Bordered by rugged cliffs and the Missouri and Kansas rivers, the West Bottoms provided the spark for a rugged cowtown to become an urban metropolis. Steve Noll, executive director of the Jackson County Historical Society since 2004, draws from his personal collection and from Cowtown: Cattle Trails and West Bottom Tales, a new book by longtime attorney and civic leader Edward T. Matheny Jr., in recounting the epic story of how cowboys, stockyards commission men, meat packers, railroaders, and assorted hangers-on formed a vibrant, now-vanished Bottoms community.

Cowtown is the product of an innovative collaboration between a local author, the Jackson County Historical Society, and Woodneath Press, a new print-on-demand service developed by the Mid-Continent Public Library.