Visiting Wichita
When Wichita was first as a small outpost in the 1800’s, but quickly grew after becoming a major hub a few decades later. It earned such nicknames such as “Cowtown” or the “Air Capital of the World”. Back then the vast majority of passengers and goods such as cattle arrived here via trains. Although trains have mostly become obsolete these days with everyone owning their own vehicles, they are still in use and seen all over the city. While hanging out in Wichita I noticed a dozen trains that seemed to be parked on a bridge. I actually did a short hike up to find that it was actually a train museum. The museum was closed, so I’ll have to return another time, but I at least got this shot of one train above.
My favorite part of Wichita is Cowtown. Cowtown is a nickname for their old town, but historically the entire city also carried that nickname. The name was earned after Wichita became a major railroad hub, and cattle from northern Texas were driven here to be sent across the United States. Today the historic district boasts over a 100 shops, restaurants and bars. It’s probably one of the best preserved historical districts in the Great Plains.
Many call Cowtown a living museum, because rather than just being a preserved districts, this is an actual fully functional business district where you can still find a barber shop, grab a beer, or even a vintage soda! Some of the buildings are preserved such as this one below, and there are even three museums in Cowtown.
What really made this place stand out were all the characters in costume and reenactments. This photo above shows a reenactment of a robbery being carried out. This act lasted only a few minutes, but was done using real guns and blanks, along with some good humor. Like much of the west, I imagine Cowtown had some rough and lawless times in its early history!
Before my trip to Wichita, I actually mistook Topeka as Kansas’s largest city. Wichita is much much bigger, but like Topeka the downtown part of the city didn’t have much going on. Wichita isn’t known for a skyline or skyscrapers of course, but this photo above shows one of the taller buildings I came across.
Usually the closer you get to modern times the simpler buildings were constructed. Nothing in Wichita is very old, but most of the churches and historic buildings had nice architecture. This church above and the Scottish Rite temple below are two examples of architecture in the city.
Wichita didn’t have much going on in the city center, but one thing they definitely aren’t lacking are monuments and museums. It was a major mistake for me to not visit any of them on this trip, and I’ll be sure to make up for that next time. The statue of this native America above is one of the most famous icons of the city. The photo below shows the exp discovery center, a famous interactive museum in Wichita. This entire area along the waterfront is pedestrian friendly, and is known as museums on the river.
As I mentioned earlier, there are plenty of museums here in Wichita. The only one that I visited was the Kansas Aviation Museum. This former airport terminal now has on display dozens of aircraft, artifacts, and tells stories about aviation. Since so many aviation companies are based here in Wichita, the city sometimes calls itself the Air Capital of the World. Textron Aviation, Learjet, Airbus, and Spirit AeroSystems are just a few major companies that operate here!
Somehow I did a terrible job of photographing things here. I only have this one photo to show of aircraft and the photo below of some aviation parts. There are tons of aircraft present here, ranging from a B-52 bomber to a Learjet, to a Cessna prototype! This museum is definitely worth visiting, and I feel like I’ve done it a disservice by posting few photos, but this is something I’ll fix upon my return!
Since I love outdoors, this was easily one of my favorite experiences in Wichita. You might think these surrounding photos are from some remote part of the state, but they are all actually from within the city limits! A great place to visit is the Grassland Nature Center, a small area of preserved habitat that is home to several trails and provides a small refuge for animals. You’re next to a large road so you have a constant reminder you’re not deep in any wilderness, but I was definitely impressed by this place and glad I didn’t miss it.
Joggers, photographers, fishermen, and families all came here to enjoy this place. Despite how small it is, there’s a variety of habitats here, such as restored prairie, small ponds , and even short trails that enter woodlands. The photo below shows a dried out lake, that strangely had a few giant clams. I never would have imagined that clams would be in freshwater this far from the ocean!
When I visited the nature center I ran into some other photographers who were trying to capture shots of wildlife. I saw quite a number of species but didn’t get any good shots I’m happy with. This was earlier in my travels so I had a primitive lens back then, and this hawk was taken with full zoom. The turtle below is another shot I’m not happy with, but this was a giant Red Ear slider, who looked to be about a foot in length!