The Other Kansas City: How a Missouri memory became an Oregon mainstay

This may have happened to you. You’re driving north on Highway 47 toward Banks, and reach Greenville, where you see a sign “Kansas City, 2 miles.”  Maybe you’ve been to another “Kansas City,” like the barbecue capital of the world in Missouri, so you’re intrigued. At that moment, someone in the car alerts you that they “need to go potty,” so like any compassionate driver, you make a quick left and follow the sign to Kansas City, hoping a store or gas station will reveal itself around the next bend. After some hopeless searching and confusion, you head back on your original route to Banks. It turns out, Kansas City is not a city at all, but rather a beautiful village of fruit trees, berry bushes, idyllic hills, farmhouses and barns, and a tight community of families.

One such family - the Loves - has been farming in Kansas City since 1909, and some time ago I spoke with Jim Love, who lives on Kansas City Road and whose berry farm is the heart of Kansas City proper. Our chat focused on Lousignont Lake (a historic body of water adjoining his farm), so the origin of the name never came up, but thanks to Jim and other neighbors, I learned more about the region, and the importance of our smaller Kansas City to this part of Washington County.

The area that is now Kansas City was first settled by the Atfalati band of Kalapuya, who would visit the long shallow lake for centuries, primarily for hunting. This marshy body of water – which came to be named Lousignont Lake after the area’s first white settlers – would rise and recede with the seasons, and like Wapato Lake, the lush habitat attracted game and hunting opportunities. Though hunting is now restricted, one can still see game birds crossing Kansas City’s skies. In the 1920s and 30s, the lake was drained by farmers to create more productive farmland, but it still floods. Jim Love mentioned that about a third of his farm is underwater in the winter. What is clear is that Lousignont Lake has left one of the most fruitful agricultural regions in the country.

The next stop on my quest was to visit longtime residents of the Grove, and get their recollections of Kansas City. When asked about the origins of the moniker, almost without exception, the response was: “Must have been that some people from that part of the country moved here, and named it so.” Makes sense! The few mentions of the place in papers and journals echoed this claim. I went about seeing who actually settled here. First off was that family the lake was named after, John and Delilah Lousignont, who came to Oregon in 1843 from St. Joseph, Missouri, not far from the other Kansas City. Other settlers soon arrived to the shores of Lousignont Lake, many of whom came from Missouri and Kansas.

One of the first mentions of Kansas City in the local press appeared in the September 4, 1903 issue of “Washington County News,” and it gives a sense of life in “This little burgh, Situated on the west side of Dairy Creek -- Herb Bros. finishing threshing for Kirtz and Lloyd yesterday – McGraw and Co. are baling straw for Albert Bennett – Mrs. Watkins has moved to Forest Grove – John Lee had rented the Perry Watson place – Frank Lewis has gone to help Mr. McPherson dry hops – John Nice is improving his place. Everyone that can is going, or has gone, to pick hops. Some are camping and some will stay at home and pick the yards nearby.” 

After this 1903 column, Kansas City would have a weekly section in the news, which continued until the late 1960s. The school house, which had been the main hub of the community, closed in the mid-1940s, and the community Grange hall right across the street took over as the gathering place for weddings, receptions, club meetings, dances, parties, and theatrical productions, well into the 1960s. Though many of the landmarks of Kansas City are no more, what remains are the farms and the families. In addition to the Love farm (which raises several kinds of berries), and the organic farm owned and operated by Jim’s daughter Amy and her husband Kip on Hillside Road, there’s a plethora of orchards, some of which supply fruit for the cideries in the Grove.

Although I never learned with certainty how the village got its name, I’m sure it has to do with those families wanting to be reminded of where they came from, and the promise of success in their new home. It is true: Kansas City is not a city, but like the crops raised there, it’s a very fruitful “little burgh” that continues to flourish.