Outlaws, sunken riverboats, abandoned woolen mills and reconstructed frontier outposts are all part of Kansas City's glorified 19th-century history. During that time, the Louisiana Purchase, which ignited America's mad passion for westward expansion, and the Civil War, which pitted brother against brother in a divided state, left an indelible imprint on this landscape. In and around Kansas City, local pride in a past both celebrated and checkered lets us experience it in a way no textbook ever could.
These days, the Kansas City metropolitan area -- two cities actually, one in Missouri and the other in Kansas -- has 1.5 million people. It is at the heart of the Midwest and is America's leading manufacturer of greeting cards (home of Hallmark) and of hard-winter-wheat marketing. The Kansas City area offers more miles of boulevards than Paris and more fountains than any city except Rome.
And its tributes to history are outstanding. Instead of seeing musty exhibits in out-of-the-way museums, visitors can picnic in historic forts, hike the westbound pathways of Lewis and Clark from the National Frontier Trails Center, or embark on a computer-simulated exploration of the Oregon Trail at the American Royal Museum.
Yearning to step back in time for just a weekend, I visited some monuments to history on the Missouri side of Kansas City.
Fort Osage
Fort Osage, tucked behind a hilly riverbank, is one of the first settlements in Kansas City. Built in 1808, the fort helped Americans keep an eye on the Missouri portion of their Louisiana Purchase and offered westward adventurers a temporary sanctuary.
Today, Fort Osage has been completely reconstructed based on detailed plans. Blockhouses, stockades and soldiers' quarters have been re-created. The Factory, a 3 1/2 -story trade house, was the heart of the fort, with its posh drawing room (note the harpsichord) and a trading post that served as a shopping mall for Native Americans only. This post provided the Osage Indians with an outlet to trade their furs for everyday items, though they weren't offered any bargains (white sugar was $8 a pound). Nevertheless, the post earned the American interlopers some small measure of appreciation from the Osages.
Fort Osage is in Sibley, Mo., about 30 minutes east of Kansas City.
Steamboat Arabia
Lurid brochures advertising the tragic life of a riverboat that sank in the Missouri River in 1856 may scream tourist trap, but the Steamboat Arabia Museum was actually a very pleasant surprise.
When the Steamboat Arabia, bound for settlements in Iowa and Nebraska, sank on a stormy summer night, she carried 130 passengers and 200 tons of mystery cargo. There was just one death -- a donkey drowned when his owner left him tied to a post -- but speculations that the lost cargo contained gold and whiskey fascinated treasure hunters for more than 100 years.
Efforts to unearth Arabia failed to uncover the missing boat until a treasure-seeking restaurateur, a contractor and a family that installs heating systems got together to dig up a sunken riverboat from the middle of a judge's corn field in Kansas.
The team dug 45 feet beneath the surface, uncovered the Arabia and removed pieces of the ship, such as a paddle wheel, a 12-foot section of the hull, the anchor, boilers and an engine. They also retrieved the elusive cargo, which was preserved for 132 years by the mud and silt of the river.
"We may have started off as treasure hunters," says Greg Hawley, the heating-system entrepreneur who now juggles a second job at the museum. "Through research, we evolved into historians. As our appreciation developed, we couldn't bring ourselves to sell the cargo. So, we're in the museum business now."
At the Steamboat Arabia Museum, an authentic replica of the deck has been re-created and the left paddle wheel rotates away. But it's the treasures that people come to see.
With the largest collection of pre-Civil War cargo in the world, the boat was carrying everything needed to not only build but also to outfit an entire town. On display are exotic imports, including English Wedgewood china, South American coffee beans and French perfumes.
Technological innovations such as sunglasses and lightning rods sit side-by-side with ordinary door keys and coffin screws. A veritable wardrobe of practical woolens, beaver hats and heavy black boots seems appropriate attire for life in the untamed West, but there are also cosmetics and silks.
"It's the ultimate general store," Mr. Hawley says.
The Steamboat Arabia Museum is in the historic City Market in downtown Kansas City, Mo.
Jesse James
Jesse James may have been a liar and a thief, but he's memorialized anyway. During his 16-year outlaw career, James and his gang committed the first peacetime bank robbery in the United States (the Clay County Savings Bank, in Liberty, has been restored as the Jesse James Bank Museum), and held up numerous trains, banks and stagecoaches.
At the Jesse James Farm Museum, the myth of the eerie bandit unravels. The portrayal of James as a romantic, Robin Hood-inspired character who stole from the rich and gave to the poor, was actually created by a Kansas City newspaper reporter.
"He inaccurately made Jesse James sound like a --ing and daring person, like he was a knight of the Round Table," Tom Holloway says, noting that James kept everything he stole. Mr. Holloway is a volunteer guide at the Jesse James Farm Museum.
The James family home, also part of the museum site, is a run-of-the- mill Sears Roebuck prefabricated house with a dingy, cramped interior that seems to contract Jesse's reputation. In the yard, his tombstone attempts to sustain his legend. It reads: "devoted husband and father Jesse Woodson James. Murdered. a traitor and a coward whose name is not worthy to appear here."
The Jesse James Bank Museum is in Liberty, Mo. The Jesse James Farm Museum is in Kearney, Mo., about 25 miles from downtown.
Watkins Mill
One of Kansas City's best-kept secrets, Watkins Woolen Mill State Historic Site is the only fully equipped 19th-century textile mill in the United States. Mill tours are fascinating, but the restored 1870s living history museum offers as much of an insight into 19th-century life as it does into textile technology.
Here, Waltus Watkins carried out his grand vision for an ideal blend of industrial and country life. He built the red-bricked, steam-powered textile mill in the midst of forests, meadows and fields of wildflowers. To support the families of the mill's 40 employees, he constructed an octagonal schoolhouse, a Baptist church and a general store. All have been restored.
In Watkins' own home, a Greek Revival showplace, Victorian-era luxury predominates. Though it's been lovingly restored with original furnishings, this mansion is no mere museum. Don't be shocked to see a prairie woman cooking in the summer kitchen or a parks worker tending the mill's own sheep, named Ewenice and Wooliam. Rambunctious children perch at the edge of the house's porch to pet the tailless cat.
Elsewhere on the grounds, there may be a modern wedding taking place at the little Baptist chapel. Romantic couples wander along the farm's lovely wooded paths.
It's impossible to resist the peaceful spell of Watkins Mill.
The Watkins Woolen Mill State Historic Site is in Lawson, Mo., just 25 miles from downtown.
IF YOU GO . . .
Historic attractions abound in Kansas City. In addition to Fort Osage, the Arabia Steamboat Museum, the Jesse James Farm Museum and Watkins Mill, other must-sees include the American Royal Museum, the National Trails Frontier Center and Westport, a renovated historic district within the Kansas City limits where travelers outfitted their wagon trains. Historic Weston, Mo., a one-time river port, is a preserved 1840s village.
The Convention and Visitors Bureau of Greater Kansas City: (800)767-7700.