Kansas include I-470 around Topeka, I-235 around Wichita, and I-670 in downtown Kansas City. I-435 is a beltway around the Kansas City metropolitan area while I-635 bypasses through Kansas City. U.S. Route 69 (US-69) travels south to north, from Oklahoma to Missouri. The highway passes through the eastern section of Kansas, traveling through Baxter Springs, Pittsburg, Frontenac, Fort Scott, Louisburg, and the Kansas City area. Kansas also has the country's third largest state highway system after Texas and California. This is because of the high number of counties and county seats (105) and their intertwining. In January 2004, the Kansas Department
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