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| History of Wichita Falls |
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The Choctaw Indians settled the area in the early 1700s. White settlers arrived in the 1860s to form cattle ranches. The Fort Worth and Denver Railway arrived in 1882, the same year the city became the county seat of Wichita County, Texas. A flood in 1886 destroyed the original falls on the Wichita River for which the city was named. After nearly 100 years of visitors wanting to visit the non-existent falls, the city built an artificial waterfall beside the river in Lucy Park. The recreated falls are 54 feet (16 m) high and recirculates at 3,500 gallons per minute. They are visible to south-bound traffic on Interstate 44. The city is currently seeking funding to rebuild and restore the downtown area. Downtown Wichita Falls was once the city's main shopping area for many years, but lost ground to the creation of new shopping centers throughout the city beginning with Parker Square in 1953 and other similar developments during the 1960s and 1970s, culminating with the opening of Sikes Senter Mall in 1974. The last surviving major downtown retail store, Sears, moved to Sikes Senter in 1990. The former downtown Sears building, constructed in 1967, covered an entire city block and featured "roof top" parking. Wichita Falls was once home to offices of several oil companies and related industries, along with oil refineries operated by the Continental Oil Company (now Conoco Phillips) until 1952 and Panhandle Oil Company (later American Petrofina) until 1965. Both firms continued to utilize a portion of their former refineries as gasoline/oil terminal facilities for many years. Courtesy of Wikipedia |
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History of the City History of Wichita Falls
History of the City History of Wichita Falls