{"id":47,"date":"2008-07-20T18:35:06","date_gmt":"2008-07-20T23:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/mojo\/?p=47"},"modified":"2025-08-01T19:31:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T00:31:28","slug":"kansas-city-your-basic-geography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/blog\/kansas-city-your-basic-geography\/","title":{"rendered":"Kansas City: your basic geography"},"content":{"rendered":"

So the people over in Kansas City, Kansas<\/a>, got a little huffy over a Jeopardy!<\/em> question somewhere in the early \u201990s. \u201cKansas City, Kansas, is a suburb of what city?\u201d That would be Kansas City, Missouri<\/a>, dingdingding.<\/p>\n

This post is not for those who live here because we<\/em><\/strong> know there\u2019s a Kansas City in Kansas and one in Missouri, too. We\u2019re just tired of having to conduct extemporaneous geography lessons to people who think they know what they\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t run into this until I moved to Provo, Utah, to go to Brigham Young University. I mean, you grow up here, it\u2019s just part of your life. Like breathing.<\/p>\n

I had to present my Missouri driver\u2019s license to cash a check and the clerk (probably a college senior or thereabouts) took one look at it and said, \u201cThis is a fake ID. Hold on. I\u2019m going to go get my manager.\u201d Do what?<\/p>\n

\"AI informed her of the truth of the matter. \u201cThere is a Kansas City in Missouri.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, there\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, there is. Get a map. Look it up. It\u2019s a lot bigger than the one in Kansas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have to. There is no Kansas City in Missouri.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the line behind me was getting a little impatient at this kindergarten display of \u201cUh HUH!”\/\u201cNuh UH!”, but the clerk left and brought her manager back with the smug look of someone who knew a cheat and thief was about to get busted. \u201cSHE,\u201d she said, stabbing a finger my way, \u201cis trying to pass this off as real.”<\/p>\n

Manager looked at it, said, \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at the address. There is no Kansas City in Missouri.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manager stared at her, his jaw on the floor. \u201cUh, yes there is. Cash the check.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not that anybody cares except we who feel a particular affinity for our city, but Kansas City, Missouri sprawls out over three counties: Jackson, Clay, and Platte. The Missouri River separates the northern half from the southern half.<\/p>\n

Kansas City, Kansas, is contained in one county: Wyandotte.<\/p>\n

Those are just the cities proper. The Kansas City metro area<\/a> is comprised of at least six very large cities and eight counties (inclusive of both states), with sprawl threatening to add another eight counties to that list.<\/p>\n

And oh, by the way. Olathe is pronounced o-LAY-thuh, not OH-lath.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t want to accuse anyone in Platte County of nefarious goings-on; I\u2019m sure the prosecutor up there is a very nice person and not inclined toward graft, corruption, and murder like, say, Knox Hilliard.<\/p>\n

Likewise, Platte City (Platte County\u2019s county seat) turned into Chouteau City and Platte Woods (one of many wee municipalities dotting the metro and terribly, terribly Hansel-and-Gretelish, like fairy-tale eye candy, really) turned into Chouteau Woods. Eilis Logan, one of the three female protagonists in the book, lives on Maple Lane.<\/p>\n

So you think we should put a map in the book or not?<\/p>\n

\n

______________________________<\/p>\n

1<\/a>.<\/span>  So, okay, The Proviso<\/em> takes place in Jackson and Platte counties, except poor Platte County, whose name I felt obliged to change to Chouteau County.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So the people over in Kansas City, Kansas, got a little huffy over a Jeopardy! question somewhere in the early \u201990s. \u201cKansas City, Kansas, is a suburb of what city?\u201d That would be Kansas City, Missouri, dingdingding. This post is not for those who live here because we know there\u2019s a Kansas City in Kansas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[148],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kansas-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17400,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions\/17400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}