Wichita

Wichita lives up to its motto, “Watch Wichita Win,” with a population that has more than doubled since the turn of the century and a future that looks set for another surge. The city’s prime spot at the meeting of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas Rivers made it a natural gathering place for native peoples long before settlers arrived, and later it became a key hub for cattle drives from Oklahoma and Texas. When the first railroad reached Wichita in 1872, the town instantly transformed into a distribution center for the Southwest.

By the early 1900s Wichita had become a bustling crossroads, with six trunk lines stretching into Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and even Mexico. Its livestock and grain markets swelled dramatically—thousands of railcars of cattle and wheat passed through the Union Stockyards and grain elevators each year, feeding a nation hungry for food. The city’s factories, from broom‑corn processors to flour mills and door manufacturers, employed hundreds and turned Wichita into a regional manufacturing powerhouse.