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Kyla Pehr/Missouri Business AlertFounded by settlers in 1837, Hermann was dedicated as a place where German Americans could preserve their culture. Now its annual Hermann Wurstfest draws crowds with sausage sampling, competitions, and a Wiener Dog Derby. -
Crysta Henthorne/The Kansas City StarBruce R. Watkins Drive took three decades to build, and resulted in the destruction of 2,000 homes and the displacement of thousands of Black residents. Kansas City officials and longtime residents hope a new federal grant can reconnect the neighborhoods torn apart by Highway 71, but mending old wounds won’t be easy.
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Kansas City is asking voters to buy into its public school system for the first time in nearly 60 years. Even after Kansas City Public Schools regained accreditation and turned the tide of student performance, crumbling buildings offer a persistent reminder of the city's disinvestment. It's a relationship strained by decades of racism, a history-making desegregation case and plenty of internal turmoil. -
Author Frances Levine tells the stories of a mix of women, each with different and very personal reasons for taking America’s first great international commercial highway to the West, in her book "Crossings: Women on the Santa Fe Trail." -
As Kansas City celebrates the Chiefs’ third consecutive Super Bowl appearance, the team name, logo, and some problematic fan customs like the “tomahawk chop” are once again being broadcast worldwide. But where did it all start, and how did the team avoid becoming the Kansas City Texans? -
When owner Lamar Hunt moved the Dallas Texans to Kansas City in 1963 and changed the name to the Chiefs, he was urged by then-Mayor Roe Bartle to feature a live band at Arrowhead Stadium. The tradition lasted more than four decades. -
New Orleans holds a special place in the stories of both the Chiefs and the National Football League: It was the location of Kansas City's first-ever Super Bowl win in 1970, a game that helped change the course of the NFL. -
Popcorn and movie theaters are inseparable today. But a century ago, cinemas actually banned the beloved treat for being cheap and messy. A Kansas City saleswoman named Julia Braden became one of the first popcorn vendors to talk her way inside the lobby — and built a concession empire in the middle of the Great Depression. -
Nora Holt was the first Black person in the United States to earn a master’s degree in music. A prolific composer and a club-hopping socialite, she once wrote a 42-page work for a 100-piece orchestra. But you’ve probably never heard any of it. Scholars have dreamt of finding her stolen manuscripts for nearly a century. -
In 1940, Works Progress Administration workers took photos of every building in Kansas City — houses, restaurants, shops, gas stations and more. Kansas City Public Library maintains more than 50,000 of the images, and a new website is making them easier than ever to browse. -
Much of Sugarloaf Mound will return to the Osage Nation, thanks to a recent land transfer. It’s the oldest man-made structure in St. Louis. -
Abolitionist John Brown wasn't born in Kansas, but made his mark during the Bleeding Kansas era before the Civil War. Today, 165 years after his execution, Brown's violent acts and influence are commemorated across the state of Kansas — including the site of the Pottawatomie massacre. -
MidAmerica Nazarene University will study the Madam C.J. Walker School, which was the subject of an important desegregation lawsuit in the 1940s. -
Despite her success in the 1930s, Dana Suesse’s music remains underappreciated. From piano concertos infused with jazz to popular film music, Suesse was a woman of great musical prowess.
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Museum curators are working to determine compliance with a federal law that requires tribes' consent to house artifacts. -
A new art project commemorating the Conley sisters will be unveiled in Kansas City, Kansas, this summer. The exhibit will help tell how the siblings and Wyandot Nation activists banded together to protect a burial ground in the early 1900s. -
The Kansas City Fire Department has responded to all kinds of emergencies since 1868, but some firefighters who died doing this dangerous work have been forgotten. Ray Elder is making certain all of them are remembered, and their names added to the Firefighters Fountain and Memorial. -
Sometimes the little places you pass every day hold much more significance than you realize. That's the case for a Stafford County, Kansas cemetery that holds the graves of some of Kansas' early Black residents. -
After early success as a stagecoach shop, Olathe is now classic suburbia dotted with shopping plazas and well-kept parks. Dive into the restaurant scene, history and natural splendor of this Johnson County suburb. -
The exhibit includes 135 handmade antique dolls — some that were made by enslaved people — and about 60 period photographs showing dolls, children and adults posing for the camera. But not everyone involved in the Kansas City showing is completely comfortable with it. -
Watermark West Rare Bookstore has overcome challenges for 40 years, including the internet upending the book business and a drop in rare book collecting. Owner Philip McComish doesn't know what the future holds for his historical repository. -
Komina Guevara learned the art of beadwork by watching her grandfather. Now she makes traditional and modern pieces that honor 'my family, my culture and myself.' -
Lindsborg, Kansas, artist Lester Raymer is best known for paintings of round-faced circus clowns, acrobats and jaunty roosters. But in the Red Barn Studio where he once worked, handcrafted toys for his wife are the star of Christmastime. -
A 117-year-old historically-Black church in Missouri is getting much-needed restoration work thanks to a grant from the National Heritage fund — and a crew of about a dozen volunteer builders.
