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Wichita History, Kansas

The Most Affordable City of America

The city was ranked 9th of the 10 best cities to live in the United States by the CNN/Money and Money Magazine in July, 2006.

The position of the city on the two rivers made the site extremely popular as a trading centre for people of nomadic origin for nearly 11,000 years. Francisco Vasquez de Coronado visited the site for the first time in 1541, the time when he made an expedition to search the “cities of gold.”

He encountered with the Wichita Indians, a group of Indians who stayed in this place. In fact, a collection of grass houses built by the Wichita Indians in 1863 was the first permanent settlement in the city. These people moved to Oklahoma before the Civil War and came back to the city during the War as a result of pro-union sentiments. Wichita was officially incorporated as a city in the year of 1870. It also became a railhead destination for all the cattle drives arriving from Texas and other points in the south-west.

After Carrie Nation, member of Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, decided to carry the crusade against the production and consumption of alcohol in Wichita. The city attained a large national fame in the year of 1900. She even entered the Carrey House located in downtown Wichita before smashing the place with a pool ball and rock on December 12 of that year.

Oil was discovered in the nearby regions of Wichita in 1914-1915 making the city a major oil centre. Local entrepreneurs used the money derived from the oil industry for investing in airplane industry. Between the period of 1920 and 1923, Fort-three Swallows were the first airplanes to be produced specifically.

This made Wichita a test centre for all types of new aviation and was later established as the “Air Capital.” During the pre-war and post-war period, Wichita became centre for entrepreneurial business with major companies being founded which includes Pizza Hut, Taco Tico, Koch Industries, Coleman, Spangles, Mentholatum and White Castle.

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Museum of World Treasures
travel tip by sushikedvenc posted more then 30 days ago
There is only one museum in Wichita and maybe the whole Kansas state that features such a wide variety of exhibits and collections. The Museum of World Treasures has not only dinosaur fossils, and other natural objects on display, but...
Old Cowtown Museum
travel tip by Sayuri87 posted more then 30 days ago
A history museum that lives. There is nothing more interesting and engaging than traveling back in time, and at the Old Cowtown Museum that is what you do. Once you enter the museum grounds you are transported back to the end of the 19th...
Wichita Art Museum
travel tip by blackangel_66 posted more then 30 days ago
In interesting collection of decorative art, sculptures and paintings, not to mention photography and guest exhibitions can be found in the Wichita Art Museum. You only have to spend a couple of hours and you covered the two floors of...