Interesting "Trail Facts" From the Kansas City, Missouri Region

• The ill-fated Donner Party left from Independence, MO in 1846 for California.
• Of the more than 250,000 emigrants to California during the decade of the gold rush, only 5,000 were African-American.
• The trading route of the Santa Fe Trail was used as a military route during the Mexican War, 1846-48.
• Noted mountain man Jim Bridger lived and died in present-day south Kansas City and is buried in Independence, MO.
• The explosion of the steamboat “Saluda” at Lexington, MO in 1852 killed many Mormon emigrants bound for Salt Lake City.
• The first white women to cross North America, Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spalding, left from Liberty, MO in 1836 with their husbands.
• The first railroad west of the Mississippi River linked Independence, MO with its steamboat landing.
• Capt. John Sutter lived at Westport, MO before fleeing from creditors and going to California, where his mill and name forever became attached to the 1848 gold discovery.
• The languages heard along the culturally diverse Santa Fe Trail included English, Spanish, German, French, Dutch, and those of several American Indian tribes.
• An estimated 400,000 people went on the western migration trails between 1840 and 1860.
• Hiram Young was a prominent African-American blacksmith in Independence, MO who bought slaves to work in his wagon shops and let them earn their freedom.
• Sapling Grove Park in Overland Park, KS was the starting point for the first overland wagon train to California.
• “Kelly’s”, today a popular bar in Westport, MO, was an outfitting store during the trail days.
• About one in ten trail travelers, or about 40,000 people, died along the western trails in America.
• Alexander Majors, whose home is open for tours in Kansas City, was an important frontier freighter.
• Mayor Tyree of Independence went west on the trails and was reportedly never heard of again.
• The Bent-Ward House in Kansas City was home to two important figures on the frontier, William Bent and Seth Ward.
• Unlike the Hollywood film versions, very few deaths on the overland trails were related to Indian hostilities.
• Mr. Ray’s blacksmith shop on the trail was the start of Raytown, MO.
• Major John Dougherty, later of Liberty, MO, was an early fur trader and Indian agent.
• The natural springs at Blue Springs, MO were used by Indians, then early Santa Fe Trail traders.