City (pop., 2000: 441,545), western Missouri, U.S., on the Missouri River .
The city is contiguous with Kansas City, Kan. First settled by French fur traders in 1821, it was known as Westport Landing, prospering as a river port and as the terminus for the Santa Fe Trail and the Oregon Trail . Chartered in 1850 as the town of Kansas and as a city in 1853, it was renamed Kansas City in 1889 to distinguish it from the territory. The state's largest city, it is a railroad centre with stockyards, packing-houses, and grain-storage facilities. It is the seat of the University of Missouri at Kansas City and the world headquarters for the Church of the Nazarene.