Driving along Interstate 49 in Belton, some folks may think “typical bedroom community,” but Belton has a storied history and was once part of a plan engineered by St. Louis money interests to keep Kansas City from growing.
The city was chartered in 1872 with a difficult start. The area was largely uninhabited several years following the civil war.
In 1863, Union Gen. Thomas Ewing had issued the infamous Order No. 11. Farms’ crops burned. It was known as the burnt district.
As the recovery began, Belton was served by two rail lines. Then, St. Louis industrialists came up with the plan for a rail spur that would bypass Kansas City.
“They were trying to do that in the late 1860s early 1870s to try to stave off Kansas City — the power that was to be,” said Matt Friel, president of the Belton, Grandview and Kansas City railroad. “They weren’t successful but what that did for Belton was built that line from Pleasant Hill to eventually DeSoto, Kansas. So that was the first rail line through Belton and that was the first one to connect Belton to the greater world other than by the old car path.”