Thomas Hart Benton's Prophecy for Kansas City

"It was about this time [1853] that Senator Thomas Hart Benton voiced his heartening prediction of the city's future. At a time when the rival cities, Independence and Leavenworth, continued to speak derisively of the new river hamlet as Westport Landing." The senator, visiting the site of Kansas City in 1854, said: "There, gentlemen, where the rocky bluff meets and turns aside the sweeping current of this mighty river; here, where the Missouri, after pursuing her southward course for nearly 2,000 miles, turns eastward to meet the Mississippi, a large commercial and manufacturing community will congregate, and less than a generation will see a great city on these hills."