I wanted to following up with another excerpt from the Waukomis Drive/Green Hills Road Reconnaissance Survey for potential historical resources prepared for the City by Historic Preservation Services, LLC in conjunction with TranSystems Corporation. This report was available and discussed during the public meetings held for the project.
INFLUENCES OF TRANSPORTATION ON DEVELOPMENT
Roads
The earliest roads in Platte County reflected the topography, usually following natural ridgelines. One early route was a military wagon road established in 1823 that connected Liberty, Missouri in nearby Clay County to Council Bluffs, Iowa via Smithville in Platte County. After Fort Leavenworth opened in Kansas and as ship traffic on the Missouri River became more practical, the military road was abandoned. Soon after the formation of Platte County, farmers began erecting fences to mark their properties.6 The new fence lines corresponded to the surveyors’ grid and often interrupted established travel patterns. The growing population called for the designation of formal roads, which often aligned to minimize impacts to agricultural land.
Good roads were critical to the economic success of the county and the ability of farmers and livestock producers to reach larger markets with their crops. As the population increased during the 1840s, significant road building occurred in Platte County. Some roads, such as the road from Platte City to Smithville that opened in 1840, improved access to local agricultural processing centers in communities such as Weston, Platte City, Parkville, Waldron, and Iatan. Other roads linked Platte County to larger settlements in the region. The Missouri Legislature established at least fifteen state roads through Platte County by 1861. These included a road to Weston from Liberty in 1843 and roads to Plattsburg from Parkville and Weston in 1848.7
During the pre-Civil War period, Platte County had at least two graded, macadamized turnpikes connecting Weston to Platte City and Plattsburg. These were toll roads for a number of years; however, the local population did not find the macadam roads to be significantly better than well-maintained dirt roads and preferred to travel routes without tolls.8
The Northwest Waukomis Drive/North Green Hills Road first appears on the 1877 Platte County Atlas. While the early county histories do not specifically reference the construction of a road in this location, the Annals of Platte County, Missouri notes meetings held in the town of Barry to discuss building a turnpike to Kansas City in 1878 and again in 1885.9 Given the local residents’ dislike of turnpikes, it is unlikely that they approved the upgrade. However, these discussions confirm the establishment of a road connecting Barry to Kansas City by 1877. A 1919 plat map clearly labels Waukomis Road as the “Kansas City & Barry Road” and as a “County Road.”
The Edwards Brothers 1877 atlas of Platte County, Missouri (left) shows the northern terminus of the project corridor forming a T-intersection with Barry Road at the center of Section 8, Township 51 North, Range 33 West. The road follows the quarter-section line almost due south, curving to the west in the southern eighth of the section. Two branches of Line Creek cross the quarter-section line in this general location, and the irregular road pattern may reflect good fording locations or the location of bridges. It is unclear if a bridge crossed either of these waterways during the nineteenth century. There are no specific mentions of a bridge across Line Creek in the county histories, although the 1885 volume mentions an iron bridge across “Live” Creek and notes that iron and wood “combination” bridges cross many of the counties numerous waterways.10 The 1899 map of Platte County indicates the location of a bridge where Kansas City-Barry Road crosses Line Creek.11
After entering Section 17, Northwest Waukomis Drive/North Green Hills Road continues straight south along the north-south quarter section line. Midway through the south half of Section 17 the road angles to the east, landing on the section line separating Sections 17 and 20 at a point roughly one-eighth section east of center. This alignment appears to be slightly west of the current road alignment. The road then continues east and south along the current alignments of Northwest 70th Terrace and North Robinhood Lane. These streets correspond to the section lines dividing Sections 17 and 20 and Sections 20 and 21. The project area ends at approximately the midpoint of this latter section line.
The alignment of Northwest Waukomis Drive/North Green Hills Road remained unchanged through the end of the nineteenth century. The 1907 map in George A. Ogle and Company’s Standard Atlas of Platte County, Missouri (top left) shows only one small difference — the curve near the north end of the project area appears more angular than shown on previous maps. It is unclear if this reflects an actual alignment change or simply cartographic interpretation. By circa 1930, this curve no longer existed and the road ran straight through the middle of Sections 8 and 17 from the north end of the project corridor to the southeast quarter of Section 17.
The modern alignment of Northwest Waukomis Drive at the south end of the project area first appears in 1919 when the subdivision plat for Miltonwood established “Milton Drive” on a diagonal connecting the Kansas City-Barry Road with the County Road that followed the north-south section line separating Sections 20 and 21 (center left).
Today, Northwest Waukomis Drive/North Green Hills Road remains substantially unchanged from its historic alignment and configuration. Although new residential development lines much of the corridor, the rolling, tree-lined sections probably look much as they did during the early twentieth century (bottom left).
6 W. M. Paxton, Annals of Platte County Missouri (Kansas City, MO: Hudson-Kimberly Publishing Co., 1897), 6, Genealogy and Local History Library, Mid-Continent Public Library, Independence, MO.
7 Paxton, 36, 51, 99; National Historical Society, 603.
8 National Historical Society, 603-604.
9 Paxton, 653, 820.
10 National Historical Society, 787.
11 Virgil L. Walker, 1899 Map of Platte County, Missouri (Platte City, MO: Virgil L. Walker, 1899), Platte County Historical Society, Platte City, MO.
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