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Featured City - Wichita, KS
Wichita, seat of Sedgwick County, south central Kansas,
is located at the confluence of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas
rivers;
The largest city in the state, it is a rail
and highway junction served by a busy international airport. It
is also one of the nation's principal aircraft-manufacturing centers
and a flour-milling hub with enormous grain elevators. Camping
equipment, petroleum products, printed materials, and a great
variety of processed food are also produced. Wichita is the site
of Wichita State University (1895), Friends University (1898),
and Kansas Newman College (1933); McConnell Air Force Base is nearby.
The city has a Native American museum, a planetarium, a zoo, several
art and historical museums, and many 19th-century landmarks.
Cowtown, located here, comprises some 50 restored buildings that
recapture the city's early days.
Wichita was founded about 1867 as a trading post and is named for
the Wichita people, who lived here at the time. The Chisholm Trail,
a major cattle-driving route from Texas, passed through Wichita,
and after the arrival of the railroad in 1872 the city boomed as a
cattle-shipping point. Petroleum was discovered in the region in
1915, and aircraft manufacturing began in 1920. Population (1980)
279,835; (1990) 304,011. I spent several months on business in
Wichita about a
year ago. When my friends and family first found out this was
the city I was going to be working in, Wizard Of Oz jokes abounded.
True,
I was not too thrilled to be visiting this 'city' in the middle of
the cornfields of nowhere. But I was surprised to find that
Wichita, despite
all it's industry and corn, was quite an artistic community. Sculpures
and statues of everything from a wooden Dorothy to a great metallic
horse can be found every few blocks. There is no lack of artists
and exhibits.
The eastern part of the city, located near Rock Road, is
populated with commercial businesses, restaurants and franchises.
Further west can be found an section consiting of coffe houses,
breweries and pubs, galleries, antique shops, unique restaurants and
is elaboratedly dubbed Old Town. This is the area of Wichita I chose
to spend the most time in. It became a hobby for my friend Joby and I
to visit as many of the multitude of restaurants in the area,
or frequent a new shop every day. There is no lack of
entertainment in Wichita. Local bands like Saftey Orange can be
heard nightly at Station Square or The River's Edge; great brews and
food
can be
found at such pubs as the
River City Brewery, Big Sky, or Heros. There is plenty of good theatre
at The Crown Uptown Dinner Theatre, or Cabaret Oldtown, not to
mention the great
summer season Wichita Musical Theatre has to offer each year.
For fine dining try Dakota's,
or Larkspur and the Tasty Old Mill Shop has great great sandwiches
in an old fashioned atmosphere.
Other events
and local interests can be found in the Wichita old town Gazette,
a free monthly newspaper.
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