French Bottoms

French Bottoms, originally with the French name Chez les Cansès (lit. "at the place of the Kansa"), and the lowland part of Chouteau's Town, was the first permanent European-American settlement in the area that became Kansas City, Missouri. It was founded by the French Creole trader François Chouteau and his wife Bérénice Chouteau as a fur trading post for the American Fur Company. The enterprise began in 1821 as the newlyweds' honeymoon was spent scouting the Missouri River for land to build their first trading post, eventually establishing the main settlement in the alluvial floodplain, or bottoms, near the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers.

This French-speaking enclave was populated by families of French and mixed French-Native American heritage, extending the French Creole culture of the Mississippi River Valley to the frontier. The community's culture was distinct from that of the later American settlers, featuring unique architecture such as poteaux-en-terre homes and a land parcel design based on the French colonial long-lot system rather than the American square grid. Social life revolved around communal events, including weekly dances (bals) and traditional songs (chansons). A traveler from 1841 recalled how "the tasty pot de bouillon and friendly cup of wine went round and the chansons and fiddles and laughter rang out."

The Great Flood of 1844 completely obliterated the French Bottoms, washing away every home and farm and permanently erasing the floodplain community. Led by the widowed Bérénice Chouteau, the survivors abandoned the bottoms and relocated permanently to the highland part of Chouteau's Town, centered around the church and the Chouteau warehouses. Bérénice's new house on Pearl Street and major sale of land spanning the western bottoms and bluff to developer Kersey Coates enabled him to create the Quality Hill neighborhood, directly linking the old settlement's leadership to the foundation of the modern city.

The historical French Bottoms is considered the direct progenitor from which Kansas City grew. After its abandonment, the floodplain area was renamed the West Bottoms and East Bottoms and was later redeveloped into a major industrial and transportation hub. The site of the original 1821 north-bank trading post is commemorated by the François Chouteau & Native American Heritage Monument on Chouteau Trafficway near the Chouteau Bridge.