Riverfront Park, Then and Now...

So some of you that know me may be aware of my passion for the Missouri Riverfront in Kansas City. When I was a kid, I remember the first of the KC "Spirit Fests" took place over the US Bicentennial celebration at Riverfront Park. I went there several times after that as a kid. Then came the big Missouri toxic waste snafu in the early 1980s, where dioxin dumping caused the town of Times Beach (South of St. Louis) to just "disappear." I had friends there. It was depressing. I'm rambling. At any rate, similar dumping took place at Riverfront Park, so around the same time that Times Beach disappeared, my park was closed down as well.

I was only a kid when all of this happened. It was another eight years (after I'd been driving for a couple of years) before I discovered the site again. It hadn't been removed from maps, but unless you knew what streets to turn on, you couldn't find it.

The first three shots above are from 1988, and show what used to be the main entrance to the park, as it was locked down then. The others are from 2004, showing the new gate. The road goes back aways to the left, then terminates at a boat ramp, where many people frequently fish. If you look at one of my earlier posts, there is a sign that sits on the bank of the Kaw about 500 yards from where it merges with the Mighty Mo, describing the delicasies found benteath the surface. This is only about three miles upriver from this boat ramp. As I have said in other places, you won't catch me eating anything out of those rivers caught around here.

Next photo post: the answer to why we should still see signs like these in that area today.


Next post: Something Special...