U.S. Route 66 in Kansas U.S. Route 66 in Kansas U.S. Route 66 (US 66, Route 66), the historic east–west US highway between Chicago, Illinois and Santa Monica, California, passed through one brief segment in the southeastern corner of Kansas. It entered the state south of Baxter Springs and continued north until it crossed the Brush Creek, from where it turned east and left the state in Galena. After the decertification of the highway in 1985, this road segment was numbered as US-69 (alternate) from Quapaw, Oklahoma north to Riverton, Kansas and as K-66 (Kansas highway) from Riverton east to Route 66 in Missouri. The
History of the Kansas City metropolitan area that the western border of the new state would run from Iowa along the Missouri River to the confluence of the Kansas River (Kaw) and the Missouri River, then as a straight line running south to the northwest corner of Arkansas. As part of the Missouri Compromise in 1821, Congress admitted Missouri to the union as the 24th state and as a slave state. The area of the confluence of the two rivers, alternately known as the village of Kansa, Chouteau's, Quindaro, Westport Landing, Missouri River Quay, Town of Kansas, City of Kansas and finally Kansas City, has been subject