The Fairfax Industrial District is a manufacturing area of

Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City, abbreviated as "KCK", is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas, and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As of ...

, on the Goose Island river bend of the Missouri River. The

US 69 Missouri River Bridge The US 69 Missouri River Bridge is a girder bridge carrying U.S. Route 69 (US 69) over the Missouri River. It connects Interstate 635 (I-635) in Riverside, Missouri with the 7th Street Trafficway and Fairfax District in Kansas Cit ...

provides access to the district from Missouri's Platte County and Riverside community. The district's

General Motors Fairfax Assembly Plant The Fairfax Assembly & Stamping is a General Motors automobile factory at 3201 Fairfax Trafficway, Kansas City, Kansas in the United States. As of 2022, the plant employs over 2,100 hourly and salaried employees. Employees are represented by UA ...

is a current facility in the district which has remnants of the runways used by the defunct

Fairfax Municipal Airport Fairfax Municipal Airport (known as Fairfax Field during World War II) was a Kansas City, Kansas airfield from 1921 that was used during 1935–1949 by the military. Federal land adjacent to the airfield included a WWII B-25 Mitchell plant and ...

and Fairfax Air Force Base.

History

The district is on the Goose Island river bend (inner concave bank of a

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex ba ...

loop) that had been an island created by an 1880 flood that moved the Missouri River's "main current and the main and principal channel" from around the north, east, and south of the site to a low elevation on the west (Goose Island Chute). By 1907 the state of Kansas had answered a Missouri petition and filed for ownership of the island, which was declared part of Kansas on March 22, 1909, by the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

(in 1940, the

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

mapped the state boundary as a straight north-south line demarcating a small eastern portion of "Fairfax Airport" in Missouri). When flow into the chute was stopped by the Goose Island closing dike, the island became a river bend landform. "The city owned Kansas City Public Levees, the city of Kansas City and the Fairfax Industrial District sponsored a project in which the

United States Government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

constructed flood protection levees and walls around the district, including three pump houses to pump water" with 2 of the houses on the later airfield (the dike extended from Quindaro downstream around Goose Island to the mouth of the

Kansas River The Kansas River, also known as the Kaw, is a river in northeastern Kansas in the United States. It is the southwesternmost part of the Missouri River drainage, which is in turn the northwesternmost portion of the extensive Mississippi River dr ...

.) The protected land along the river north of the city ("North Bottoms") was used for farmland which was partly used as an airfield for a 1921 " American Legion air meet".

Industrial development

"In late 1923, the Kansas City Industrial Land Company, a subsidiary of the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

, purchased nearly 1,300 acres of Missouri River bottom land and launched over $3.7 million of infrastructure improvements to create a modern industrial district." In 1924 the UPRR had railyards in the district and by March 1926, the district had "four miles of paved streets…six miles of railroad spur track…an iron and steel foundry, an oil refinery, a thresher assembly plant, two construction companies, a lumber mill, and an aviation school and small airfield." The airfield was named the 1925

Sweeney Airport Sweeney may refer to: People * Sweeney (name) *Clan Sweeney, an Irish clan of Scottish origin Places * Sweeney Mountains, Palmer Land, Antarctica * Sweeney Ridge, a national park in California, United States Arts and entertainment *'' The Madnes ...

then the 1928

Fairfax Airport Fairfax Municipal Airport (known as Fairfax Field during World War II) was a Kansas City, Kansas airfield from 1921 that was used during 1935–1949 by the military. Federal land adjacent to the airfield included a WWII B-25 Mitchell plant and ...

—the latter had a natural gas field with 14 wells for extra revenue. Early passenger flights were by

Universal Aviation Corporation Universal Aviation Corporation was an airline holding company based in United States. History Universal Aviation Corporation was stood up to merge operations of Universal Air Lines Corporation, Robertson Aircraft Corporation and Northern Air ...

Southwest Air Service Express The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

, and

Central Air Lines Central Airlines was a passenger airline (the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) called it a "local service" air carrier) in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas from 1949 to 1967. It was founded by Keith Kahle in 1944 to oper ...

; and in 1933 when American,

Braniff Braniff Airways, Inc., operated as Braniff International Airways from 1948 until 1965, and then Braniff International from 1965 until air operations ceased, was an airline in the United States that once flew air carrier operations from 1928 un ...

, and

US Airways US Airways (formerly USAir) was a major United States airline that operated from 1937 until its merger with American Airlines in 2015. It was originally founded in Pittsburgh as a mail delivery airline called All American Aviation, which soon ...

were operating flights,

Rearwin Airplanes Rearwin Airplanes was a series of US airplane-manufacturing businesses founded by Andrew ("Rae") Rearwin in 1928. Rae Rearwin was an American businessman who had developed several successful business ventures in the Salina, Kansas area in the earl ...

and

American Eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

were manufacturing aircraft in the district. A naval reserve air base was established at the airport in 1935 and in 1936, the

Chrysler Motor Parts Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...

Company began operations along the airport.

World War II manufacturing

In addition to a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Navy Elimination Air Base,

Air Force Plant NC Air Force Plants NC (NAA-K company ID, Government Assembly Plant No. 2, facility ID #2503) was an aircraft production facility established during World War II adjacent to Fairfax Field near Kansas City. Although operated by North American Aviat ...

was built (1st B-25 accepted in February 1942.) By May 1942 the Fairfax Division of the

Fruehauf Trailer Company Fruehauf Trailer Corporation, previously Fruehauf Trailer Company (1918–1963) and Fruehauf Corporation (1963–1989), was an American company engaged in the manufacture and sale of truck trailers, and other machinery and equipment, with headqua ...

was in the district, and a dual hangar USAAF Modification Center was completed in October 1942. During the war a factory was started for a rubber company (completed post-war by

Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation Owens Corning is an American company that develops and produces insulation, roofing, and fiberglass composites and related materials and products. It is the world's largest manufacturer of fiberglass composites. It was formed in 1935 as a partn ...

), and an air freight terminal for Military Air Transport was opened on March 2, 1945.

Post-war businesses

To liquidate

military surplus Military surplus are goods, usually matériel, that are sold or otherwise disposed of when held in excess or are no longer needed by the military. Entrepreneurs often buy these goods and resell them at surplus stores. Usually the goods sold by t ...

, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation set up a depot in the district (72 flyable B-25J aircraft were sold to the public), and General Motors leased the Air Force Plant for automobile assembly (GM also built post-war F-84F aircraft at the plant.) Transcontinental & Western Air used the modification center for aircraft servicing until the

Great Flood of 1951 In mid-July 1951, heavy rains led to a great rise of water in the Kansas River, Missouri River, and other surrounding areas of the Central United States. Flooding occurred in the Kansas, Neosho, Marais Des Cygnes, and Verdigris river basins. ...

, and in January 1947 four new factories were under construction. In 1960 GM bought the former Air Force Plant it had been leasing since 1945 and then constructed a new 1985 factory when the airport closed. An annexation ordinance expanded the city limits to encompass the "United States Government rea of2 acres" and the airport's with 13 buildings—the "Fairfax plat" was the area within the northeast corner of the Fairfax Industrial District of ~.

Fairfax Assembly The Fairfax Assembly & Stamping is a General Motors automobile factory at 3201 Fairfax Trafficway, Kansas City, Kansas in the United States. As of 2022, the plant employs over 2,100 hourly and salaried employees. Employees are represented by UA ...

opened in 1987 again and produced Chevrolet Malibu and Buick LaCrosse models. In July 2006, the Kansas City council offered $146,000,000 in bonds for GM to produce a new mid-size vehicle at the plant.

References

{{Reflist , refs= {{cite web , last=Freeman , first=Paul , date=2012-12-29 , title=Sweeney Airport / Fairfax Airport / Fairfax Army Airfield (KCK), Kansas City, KS , url=http://www.airfields-freeman.com/KS/Airfields_KS_E.htm#fairfax , work=Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: Eastern Kansas , publisher=Airfields-Freeman.com , accessdate=2013-07-14 {{Cite court , year=1950 , title=STATE, EX REL. v. City of Kansas City, 169 Kan. 702 (1950), 222 P.2d 714 , url=http://law.justia.com/cases/kansas/supreme-court/1950/37-748-0.html , accessdate=2014-08-16 , quote=The Fairfax Industrial District consists of approximately 2,300 acres of land formerly owned by the Kansas City Industrial Land Company, which company sold tracts to various persons and corporations, including tracts of about 925 acres in the northeast portion of the district to the city of Kansas City for a municipal airport, now known as Fairfax airport. … Since 1925, by accretions and the addition of Goose Island, 900 acres were added, 700 acres of which are part of the city's airport (T. 523), making a total acreage area at this time of about 2.300 acres. … The airport statute, being Article 1, Chapter 3 of the 1947 Supp. to *711 G.S., 1935, gives the city the same jurisdiction and police power over its airport, even though the airport is located outside the city limits, as it has over any part of the city located within the city limits. {{Cite map , year=c. 1946 , title=map title tbd , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sMvYoAEACAAJ , location=published in 1946 ''Fairfax Industrial District'', UPRR
map partially depicted online at Airfields-Freeman.com.)
, accessdate=2013-07-14 , quote=Buick-Oldsmobile-Pontiac Assembly Plant … Barracks U.S. Navy … Ferrying Group Quarters … Military Air Transport Hangar … Fruehauf Trailer Co. … U.S. Army Air Base Geography of Wyandotte County, Kansas Manufacturing in Kansas

History

Industrial development

World War II manufacturing

Post-war businesses

Further reading

References