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Interesting Facts
- The arrival of the railroad to Wichita Falls in 1882 ushered in a new era for the frontier town, making it a center of commerce for farmers and ranchers who'd set up shop between the Wichita and Red Rivers. Crops and livestock would arrive daily from surrounding settlements, be stored (for a small fee, of course) in the town's newly constructed grain towers and stockyards, and then get loaded onto trains heading East. Just thirty years after the first trains pulled into Wichita Falls, the city had become North Texas and South Oklahoma's leading commercial center, a billing it still holds today.
- Thanks to the town's close proximity to the Texas-Oklahoma state line, Wichita Falls counts itself part of a region known as Texhoma. In general, Texhomans are extremely friendly and deeply proud of their communities' histories. As such, neighborly rivalries between "border towns" are frequent. Perhaps the most famous is the Oil Bowl, a high-school football game played each June that pits all-stars from the Lone Star State against those from the Sooner State.
- As the Wichita River winds its way through North Texas toward the Red River, the elevation of the countryside steadily drops. In one particular section, the Wichita drops more than fifty feet between two rocky banks, prompting folks who first settled there to name the community Wichita Falls. In the late 19th century, a terrible flood devastated the area and washed away the falls. They remained as such until 1986, when the city constructed a new series of cascades to replace the ones that had disappeared.
- What's the evolution of a name? One of the region's leading institutes of higher learning, Midwestern State University began as Wichita Falls Junior College in 1922. By 1946, the college had not only moved to its present campus but been renamed Hardin College and achieved four-year status. Two more name changes followed: In 1950, it became Midwestern University, and in 1975, Midwestern State University (reflecting the school's new status as a state-supported institution). Today, MWSU boasts an enrollment close to 6500 and offers degrees in a variety of fields, including business, health sciences, and education.
- Some of the first European-descended folks to settle Texhoma were rough-n-ready cattlemen of the late 1860s, who were attracted by the promise of wide-open plains where livestock could graze freely. Over time, early cattlemen became wealthy ranchers who owned thousands upon thousands of acres, some of which were parceled out and sold off to the small farmers who became Wichita Fall's earliest residents.
- The word "Wichita" comes from the Choctaw word for "big arbor" (wia chitoh), a reference to the thatched-grass arbors that marked their villages. Incidentally, the Wichita, who moved into the area in the 1700s, called themselves the "first people" because they were the first to actually settle around the Wichita River.
- North Texas oil, discovered in the early 20th century, added new potential to an area already thriving as an agricultural center. Gushers discovered on the Waggoner ranch and in other nearby locales had folks in Wichita County chomping at the bit, so to speak, for their own discoveries. By 1918, thousands of new fortune-seekers had moved into the area, hoping to "hit it big." While the oil industry didn't produce as many millionaires as people had hoped, it did benefit cities like Wichita Falls by bringing in bankers, investment brokers, and other "big-time" business people.
- King Cotton, Texas-style. For a time early in the 20th century, Wichita Falls was the heart and soul of the Texhoma cotton industry, thanks to an easily accessible rail yard and many cotton gins and brokerage firms. As the years passed, other agricultural products began milling through the city's shipping bays, including corn and wheat.
- Wichita Falls claims to have the world's "Littlest Skyscraper." The small, four-story, one-room wide "skyscraper" was built during the booming oil years. It's located at LaSalle Alley and Seventh Street.
- Opened as an Army Air Corps base in 1941, Sheppard Air Force Base has long been considered one of the country's foremost flight training schools. Constructed on the site of the former Kell Field airstrip, the base includes some 300 acres bought from a Wichita Falls cattleman in 1940. After a series of de- and re-commissions during the '50s, '60s, and '70s, Sheppard emerged as the Air Force's largest and most diversified training facility. Many top pilots, communications officers, and civil engineers received training there.
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