Kansas City, MO Tourist Attractions
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This double city in the Midwest, straddling the border between Kansas and Missouri, lies at the junction of the Kansas River with the Missouri, extending along the high banks of both rivers (the Bluffs). World-famous for its steaks and its jazz, Kansas City is now the center of an extensive agricultural region.
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Airline History Museum
The Airline History Museum at the Downtown Airport on the northern edge of the city is guaranteed to make any flight enthusiast's heart beat faster. Here you can relive the days when people still flew with propeller machines over the Atlantic and Kansas City was the TWA headquarters. Flight veterans will be only too happy to tell their stories, and visitors can take a turn in a DC or a Super Constellation.
Union Station
Chicago architect Jarvis Hunt won a competition in 1910 and was hired by the Kansas City Terminal Railway Corporation to design Kansas City's Union Station. The station officially opened on Oct. 31, 1914. The station underwent restoration to become the home of a science museum, theaters and restaurants.
Ozarks State Park
This park south-east of Kansas City is a popular recreation area. One of the chief places in the park is Osage Beach.
Thomas Hart Benton Home and Studio State Historic Site
Thomas Hart Benton was a renowned painter, sculptor, lecturer and writer. Benton's home remains virtually untouched since his death in 1975, the two-and-a-half story, late Victorian-style house was constructed of native, quarried limestone and contains simple furnishings in neutral tones that contrast Benton's vibrant paintings. Several of Benton's paintings and sculptures can be viewed in the house.Half of the carriage house was converted into his art studio and remains as he left it, with coffee cans full of paintbrushes, numerous paints and a stretched canvas waiting to be transformed into another of his masterpieces.
Black Archives Mid-America
Black Archives feature two exhibits - the first is dedicated to founder and community activist, Horace Peterson. The second exhibit is dedicated to Buffalo Soldiers and other Black Army units that served in the Civil War up to World War II. An original slave cabin is also on display, and visitors can peruse slave journals and other artifacts from the Civil War era.
John Wornall House Museum
John Bristow Wornall completed his brick farmhouse in 1858 in the Greek Revival style. During the Battle of Westport in 1864, both armies used the farmhouse as a field hospital. It has been restored to its original period to interpret the daily lives of a frontier farm family. The herb and perennial gardens at the John Wornall House Museum are historically accurate.
Swope Park
Swope Park at 1,772 acres, is the second-largest city park in the United States, it was constructed in 1896. The land was donated by millionaire Thomas H. Swope. Swope Park is home to two golf courses; the Lakeside Nature Center; sporting areas for softball, soccer, rugby, Frisbee and more; horseback-riding trails; picnic and fishing areas; and scenic hiking trails as well as a zoo and IMAX theater.
Kansas City Zoological Park
Exhibits at the Kansas City Zoological Park include the Great Ape House, Tropical Habitat Building, Elephant Sanctuary and Wolf Pack Woods. The zoo is home to 900 animals from six continents.
Sprint IMAX Theater (Closed Permanently)
ATTRACTION IS CLOSED.The Sprint IMAX© Theatre is located at the entrance to the Kansas City Zoological Park. Nature and adventure films from exotic locations around the world are presented.
Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center
The Bruce R Watkins Cultural Center is a tribute to Kansas City's early African-American pioneers, and features the artistic, cultural and social history of the African American experience. The center is named in honor of Bruce R. Watkins, a political and social activist.
Museums at 18th and Vine
Kansas City's historic 18th & Vine district has been restored and features trademarks of Kansas City - the Negro Leagues Baseball and jazz music. The Horace M Petersen III Visitor Center takes guests on a trip back in time to the 1930s with an audiovisual presentation on the African American experience in the area.
American Jazz Museum
The Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and Charlie "Bird" Parker exhibits at the American Jazz Museum highlight these four jazz musicians. Each exhibit contains an audio listening station, personal artifacts, rare photographs and an informative timeline that celebrates the lives and musical genius of each musician.Visitors can catch a glimpse of a working music studio, children can enjoy the Wee-Bop room which provides an introduction to jazz through creative activities.
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum
The Negro League Baseball Museum features two film exhibits, two video exhibits, and 15 computer interactive stations based on a time line of African American and baseball history from the 1860s-1950s.The centerpiece is the "Field of Legends" which features 12 life sized bronze cast sculptures of the most important players in Negro Leagues history. Photographs, lifestyle exhibits and sound effects help visitors step back in time!
American Royal Museum & Visitors Center
American Royal Museum is home to interactive displays relating to the agricultural and livestock industry. The hands-on exhibits include a reading corner, playing computer games, and learning about livestock judging.
Cave Spring
Cave Spring is a 36 acre historic site that was once part of the Santa Fe Trail. It is now a place to learn about the natural environment and cultural history of the Kansas City area.
Hallmark Visitors Center
Located in the Crown Center complex, the Hallmark Visitors Center displays the history of the greeting card industry. The rags-to-riches story of how Joyce Hall created an international institution based on caring is presented.
Kansas City Museum
Kansas City's role in westward expansion is presented through artifacts and displays relating to this development. Osage Indians, explorers, trappers, rivers and a 1910 corner drugstore are featured exhibits.
Linda Hall Library
The Linda Hall Library is devoted to science and technology with American, British and Canadian atomic energy publications and other technical journals. The main floor of the library features an ornamental Russian bowl carved from malachite.
Penn Valley Park
Home to the Liberty Memorial and its World War I Museum, this park was developed in 1904. Commemorative statues such as The Scout, the Pioneer Mother Memorial and The Hiker are also contained within the park.
Toy and Miniature Museum of Kansas City
Located on the campus of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the Toy and Miniature Museum contains twenty-four rooms filled with antique dolls, dolls' houses, cast iron toys, trains, and scale miniatures.
Worlds of Fun, Oceans of Fun
These two theme parks offer a wide variety of entertainment for families.Oceans of Fun is a 60-acre water park includes water slides, a wave pool and a water playground. Worlds of Fun is 175-acres of rides and attractions.
Kansas City Art Institute
This four-year college of fine arts and design, the Kansas City Art Institute, was founded in 1885.
National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial
The Liberty Memorial Museum is a memorial to the men and women who served in the war, and to those who died. The museum houses many objects from World War One.
Surroundings
Liberty
Liberty, north of Kansas City, was the scene of the first bank robbery by Jesse James, who was born in nearby Kearney; the bank is now the Jesse James Museum.The town of Liberty boasts 240 preserved homes and buildings built more than 100 years ago. Self guided walking tours, unique shops and restaurants, three museums, Spring arts festival, and a fall festival make for an interesting visit.
Charles G Curry Library
The Charles G Curry Library is home to books and original illustrations from Miss Lois Lenski, a well known writer and illustrator of children's books. In 1906, the private library of Charles Haddon Spurgeon was given to the Curry Library. The Spurgeon collection features the writings of Puritan thinkers, but includes all areas of knowledge. There are many books, which were printed in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Historic Liberty Jail
Prophet Joseph Smith and several other Church leaders spent approximately five months awaiting trial in Liberty Jail. The restored jail allows visitors to observe the conditions that the men endured. While incarcerated in Liberty Jail, Joseph Smith received three revelations that are recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants of the Latter Day Saints.
Clay County Museum and Historical Society
Housed in a restored 19th century drugstore, the Clay County museum displays patent medicines, pioneer farm tools, and other artifacts from 19th century farm life. The second floor features a dining room and parlor from the 1880s.
Jesse James Bank Museum
The Jesse James Bank Museum was the site of the first successful daylight bank robbery, committed by the James gang in 1866. The building house Jesse James memorabilia, period furnishings and banking displays.
