It is located and lies within and the seat of Jackson County in the state of Missouri. Independence is a division of the Kansas City metropolitan area and is considered as a satellite city of Kansas City. The town was founded to serve the westernmost part of the fur trade along the Missouri River in 1827. The city became the starting point for the Santa Fe, Oregon, and California trails and had then become the meeting place for the wagon trains that are bound to California gold mines. Independence was named for Andrew Jackson and that its community was later named the county seat in 1827. It was where the first Mormon settlers arrived; however, local resentment has driven them out by 1933. Independence campuses of Graceland University, Park University, and Blue River Community College, and other technical and vocational schools became the foundation of higher education in the city.