De Soto

History

The land that would become De Soto was part of a large territory extending to present-day St. Louis that was occupied by the Osage people, who were relocated from east of the Mississippi River in the upper Midwest. After the Treaty of St Louis in 1825, the Shawnee were forcibly relocated from Cape Girardeau to southeastern Kansas near the Neosho River. Only the Black Bob band of Shawnee resisted removal, however by 1828 they too migrated west and settled in northeastern Kansas in and around De Soto along the Kansas River. Later in the 19th century, many cultures of Native Americans arrived in the area after being pushed west by European-American pressure following colonial expansion and later the discovery of Gold in 1849. Between 1829 and 1854 almost thirty tribes were assigned reservations in what would become Kansas Territory. The Shawnee Methodist Mission was built in the De Soto area to minister to the tribe. In 1858, John Possum, a Shawnee man, and Hattie Possum sold to John F. Legate, S. Todd and Stratton and Williams for $1,200. The next sale was 80 acres to the De Soto Town Company in July 1861 for $1,176. Major James B. Abbot is remembered as one of the town's pioneer landowners and the builder of Abbot Hall. Today, Abbot Hall is one of two town museums. De Soto was incorporated as a city on October 1, 1897. With the construction of the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant south of De Soto, the city's population boomed in the early 1940s during World War II. In May 1943, a Kansas City Star article reported "a town rapidly growing, with a population increase from 400 to 1,000 persons in under a year." This sudden overflow in population put a great strain on housing and other resources in the city; however, many original residents prospered during this time,…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which are land and , or 1.15%, are water. While the majority of De Soto is located in northwestern Johnson County at (38.9791709, -94.9685783), the golf course north of the Kansas River is located in southern Leavenworth County. Considered by many locals to be an exurb, rather than a suburb, De Soto is part of the Kansas City metropolitan area, and it borders other communities on the eastern edges. These include Shawnee to the northeast, Lenexa to the east, and Olathe to the southeast. De Soto currently has annexation agreements with Olathe and Gardner, guaranteeing De Soto will be able to annex as far south as 127th Street and as far east as meeting Olathe at its western boundary. Subsequently, in October 2022, De Soto initiated annexation of 2,800 acres south of the formerly agreed southernmost boundary with Gardner, at the behest of Sunflower Redevelopment Group, which the city argued took precedence since it was a voluntary annexation request.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  22,192
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  19,799
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  18,718
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  17,038
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  15,363
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  15,171
• Red-bellied Woodpecker

  Melanerpes carolinus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  14,953
• Downy Woodpecker

  Dryobates pubescens (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  13,803

Most recent

• M 3.5 — 2024-03-15
  2 km NE of Ferrelview, Missouri
• M 2.6 — 2018-07-20
  1 km WNW of Saint Joseph, Missouri
• M 3.1 — 2007-03-23
  5 km N of Nortonville, Kansas