This Kansas City trail was once a trolley route to the long forgotten town of Dodson

Editor’s Note: Past|Present is a new video series from The Star that travels through time to show how scenes Kansas City depicted in vintage postcards look today. Have a postcard you’d like to share with our team? Tell us about it here.

We almost always picture streetcars hustling through crowded downtown streets and busy intersections. But in the early 20th Century, these electric-powered transit devices also began delivering passengers further and further from the center of the city.

Kansas City’s Country Club line was a good example. It started in Westport, veered southeast past the Plaza and Brookside before heading on to Waldo, and all the way out to the largely forgotten hamlet of Dodson near 85th & Prospect.

As automobiles became more and more prevalent, KC’s streetcar system began to lose ground. For awhile during WWII, ridership rebounded a bit. Finally though, the city shut it down for good in 1957, leaving the old tracks and easements behind.

Decades ago, a push to utilize the abandoned right of way from 63rd Street (where this week’s Past|Present postcard picture was taken) south to 75th Street spurred the Harry Wiggins Trolley Track Trail. Wiggins was a State Senator who fought to find funding for the project.

Today, walkers, runners and bike riders can follow the gravel and asphalt trail for more than six miles as it passes parks, residential areas, a brewery and shopping districts in the southern part of the city.

Looking for more Kansas City history?

“What’s Your KCQ?” explains the rise and fall (with some great photos) of KC streetcars

How some old KC streetcars ended up in San Francisco

Exploring the ways that transit development and KC’s parks and boulevards shaped the neighborhoods around them

Could a freeway have been built along the old streetcar line?