The beginnings of the community date to , when J. Mead founded a trading post on the banks of the confluence of two rivers, the Arkansas and the Little Arkansas. For centuries this location had also served as a trading place for Native Americans. The name Wichita comes from the Wichita Indians, who settled at various times in the vicinity, and means either "scattered lodges" or "painted faces," depending on which historian you ask.
In , a Wichita Town Company was organized with Mead and six others as original incorporators. Wichita was incorporated as a city of the third class on July 21, One hundred twenty-three men and one woman signed the original incorporation petition. The woman was Mrs. Catherine McCarty, who owned and operated a laundry. Within a year of incorporation, Wichita experienced phenomenal growth, due largely to the cattle trade from Texas.
So rapid was the population growth that in late , Wichita became a city of the second class. That same year, Col. Marshal Murdock founded the Wichita City Eagle newspaper. Now known as the Wichita Eagle, it is the largest newspaper in the state. Jesse Chisholm came to Wichita first in about , leading a party of sportsmen and adventurers here to hunt game. Cattle by the hundreds of thousands traversed the trail to the Santa Fe trailhead in Wichita.
Spurred by this influx of cowboys in the s who brought hundreds of thousands of cattle out of Texas north to Wichita along the Chisholm Trail, Wichita was indeed a rough and tumble cowtown. Just west of the river, the area known as Delano was especially wild and woolly. All manner of vice could be found in saloons, dance halls, gambling and prostitution houses to entertain the thirsty and lonely cowboys.
Wichita fell on hard times in the late s when the cattle trade moved further west to take advantage of the construction of rail lines. But, by , the city had rebounded with a growing economy in agriculture and manufacturing. Sports Planning Services. Meet the Sports Team. Sports Facilities Guide Request. Group Travel. Group Tour Planner. Group Services. Convention Centers. Hotels with Meeting Spaces.
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Wichita Flag. About Visit Wichita. Industry Links. Traveler Articles. Story Ideas. Film Commission. Wichita Facts. Famous Wichitans. Historic Delano District. Douglas Design District. Downtown Wichita. Old Town District. Wichita State University. Friends University. Newman University. Wichita's History Wichita served as a trading center and meeting place for 11, years for nomadic people, but it wasn't until that the first permanent settlement of Wichita Indians was recorded.
Wichita Today Today, Wichita has grown into an eclectic city with some of the greatest arts and entertainment in the Midwest. Wichita Highlights. Newsletter Sign-up. By there were 5 refineries operating in Wichita. Seven more were built in the s. But only 3 were still operating at the end of that decade. The Coastal-Derby refinery was the last to close in with none remaining thru It was demolished in In Fred C. Koch , a chemical engineer, joined a fellow MIT classmate, P.
Keith, at Keith-Winkler Engineering in Wichita. In , Koch developed a more efficient thermal cracking process for turning crude oil into gasoline which allowed smaller players in the industry to better compete with the oil majors. The larger oil companies quickly sued in response, filing 44 different lawsuits against Koch, and embroiling him in litigation for years.
Koch was to prevail in all but one of the suits which was later over-turned due to the fact that the judge had been bribed. This extended litigation effectively put Winkler-Koch out of business in the U. Koch turned his focus to foreign markets, including the Soviet Union , where Winkler-Koch built 15 cracking units between and Koch and his family would go on to become the wealthiest residents of both Wichita and the state of Kansas.
In the 20th century, aircraft pioneers such as Clyde Cessna and Walter Beech began projects that led to Wichita's establishment as the "Air Capital of the World".
The aircraft corporations Stearman, Cessna , Mooney, and Beechcraft were all founded in Wichita in the late s and early s.
In and , oil was discovered nearby and Wichita became a major oil center. The money derived from oil allowed local entrepreneurs to invest in a nascent airplane industry. In the Cessna Comet became the first aircraft to be built in Wichita.
In , oilmen Jacob M. The Laird Swallow became an instant success, the first successful "commercial" airplane manufactured in the United States; Laird built 43 of them between and In Stearman would relocate his factory back to Wichita. This varied aircraft industry, along with Wichita becoming a test center for new aviation, established Wichita as the "Air Capital of the World". The title was more or less officially accorded to Wichita in for production , by the American airplane manufacturers' national trade association, then known as the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce.
In ground on the southeast side of town was purchased to use as the site for the Wichita Municipal Airport. However the great depression interrupted construction. The terminal and runways were finished as WPA projects in the s.
Eisenhower National Airport on the west side of town. Travel Air, with Walter Beech at the helm, grew to over employees and operated from a huge factory complex constructed a few miles outside the city from to Due to so many employees working at such a large complex, it was dubbed "Travel Air City" by Wichita residents. The company merged with the huge Curtiss-Wright Corporation in the Roaring Twenties ' heyday of company buyouts and takeovers just two months before the Stock Market crash in Workers were laid off by the hundreds during and and by the fall of , the remaining Travel Air employees were let go, the equipment was sold, and the entire Travel Air plant sat empty.
The first few "Beechcraft" were built in the vacant Cessna Aircraft plant, which had also closed during the depression; Beech later leased and then bought the Travel Air plant from Curtiss-Wright and moved his factory to this plant. Beech's first aircraft, the Model 17 later dubbed the "Staggerwing" , was first flown on November 5, Nearly Staggerwings are still in existence, many in flying condition.
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