He built the first fort (and first extended settlement in Missouri) in 1723 at Fort Orleans, near his Brunswick home. The French rewarded Bourgmont by giving him their highest honors and naming him commander of the Missouri. French cartographer Guillaume Delisle used the descriptions to make the first reasonably accurate map of the area. In these documents, he described the junction of the Kansas and Missouri rivers, as the first to refer to them by those names. To clear his name, Bourgmont wrote 'Exact Description of Louisiana, of Its Harbors, Lands and Rivers, and Names of the Indian Tribes That Occupy It, and the Commerce and Advantages to Be Derived Therefrom for the Establishment of a Colony' in 1713, and in 1714, 'The Route to Be Taken to Ascend the Missouri River'. He lived with a Native American wife in the Missouri village about 90 miles (145 km) east near Brunswick, Missouri, and illegally traded furs. Bourgmont was on the lam from French authorities after deserting his post as commander of Fort Detroit, after being criticized for his handling of a Native American attack on the fort. The first documented French visitor to the Kansas City area was Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont, who was also the first European to explore the lower Missouri River. In 1854, when Kansas was opened to Euro-American settlement, the Missouri-Kansas border became the first battlefield in the conflict in the American Civil War. The Santa Fe and Oregon trails ran through the area. The area had a major role in the westward expansion of the United States. Kansas City, Missouri was founded in 1838 and surpassed the competing Westport to become the predominant city west of St. This strategic point for commerce and security at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers became the Kansas City metropolitan area, straddling the border between Missouri and Kansas. Louis, Missouri moved up the Missouri River to trap for furs and trade with the Native Americans. The history of the Kansas City metropolitan area has records starting in the 19th century, when Frenchmen from St. Kansas City, Missouri, skyline from the Liberty Memorial

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