What is the history of Wichita, Kansas?
Wichita was founded in 1864 as a trading post on the site of a village of the Wichita Indians, and owed its early development to the Texas cattle trade along the Chisholm Trail, and to the rapid spread of agricultural settlement along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, then under construction. In its early years Wichita was a stopover on cattle drives to Abilene and other points as the railroad moved west; in 1872 the line reached Wichita, and the city became a major cattle-shipping center. By 1875 farmers’ fences were obstructing the movement of beef herds, than grain took over as an important part of the economy.
A thorough writeup can be found at the external site http://www.wichita.gov/Residents/History/ City of Wichita-History. The site on the two rivers has served as a trading center for nomadic peoples for the last 11,000 years. The area was visited by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1541, while he was in search of the fabulous “cities of gold.” While there, he encountered a group of Indians whom he called Quiviras and who have been identified by archeological and historical studies as Wichita Indians. By 1719 this people had moved south to Oklahoma, where they met French traders. The first permanent settlement in Wichita was a collection of grass houses inhabited by the Wichita Indians in 1863. They had moved back to Wichita from Oklahoma during the Civil War due to their pro-Union sentiments. The city was officially incorporated in 1870. Shortly thereafter it became a railhead destination for cattle drives from Texas and other southwestern points, from whence it has derived its nickname
