Long ago on independence square (Kansas City, Washington: east coast, blossom, assistant)

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by MRG Dallas

Our beloved Fort Osage

That came back in 1961 and I dont have any recollection of it happening.

[Mad Anthonie]

Let's take a trip back to 1897. What can we learn from this map?

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by Mad Anthonie

Let's take a trip back to 1897. What can we learn from this map?

That we could go blind??

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

What was the last official role that Fort Osage played in history of the west?

According to the Jackson County Historical Society the last official role of Fort Osage was as a staging area during the early development of the Santa Fe Trail. This included 1825 when the trail was surveyed by the U.S. government with the fort serving as the survey origination point.

Fort Osage was one of twenty-eight factory forts constructed by the US government and was the farthest west of these forts. The factory system was a trading post allowing Indians to trade more cheaply for goods with the US government than they could trade on the private market. The factory system was terminated in 1822 because private traders complained about the system being unfair.

When I was a kid I thought the fort was a manufacturing place, chuckle. And, when I visited the factory building, I did not understand what they had been making, chuckle.

A Fort Osage history site says that after the closing of the factory system in 1822, the fort was a military storage facility in support of Fort Atkinson, Nebraska. Fort Atkinson was built in 1819 and was the first fort established west of the Missouri River. It was not a factory fort. Fort Osage maintained a small garrison to oversee the storage mission until 1827 when Fort Leavenworth came into being. Both Osage and Atkinson were officially closed when construction of Fort Leavenworth began in 1827.

Other information indicates that after 1827, the fort remained as a staging point for the Santa Fe Trail into the 1830s when Independence took over. This would not have been an official role if the fort was officially closed, though. The place was apparently taken over by civilians during this period. When Sibley was laid out in 1836, new residents raided the now empty fort for building material until the buildings disappeared.

I have seen other information that Fort Scott, Kansas, took over from Fort Osage but Fort Scott did not open until 1842.

[WCHS'59]

Fort Osage had a sub factory. Where was it?

[MRG Dallas]

Originally Posted by Mad Anthonie

Let's take a trip back to 1897. What can we learn from this map?

Truman Rd was known as Blue Road

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

That we could go blind??

The map seems a little flaky especially with respect to the KC Air Line and the Winner line and the square.

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

Fort Osage had a sub factory. Where was it?

In 1821, a sub factory of Fort Osage opened on the Marais des Cygnes River about 80 miles south of the fort. Some sources say it was in present day Kansas, others say it was in Missouri.



According to one source, the last of the Osages had moved in 1811 from the Fort Osage area to the extreme southwest of Missouri and in southeast Kansas where they mostly concentrated.


The Osages had petitioned the US Government in 1820 to open a trading post closer to their villages. A year after the sub factory opened in 1821, the factory system was terminated by the government.

[WCHS'59]

In 1820, Fort Osage was granted a status that would have to be the first of many such grants in what would become Jackson County.



According to some sources there are around 34 of these still in Jackson County.


What was that status?

[Mad Anthonie]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

The map seems a little flaky especially with respect to the KC Air Line and the Winner line and the square.

I noticed the map showing the Air Line dipping south of Blue Road between Sterling and Forest. Considering the terrain in that area that doesn't seem likely, unless there has been major changes made since then. Perhaps it was a cartographer's trick. They would sometimes place minor errors on their maps as a form of copy protection.

It was nice to find a map that shows both Fairmount Park and Mt. Washington Park.I also noticed in the upper left that it shows what had been 4 RR lines condensed down to 2, at what is now called Rock Creek Junction.