Southwest High School - Sachem Yearbook (Kansas City, MO)

Page 10 text:

Many years aao, a lone White rnan came out of the east, and built a cabin on the banlcs of the Blue River Where it joins the Missouri. There, for one year, Daniel Moraan Boone trapped and hunted Where today stand areat factories and Warehouses, all foraet- ful of Cheroliees or trappers. When Boone first savv Kansas City, it Was not an inspiring siaht. A succession of rocky bluffs, overlook- ina the Wide, muddy river, scattered herds of buffalo, rabbits, squirrels, and muskrats, and broad unturned fields were all the promise to be seen. However, on every side the vast potential resources appealed to that first trailblazer of the West. The stories he told when he returned to the east sent settlers out to find homes. lndependence and 'Westport were born aniona the foothills that border the Missouri, then, a

Page 9 text:

SACAJJUYICA I The Bird Wonzrm DEDICHTION To the Traillolazers of the past and ot the present who have left the corn- torts and conventionalities ot Civili- zation, and strode ahead, making Trails, however small, tor the Trails ot today are the Highways ot tomor- row.

Page 11 text:

few years later, Westport Landing was planned on the Very banks ot the river. Those early years were years ot rapid growth, and Westport Landing soon became the Town ot Kansas. The seed ot a western empire was sown-and in fertile ground. Pl nation gone mad! Two thousand-perhaps three thousand miles across the prairie, gold had loeen discovered. That soft, useless, yellow metal seemed like a mighty magnet, slowly drawing the end- less caravans across the dreary wastes to tortune, per- haps,-or to poverty or death. Three towns marked the gateway to this treasure-- three towns welcomed doctor, lawyer, farmer, laborer,