As documented in the historical account from the Missouri Valley Special Collections at the Kansas City Public Library, The town of Westport, in 1838, stood near the western edge of the American frontier and served as a disembarking point for traders following the Santa Fe Trail to present-day New Mexico, then a part of Mexico. To reach Westport from the east, traders traveled by river to a natural rock landing near the junction of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers and then trekked four miles south to Westport. This is an original 1885 map of Westport Missouri, by Charles C. Spalding, C.E.