2. Minor Park/Red Bridge Crossing - Kansas City, Missouri
This 27-acre park in a beautiful setting and landscape has both recreational and historic overtones. Its prominent feature is a gentle swale that cuts across the park, obviously created by wet wagon wheels and teams pulling up the hill after crossing the Big Blue River.
Emigrants heading west from Independence encountered their first river crossing at this site, a preview of the many rivers and streams to be negotiated on their long journey. On May 8, 1846, Virgil Pringle, "went 12 miles to the Blue and encamped, it being too high to cross. Another wagon capsized at the encampment. . . . No injury to persons or property." The next day his party, "crossed the Blue soon in the morning."
The crossing was initially a ford; Red Bridge was constructed in 1859.
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