Kansas City Fun Facts

It’s not just flyover country!

Call me biased, but Kansas City is a special place. My family’s roots began here in the early 1900’s and currently 3 generations of Applebaums are calling KC home. From the mouth-watering BBQ to the beautiful boulevards, there’s so much to enjoy when living here. Check out these fun facts about my beloved City of Fountains!

1. The Kansas City metro is home to 2+ million residents making it approximately the 30th largest city in the country.

2. The City of Fountains Foundation has registered 200 fountains in the metropolitan area. This tally does not include the numerous fountains at corporation and sub-division entrances, office atriums, private gardens and homes.

3. Kansas City is home to over 100 BBQ joints. The Kansas City Barbeque Society, which sanctions about 300 contests in the United States each year, has more than 14,000 members, making it the world’s largest organization devoted to the art and science of barbeque.

4. Our beloved “boys in blue,” the Kansas City Royals, take their name from the American Royal, an annual stock show that’s been held in KC since 1899.

5. KC ignored Prohibition during the 1920’s, leading to an abundance of jazz clubs, brothels and gambling halls. This earned KC the moniker “The Paris of the Plains” after one journalist wrote “If you want to see some sin, forget Paris and head to Kansas City.”

6. In 1910, Joyce Hall began selling postcards out of a shoebox in KC. Today, his company has grown to the world’s largest greeting-cards maker, Hallmark Cards.

7. KC is home to the largest maker of boxed chocolates in the world. Based here since 1932, Russell Stover Candies still hand dips more than 25 million pieces of chocolate each year.

8. Kansas City’s Municipal Auditorium has hosted more NCAA Final Four Championships than any other venue in the country.

9. Homegrown advertising agency Bernstein-Rein invented the Happy Meal for McDonald’s after the owner noticed his son staring at the cereal box during breakfast.

10. There are 162 historic trail crossing markers in the greater metro paying homage to the significance of the area during the westward migration of the 1800’s.

Sources: VisitKC.com, kclibrary.org, movoto.com