Oklahoma City, OK, To Wichita, KS
Guthrie, OK
About a half hour north of Oklahoma City is Guthrie, first established in 1887 as a railroad station called Deer Creek on the Southern Kansas Railway. During the next two years a small settlement and post office grew around the station. As we learned in Oklahoma City (Chap. 12) the “Unassigned Lands” in the Indian territory were opened to settlement in the Land Run of April 4, 1889, (romanticized in one of my favorite musicals of all time, “Oklahoma!”) Twenty trains, each carrying 1200 to 1500 passengers, arrived in the Oklahoma Territory on that day, most in Guthrie. Guthrie was designated the capital city of the territory and the town boomed. Most of the downtown area was constructed in the next ten years and is still in remarkable condition. Street corners feature decorated hay bales for fall. Oklahoma Street runs through the center of town.
In 1907 at statehood Guthrie had a population of nearly 12,000 people and a grand building was constructed to house the government. Today that building houses the Logan County Courthouse.
After statehood a fierce rivalry developed between Guthrie and Oklahoma City over which one would be selected as the official state capital. An election was held in 1910 offering voters a choice and Oklahoma City was the winner. Today Guthrie bills itself as the “Bed & Breakfast Capital of Oklahoma” and is a busy tourist destination as well as serving as a bedroom community for Oklahoma City. Heading north from Guthrie the trees give way to prairie used for grazing cattle, occasionally dotted with oil derricks, and eventually evolve into fields of corn and grain as we enter Kansas.
During that stretch of the road I am reminded of why avoiding the interstate does not always result in the best experience.
Our next destination is the largest city in Kansas, Wichita.
Wichita, Kansas
Many people think that Kansas City is the largest city in Kansas, but it’s not. Most of what is generically referred to as “Kansas City” is actually in Missouri as the state line splits the Kansas City metropolitan area with the bulk on the Missouri side. The reality is that Wichita is the largest city in Kansas with approximately 700,000 residents in the metropolitan area. Like so many other cities in the West, Wichita is a child of the railroads, aided by the fact that the Arkansas and Little Arkansas Rivers come together here. Pioneer trader Jesse Chisolm established a trading post at the junction of the rivers in the 1860’s at the northern end of what became known as the famous “Chisolm Trail”, a path followed by enormous cattle drives as the railroads reached the area and opened the way east to provide cattle for the hungry eastern cities. The point where the two rivers come together is now the site of the “Keeper of the Flame” and plaza, a tribute to the Native American heritage of the area. The view east shows the Little Arkansas River on the left joining the Arkansas River on the right with downtown Wichita to the east.
Wichita prides itself on its’ history as “Cowtown”, yet the cattle drives only lasted four years, from 1872-1876. A decision to quarantine Texas Longhorns in order to protect local cattle from disease lead the end of the cattle drives. Wichita was established on the east bank of the Arkansas River in 1870 and quickly grew into a regional center. The next big jump in the fortunes of Wichita occurred in the 1910’s when oil was discovered nearby. Fortunes found in the oil fields developed into capital for a budding airplane industry and Wichita became the center of airplane manufacturing in the United States for the next 50 years. Boeing and Lear Jet were two of the major companies in the area until labor strife lead Boeing to leave the area and focus efforts in the Seattle. Today manufacturing leads a strong, stable economy along with business and financial companies. Two of the largest privately held companies in the United States are located here, Cargill and Koch Industries (yes, those Koch brothers of fame (or infamy), depending on your political point of view.) Due to the need to be on stable, flood-free ground, the railroads ran north/south about a mile east from the Arkansas River. The architecture of the downtown area clearly reflects the development of the city from the 1880’s to present day. The eastern end of the center city is anchored by the railroad tracks and Old Town. On the west side of the train tracks two sentinels from the past reign, resplendent in Kansas sandstone. The old Sedgewick County Courthouse and the Masonic Temple clearly reflect the pride of a community from earlier times.
East of the tracks is the old warehouse district, now revitalized as Old Town. A public square is surrounded on all sides with blocks jammed with bars, restaurants, boutiques, etc., on the ground floors and condominiums/apartments on the upper levels. Old Town is clearly the happening spot in Wichita.
Forming the south side of the plaza is one of the most unique museums that I have wandered through in some time, the Museum of World Treasures.
First of all, this is not a museum composed of carefully curated items, most are not specifically dated but clearly of age. Secondly the contents are not narrowly focused but seem to be random collections of items from around the world. There are three floors jammed with items; the first floor somewhat focuses on ancient civilizations, the second on military history, and the third on a variety of things. This was an absolutely fascinating place to wander around in, you just never know what will be next! The first gallery displays dinosaurs with reproductions looming above the actual fossil remains.
Around the corner the focus is on Asia, with a collection of Buddha’s taking the floor.
Ancient Greece is represented by a collection of pottery.
Egypt is represented by a selection of coffins from more than 1000 B.C. and two mummies, amongst other items.
The second floor focuses on military history. A collection of artifacts from the Battle of Gettysburg fill a case.
Personal items that might have been carried by a soldier in the Civil War include tinted glasses that might have been worn by a sniper (1), a National War Songs booklet (2), and a $100 Confederate Bill (6).
The Hall of Presidents has a display for each president of the United States that includes some items in their original handwriting. A center piece of the area is a reproduction of the Resolute Desk, presented to President Rutherford B. Hayes by Queen Victoria and now used by the President in the Oval Office.
A gallery about the Revolutionary War includes a display of common items from Colonial America. The item on the left that looks like a large hand grenade is actually a wood canteen, made waterproof by metal bands squeezing the wood tightly together.
Other areas on the second floor display items from WWI, WWII, the Korean War, and Vietnam.
The WWII area contains a common souvenir brought home by American soldiers, a German flag that has been signed by American soldiers. My father was in the war in the Pacific and brought home a Japanese flag, complete with signatures of fellow soldiers.
The third floor seems to be the place where they put the leftovers that didn’t fit earlier themes. As I leave the museum a small dinosaur looks out over the plaza.
The southwest border of Old Town is marked by the historic 1887 brick Rock Island Railroad depot standing next to the majestic 1914 Union Station depot, between them housing restaurants, shops and a museum.
On the west side of the city just past the “Keeper of the Flame” a corridor of museums and green spaces line the Arkansas and Little Arkansas Rivers. The Old Cowtown Museum is an homage to the cowboy heritage of Kansas and the west.
The Old Cowtown Museum
The Old Cowtown Museum is a living history museum located near the old Chisolm Trail on the banks of the Arkansas River just west of the “Keeper of the Flame.” The 23 acre grounds replicate a western town of the 1870’s through interactive displays, character actors, and original and/or reconstructed structures from that period of time in Kansas. The furnishings of the buildings are all original to the period. Halloween would have been celebrated on the frontier so you’ll occasionally notice holiday decorations around town. I was there towards the end of the season so many of the businesses, while open to visit, did not have the actors portraying the workers present. This is not a tourist trap by any stretch of the imagination, but truly an interesting and educational experience. Through the entry gates the first structure on the outskirts of Main Street is The Heller Cabin.
The Heller Cabin was constructed over a period of 6 years from 1869-1875 on the prairie south of Abilene, Kansas, by Leonhard Hoffman out of walnut, oak and elm trees. One story with a sleeping loft above, it’s one of the few original “settlement” cabins remaining in Kansas.
The town spreads two blocks down Main Street with a couple of side streets leading south to the train station and stables. The path we are going to follow is to go down Main Street, turn left to the train station, and then circle.
Immediately to the left (just out of the Main Street picture) is the one room school house. This is an original building constructed in Wichita in 1911.
The general store was built in Garden Plain, Kansas, in 1884 and operated until 1964. The shelves are stocked with original items from the 1880’s.
Then, as if it couldn’t get any better, a gunfight broke out in front of the saloon. The “sodbusters” (farmers, on the right) got into an argument with the cowboys (on the left) who had just been thrown out of the saloon. The farmers were angry because the cattle drive had destroyed their fences and crops and were demanding that the cowboys pay for the damage.
After a back and forth argument and the refusal of the sheriff to intervene, the bartender and a local “soiled dove” joined the farmers against the cowboys and the gunfight was on. When it was over there were a lot of bodies on the street. Lots’ of fun!
Around the corner is the residential district, complete with the local school teacher’s house. In 1878 the population of Wichita was around 4,200, only 99 were single women. Most were widows, domestics, and a few business operators. This two-room house belonged to a single school teacher, who like many of the single women, wasn’t single for long.
My last stop before leaving Wichita is on the Wichita State University campus on the northwestern edge of the city. Here, in a small brick building, staffed by a very lonely work-study student happy to have an easy job, I find the original Pizza Hut Museum! This is the original building, a small brick structure, which was relocated to the campus in 1986 and served as the office for WUU’s Association of Collegiate Entrepreneurs. In 2018 it was converted to the Original Pizza Hut Museum.
On June 15, 1958, two former Wichita State students, Dan and Frank Carney, borrowed $600 and opened their first Pizza Hut. Nineteen years later they sold the chain to PepsiCo for three hundred million dollars. An article in the 1957 issue of the Saturday Evening Post magazine was the genesis for the Pizza Hut empire. Pizza was becoming the new “food fad” at the time and a two-page article in the magazine highlighted the food.
A local businesswoman, Molly Mollohan, who owned the building, needed a renter and approached Dan Carney with the idea of opening a pizza restaurant. He had never made pizza in his life but grabbed the opportunity. His sister, Sally Carney Jones, introduced the brothers to John Bender, who had worked at a pizzeria in Bloomington, Indiana, before coming to Wichita and he showed them how to make a pizza. Unfortunately he only had experience making the sauce, not the dough, so he tried a recipe for a French bread dough out of the “Encyclopedia of Cooking.” There was no time to let the dough rise so Bender rolled it out and used it as it was. The result was the thin and crispy crust that set Pizza Hut apart from other pizzeria products. The rest is history! Several of the original artifacts on display include the wooden rolling pin the Carney’s used in the first store, a napkin where Mike Carney, younger brother of Dan and Frank, sketched the layout of the original Pizza Hut, and the old cash register that was so old it only rang up in $1 increments.
Also on display are a myriad of products used to merchandise the Pizza Hut brand over the years.
And eclectic end to a visit along the road.
Next up: The Prairie
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