Kansas City Public Library: Pleasure Boating On The Blue River? KCQ Navigates This Interesting History

Press release from the Kansas City Public Library:

June 3, 2021

At the turn of the 20th century, Kansas Citians seeking respite from urban life had only to travel a short distance east to enjoy camping, floating, and fishing at a popular recreational destination, the Blue River.

Yes, that Blue River – the now muddy, mostly forgotten waterway that winds through rural, suburban, and industrial areas of Kansas City before emptying into the Missouri River in eastern Jackson County.

A reader had seen images from the early 1900s of cabins and houseboats lining the Blue River near East Truman Road, or 15th Street. The area is now a manufacturing district, and he found it hard believe it once attracted crowds of boaters and vacationers.

He asked “What’s Your KCQ?,” a partnership between The Kansas City Star and the Kansas City Public Library: What’s the story?

It is true that the Blue River was once a haven for pleasure boating and other outdoor pursuits. Despite ambitions to make it one of the most scenic waterways in the country, flood control and pollution ultimately led to its demise as a recreational stream.

The Blue River got its name from the onetime blue waters flowing from its headwaters in Johnson County, Kansas, northeast to the Missouri River. It was identified as Blue Water River when the Lewis and Clark Expedition encountered the tributary in 1804. It has also been commonly referred to as Big Blue or simply the Blue.

During Kansas City’s economic boom of the 1880s, investors began purchasing land just east of the city limits in the Blue River valley. The railroads brought manufacturing, and the industrial towns of Centropolis, Manchester, Sheffield, and Leeds were established. The Blue River not only had the potential for commercial traffic, but also provided swimming, fishing, and other outdoor recreation for the residents of these emerging communities.

It was a short ride by streetcar, automobile, or wagon for Kansas Citians to enjoy the serenity of the Blue River’s wooded banks and picturesque scenery. Boating and fishing were popular activities. The spring and summer months also attracted swimmers, campers, and picnickers.

By the early 1900s, numerous boat launch and rental services catered to the increasing number of recreationists. Dozens of cabins and houseboats dotted the banks of the Blue. Much of the boat traffic was concentrated near Independence Avenue, 12th Street, and 15th Street, the primary east-west arteries used to reach the river.

In a time when travel was prohibitive for most Kansas Citians, the Blue was a convenient and affordable getaway. It was unnecessary to travel to the Ozarks to float, fish, and swim when these leisure activities could be enjoyed much closer to home.

Circuit Court Judge Jules Guinotte, an avid boater who operated a launch and rental service, expressed this sentiment in a 1908 Kansas City Star interview. “I would rather spend my vacation on the Blue and Missouri than go to the ‘swell’ summer resorts,” he said. “At the hotels a person has to pay a lot of money for questionable food and cramped accommodations. … Here on the Blue I can have what I want and the way I want it, and I don’t have to spend a fortune to get it, either.”

A community of river dwellers spent the warm weather months living in cottages and houseboats. Some diehards even swore off city life (and city taxes) altogether, choosing to reside there year-round.

Boating clubs flourished during this period. Two canoe clubs and a women’s boating club regularly paddled the Blue. The Kansas City Yacht Club formed in 1907 with Judge Guinotte as its first president. The group held annual regattas, drawing hundreds of spectators, and led projects to remove trees and other snags from the channel to make it safer for boat travel.

By 1908 there were 65 launches, four boathouses, and fleets of rental craft operating on the Blue. But as river recreation was booming, there were elements, both natural and manmade, threatening the future of the river as a popular outdoor destination.

This press release was produced by the Kansas City Public Library. The views expressed here are the author’s own.