NPS Santa Fe National Historic Trail
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  • 1037. Alexander Majors Home

    Two story white home with columned front porch and second story balcony.  Green lawn with red bricked path in foreground.
    Alexander Majors Home

    Recognized by the National Park Service, another national historic trail with connections to the Kansas City metropolitan region is the Pony Express Trail. While the Pony Express Trail operated westward from St. Joseph, Missouri, or Atchison, Kansas, and did not travel through Jackson County, the home of one of its founders, was situated on the Santa Fe, Oregon and California trail routes that became State Line Road in 1861 after Kansas joined the union in 1861. From Majors’ front porch, he and his family looked out into Kansas Territory (prior to 1861).


    Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Majors built his home in 1856 on a 300-acre farm parcel. It served as his home and headquarters for his various enterprises alongside a dirt path leading from Westport Landing to the original Santa Fe Trail about four miles to the south. That dirt path is now known as State Line Road. The house appropriately faces the west, looking out over what was then Kansas Territory as Major’s freighting operations included the Overland Stagecoach line, the Pony Express, and the freighting company known as Russell, Majors and Waddell.


    For more information:


    Wornall Majors House Museums


    History in Action - Kansas City PBS


    Kansas City Public Library Article:

    Alexander Majors Residence