Its two names both come from the Kanza (Kaw) people who once inhabited the area; Kansas was one of the anglicizations of the French transcription Cansez (IPA: [kɑ̃ze]) of the original kką:ze.

In the Kansas City metro area, some streams drain east into the Blue River tributary of the Missouri.

From the confluence at Junction City, the river flows through limestone, shale, mudstone, and occasional sandstone strata that, except for diagenesis, remain largely undisturbed since deposition in shallow Carboniferous and Permian seas.

[10] All of the rocks in the eastern Kansas valley are sedimentary, ranging from Late Pennsylvanian (300 million years ago) through the Permian, with three notable exceptions from the Quaternary Period.

Second, the retreat of the Kansan glaciation left behind a combination of ice- and meltwater-deposited sediments known as drifta, a poorly sorted mixture of clay, sand, gravel, and even large boulders that cover parts the Kansas River basin from the Big Blue River and eastward.

The third is loess, a fine silt that may have originally been deposited by the melting water of the receding glaciers, then redeposited by the wind.

[11] This map, with virtually no changes except for the translation of French into English, was subsequently published by John Senex, a London cartographer and engraver, in 1721.

From June 26 through 29, 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition camped at Kaw Point at the Kansas River's mouth.

In August 1819, Maj. Stephen H. Long steered the first steamer into the Kansas River with his 30-ton boat Western Engineer.

He made it scarcely a mile up the river before turning back, citing mud bars from the recent floods.

This traffic into statehood gave the Kansas legal status as a navigable stream in the eyes of the Federal government.

[14] This law remained in effect until 1913, when, after it had been characterized as "a crime against the public welfare of Kansas", it was finally repealed and the river's status was restored to a navigable stream.

The "Kaw River" is mentioned as a location in the western series Wagon Train, in the opening scene of The Tom Tuckett Story episode (March 2, 1960).