Quality Suites Airport

Wichita has many nice parks....

by brdwtchr

Wichita has many nice parks. Riverside Park near the museums has all the usual park facilities plus a Kansas Wildlife Exhibit. It is like a miniature zoo with animals native to Kansas in it at the park.

Chopstix

by AcornMan about Chopstix

Wichita has loads of Chinese restaurants, many of which are quite good. Unfortunately Chopstix falls near the bottom in quality. This very informal place sits in a little strip mall in northwest Wichita and simply serves food from behind a counter. Since that food has been sitting out on a steam table for god-knows-how-long, it's anything but fresh unless you happen to time your order just as a new batch is brought out from the kitchen. You can do much, much better than Chopstix for Chinese food in Wichita, so I would not bother with this place.

Wichita, KS

by KokeAC

"Wichita History"

Now recognized as one of the major mid-sized cities in the nation, Wichita has come a long way since its infant years as a trading post and cowtown.

The beginnings of the community date to 1868, when J.R. Mead founded a trading post on the river banks. The name Wichita comes from the Wichita Indians, and means either "scattered lodges" or "painted faces."

In 1868, a Wichita Town Company was organized with Mead and others as original incorporators. Wichita was incorporated as a city on July 21, 1870. One hundred twenty-three men and one woman signed the original incorporation petition. Within a year of incorporation, Wichita experienced phenomenal growth, due largely to the cattle trade from Texas. Jesse Chisholm came to Wichita first in about 1863, leading a party of sportsmen here to hunt game. He later marked the cattle trail, best known as the Chisholm Trail, from south Texas to Kansas. Cattle by the hundreds of thousands traversed the trail to the Santa Fe railhead at Wichita. Spurred by this influx of cowboys in the 1870s 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. It was a city where Wyatt Earp, "Buffalo Bill" William Mathewson, and Bat Masterson walked the dusty streets.

Wichita fell on hard times in the late 1870s when the cattle trade moved further west to take advantage of the construction of rail lines. But, by 1880, the city had rebounded with a growing economy in agriculture and manufacturing. Even though the cattle trade lasted only three or four years, its presence assured Wichita's position as a commercial hub.

With the trade groundwork firmly established, manufacturing and agriculture industries thrived in the late teens and early 1920s. In addition, savvy aviation entrepreneurs moved in to take advantage of the benefits of a prosperous oil industry, agreeable climate and wide open spaces perfect for building and testing these new birds of flight.

Men like Lloyd Stearman, Walter Beech, Clyde Cessna, E.M. Laird, J.M. Mollendick and George Weaver were responsible for starting the aircraft industry in the area. Stearman's company later was purchased by The Boeing Company of Seattle. Today it is Wichita's largest employer with more than 20,000 employees. The Beech (now Raytheon Aircraft Co.) and Cessna companies continue today, as does Learjet (now Bombardier Aerospace Learjet), founded by William Lear in the mid 1960s. It was through the efforts of these aviation pioneers that Wichita earned the title of "Air Capital of the World." With all companies still located in Wichita, that title firmly remains today. Cessna, Bombardier Aerospace Learjet and Raytheon supply more than half of the world's general aviation and military aircraft. Boeing supplies two-thirds of the world's commercial airliners.

A sampling of other well-known national and international companies with roots in Wichita include: Big Dog Motorcycles, InterVoice-Brite, Inc., Candlewood Inn, Lone Star Steakhouse, Cox Communications, Hyperion Communications, Pioneer Balloon, Rent-A-Center, Ryan Aviation, Sheplers Western Wear Store, Summerfield Suites and The Residence Inn.

Obviously, Wichita has come a long way since its beginnings as a trading post and cowtown. Right now, Wichita is a booming city with one of the best economies in the nation...a solid, diverse economy with business interests that span the globe. Good jobs and good salaries, below national average costs, short commute times and burgeoning arts and attractions have also developed in conjunction with this solid, Midwest spirit of hard work and vision...a pioneer spirit all dressed up in high tech fashion.
But, it's the original foundation as a center for commerce that has been the one constant ensuring Wichita's progress through good times and bad. It's a legacy of commerce that will continue to keep Wichita prosperous as we charge ahead in this 21st century.