Discover the sights, sounds, and rich history of Kansas City—from ancient burial mounds to a world-class jazz museum. Kansas City is often seen as a “cow town” with great barbecue and steaks. But it’s also a city with more boulevards than Paris and more working fountains than Rome. There are burial mounds that date back more than two thousand years. The National World War I Museum and Memorial, opened in 1926, stands more than two hundred feet tall. Leila’s Hair Museum has a collection that brings tourists from all over the nation. The Kansas City Jazz Museum features a historic district and world-class museum that document a time when dance halls, cabarets, speakeasies, and even honky-tonks and juke joints fostered the development of a new musical style. Join Missouri historian Paul Kirkman as he cuts a trail past the stockyards and takes you on a tour into the heart of America—Kansas City. Includes photos and information on Kansas City landmarks

Most visitors know all about Kansas City’s barbecue, jazz, and football success, but there are hidden gems and wild pieces of trivia around every turn in Missouri’s largest city. Is the giant Hereford bull anatomically correct? Can a seed that’s been to outer space still grow into a normal tree? And who really killed President William Henry Harrison? You’ll find answers to the questions you didn’t know you had in Secret Kansas City: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure. Learn why three completely unrelated groups have chosen Kansas City as the center of the world and the place you want to be when the world ends. Between these covers, you’ll also find castles, a horse buried in a cul-de-sac, a ghost who likes a good laugh, and the world’s longest snake. This is not a tour guide for outsiders; it’s a scavenger hunt—insiders only, please. Longtime Kansas Citian Anne Kniggendorf is at your service to bolster your love and boost your respect for this middle-of-the-map city. With her eye for the odd leading the way, you’ll have a great time discovering Kansas City.

Brief stories of Kansas City history, from the Beatles to Jesse James and Harry Houdini.

Kansas City is often seen as a "cow town" with great barbecue and steaks. But it is also a city with more boulevards than Paris and more working fountains than Rome. There are burial mounds that date back more than two thousand years. The National World War I Museum and Memorial, opened in 1926, stands more than two hundred feet tall. Leila's Hair Museum has a collection that brings tourists from all over the nation. The Kansas City Jazz Museum features a historic district and world-class museum that document a time when dance halls, cabarets, speakeasies and even honky-tonks and juke joints fostered the development of a new musical style. Join author Paul Kirkman as he cuts a trail past the stockyards into the heart of America--Kansas City.

Welcome to Kansas City—the best town this side of Hell. The Paris of the Plains. Home to the Wettest Block in the World. This collection celebrates a storied history of one notorious city. Meet the mobsters and victims, bootleggers, madams, political bosses and raucous entertainers who truly brought the party to the plains even during Prohibition. Witness the best parades, the wackiest costumes and the wildest scams. Kansas City’s sordid underbelly is full of surprises sure to delight and entice—the odd, macabre and delightful. ,

This ¿well-organized¿ (Booklist) and ¿surprisingly versatile¿ (Library Journal) road trip guide features 130 hand-selected sites and battlefields, themed driving tours, kid-friendly sites, maps, informative essays, and the insights of two experienced road trippers. First released locally in 2013, and fully updated in 2015, The Big Divide is in thousands of glove boxes and travel bags across Missouri and Kansas. Now, the authors are reaching out to history buffs, budget travelers, and families across America to tell the incredible story of the Border Region. Among the discoveries: The liberation of four million enslaved Americans began not in the East but on the prairies of Kansas; black soldiers first fought and died for their freedom in Missouri, not the East; Missouri came uncomfortably close to falling into Confederate hands; and the Border Region had a pivotal role in American history, from westward expansion to Indian policy to the Border War to the Brown v. Board of Education ruling.

Founded in an unlikely spot where dry prairies meet formidable mountains, Denver overcame its doubtful beginning to become the largest and most important city within a thousand miles. This tour of the Queen City of the Plains goes beyond travel guidebooks to explore its fascinating historical sites in detail. Tour the grand Victorian home where the unsinkable Molly Brown lived prior to her Titanic voyage. Visit the Brown Palace Hotel suite that President Dwight and First Lady Mamie Eisenhower used as the Summer White House. Pay respects at the mountaintop grave of the greatest showman of the nineteenth century, Colonel William F. Buffalo Bill Cody. From the jazzy Rossonian lounge where Ella scatted and Basie swung to gleaming twenty-first-century art museums, author Mark A. Barnhouse traces the Mile High City's story through its historical legacy.