20th century human stories in the deep history of the land itself. I’m a bit ashamed to admit that I crossed that old river valley on my way to and from work for 25 years and never recognized it as a former river valley. Once I read Shortridge’s book, the history of that part of the landscape became obvious.

I had the privilege of studying with Professor Shortridge, and he chaired my committee when I did my PhD in geography, so allow me to digress to a bit of a personal story.

Decades ago, before I even knew that geography was still being taught in American universities (the field fell out of favor among east-coast colleges after World War II, though continued to thrive in the midwest and west, as well as overseas) I read a charming little book by Professor Shortridge, Kaw Valley Landscapes. It is a minutely detailed study of why the Kansas River valley looks the way it does, drawing on both the physical and human geography of the area. It is tremendously readable and completely free from academic posturing. It was the kind of book that I read and re-read, and recommended to anyone who had any interest in eastern Kansas.

A little over a decade ago, after working for 25 years as an economist and specializing in regional economics, I left that job, planning to earn a master’s degree in economics and teach in a community college. So I made an appointment to talk with the graduate advisor for the economics department at the University of Kansas. We had a good conversation, and it seemed that the KU program would be a good one.

On my way back to the parking garage, I happened to pass the building on the KU campus where the geography department was housed. On a whim, I dropped in, thinking that I might be able to talk to someone about the possibility of doing my masters in economic geography instead of economics. I asked the only person in the office if there was anyone to whom I could speak about graduate programs. She asked me to wait a moment while she found out whether Professor Shortridge was in the office. The experience was a bit like dropping into the local music store, mumbling something about wanted to learn a little guitar, and being told that Mr. Clapton was in the back room and would be happy to see you. Professor Shortridge and I spoke for a while, he introduced me to some other faculty, and, in the space of an hour, I changed my academic field from economics to geography. I planned to only earn a masters degree in geography, but the work was so fascinating, and simply fun, that I stayed to do a PhD.

So please see these maps that try to tell the story of both the land and the people who occupy it as a tribute to James Shortridge and to his wife, Barbara Shortridge, a fine cartographer who turned to human geography.