Two historic branches of the Santa Fe Trail passed through this area as part of an international trade route between the United States and Mexico that left the Missouri River at Westport Landing and converged at Strang Park. From the foot of Main Street, the Westport Route climbed into modern downtown Kansas City and split in Westport, with both branches heading southwest into Overland Park. The north branch followed the ridge between Turkey Creek and Brush Creek, continued through and near the Shawnee Indian Mission in northeast Johnson County, crossed present-day Antioch Road just west of this spot, and passed near Sapling Grove Campground on its way to Strang Park. The south branch left Westport on a more direct southern course along and near what is now Wornall Road, turned west across the state line at 69th Terrace, followed a broad ridge through Harmon Park in Prairie Village, crossed Metcalf Avenue at 83rd Street, and rejoined the north branch near Strang Park. From there the route continued as one trail southwest near the modern I-35 corridor toward Olathe. In 1834, William Marshall Anderson wrote after a twenty-mile horse-walk that his party had reached camp in Sapling Grove, numbering thirty-seven people with ninety-five horses and mules, and that he presumed he was then out of the United States. Today both branches of the Westport Route are part of the Santa Fe, Oregon, and California national historic trails.
