“The two French settlements [Chouteau’s headquarters and a few houses] were located, without fuss about mosquitoes or controversy over pure water, by simply arriving at the most convenient spot for trading purposes and remaining there. They, with their later neighbor Westport Landing, formed the nuclei of Kansas City. . . . David Cosad arrived at Kansasmouth on April 11, 1849. he called it Kansas and described it as a steamboat landing a short distance below the mouth of the Kansas River, and said it ‘bid fair to be a smart place for business.'”
