Wichita Falls, Texas, United States

🇺🇸 Wichita Falls is a city in and the county seat of Wichita County, Texas, United States. It is the principal city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay, and Wichita counties. It is the 38th most populous city in Texas. In addition, its central business district is 5 miles from Sheppard Air Force Base, which is home to the Air Force's largest technical training wing and the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training program, the world's only multi-nationally staffed and managed flying training program chartered to produce combat pilots for both USAF and NATO.

The city was named, in 1876, for a waterfall on the Wichita River, which was destroyed due to flooding in 1886.

The city is home to the Newby-McMahon Building (otherwise known as the "world's littlest skyscraper"), constructed downtown in 1919 and featured in Robert Ripley's Ripley's Believe It or Not!.

History The Choctaw Native Americans settled the area in the early 1800s from their native Mississippi area once Americans displaced them after the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. The treaty was signed and proclaimed in 1830-1831. As late as 1841, a large Indian settlement was present in the area that is now the city of Wichita Falls.

American settlers arrived in the 1860s, mainly as cattle ranchers. The city was named Wichita Falls on September 27, 1876, as the Wichita River runs through the area and a waterfall was in the river’s course in 1876. Just 10 years later in 1886, a flood destroyed the original waterfall on the Wichita River for which the city was named. After nearly 100 years of visitors wanting to visit the no longer existing falls, the city built an artificial waterfall beside the river in Lucy Park. The recreated falls are 54 ft (16 m) high and recirculate at 3,500 gallons per minute. They are visible to south-bound traffic on Interstate 44.

On the day the city was named in 1876, a sale of town lots was held at what is now the corner of Seventh and Ohio Streets – the birthplace of the city. The Fort Worth & Denver City Railway arrived in September 1882, the same year the city became the county seat of Wichita County. The city grew westwards from the original FW&DC train depot which was located at the north-west corner of Seventh Street and the FW&DC. This area is now referred to as the Depot Square Historic District, which has been declared a Texas Historic Landmark.

The early history of Wichita Falls well into the 20th century also rests on the work of two entrepreneurs, Joseph A. Kemp and his brother-in-law, Frank Kell. Kemp and Kell were pioneers in food processing and retailing, flour milling, railroads, cattle, banking, and oil.

Downtown Wichita Falls was the city's main shopping area for many years. Those shops lost ground to the creation of new shopping centres 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 city has been seeking funding to rebuild and restore the downtown area since 2010.

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 ConocoPhillips) until 1952 and Panhandle Oil Company (founded in Wichita Falls, sold to American Petrofina in 1965). Both firms continued to use a portion of their former refineries as gasoline/oil terminal facilities for many years.

1964 tornado A devastating tornado hit the northern and north-western portions of Wichita Falls, along with Sheppard Air Force Base during the afternoon of April 3, 1964 (later referred to as "Black Friday"). As the first violent tornado on record to hit the Wichita Falls area, it left seven dead and more than 100 injured. Additionally, the tornado caused roughly $15 million in property damage with about 225 homes destroyed and another 250 damaged. It was rated F5, the highest rating on the Fujita scale, but it is overshadowed by the 1979 tornado.

1979 tornado An F4 tornado struck the heavily populated southern sections of Wichita Falls in the late afternoon on Tuesday, April 10, 1979 (known as "Terrible Tuesday"). It was part of an outbreak that produced 30 tornadoes around the region. Despite having nearly an hour's advance warning that severe weather was imminent, 42 people were killed (including 25 in vehicles) and 1,800 were injured because it arrived just as many people were driving home from work. It left 20,000 people homeless and caused $400 million in damage, a U.S. record not topped by an individual tornado until the F5 Moore–Oklahoma City tornado of May 3, 1999.

Geography Wichita Falls is about 15 miles (24 km) south of the border with Oklahoma, 115 mi (185 km) north-west of Fort Worth, and 140 mi (230 km) south-west of Oklahoma City. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 70.71 square miles (183.1 km²), of which 0.02 square miles (0.052 km²) (0.03%) is covered by water.

Economy: Top employers According to Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce, the top employers in the city include: 1 Sheppard Air Force Base ; 2 Wichita Falls Independent School District ; 3 United Regional Health Care System; 4 Midwestern State University ; 5 City of Wichita Falls; 6 Arconic ; 7 Walmart (three locations); 8 North Texas State Hospital -Wichita Falls campus; 9 Vitro ; 10 Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Media Wichita Falls' media market also includes the nearby, smaller city of Lawton, Oklahoma. According to Nielsen Media Research estimates for the 2016–17 season, the market – which encompasses 10 counties in western North Texas and six counties in south-western Oklahoma, has 152,950 households with at least one television set, making it the 148th-largest television market in the United States; the market also has an average of 120,200 radio listeners ages 12 and over, making it the 250th-largest radio market in the nation.

Media: Print • Times Record News (daily) • Falls News Journal (daily);

Television stations • KFDX-TV (channel 3; NBC) • KAUZ-TV (channel 6; CBS, and digital subchannel 6.2; The CW) • KSWO-TV (channel 7; ABC, and digital subchannel 7.2; Telemundo) • KJTL (channel 18; Fox) • KJBO-LD (channel 35; MyNetworkTV)

KERA-TV out of Dallas–Fort Worth serves as the default PBS member station for Wichita Falls via a translator station on UHF channel 44.

Media: Radio • KWFS (1290 AM; news/talk radio) • KMCU (88.7 FM; National Public Radio) • KMOC (89.5 FM; Contemporary Christian) • KZKL (90.5 FM; Contemporary Christian) • KNIN (92.9 FM; CHR) • KOLI (94.9 FM; Modern Country) • KTWF (95.5 FM; Classic hits) • KXXN (97.5 FM; Classic Country) • KLUR (99.9 FM; Country) • KWFB (100.9 FM; Adult hits) • KWFS-FM (102.3 FM; Modern Country) • KQXC (103.9 FM; Rhythmic CHR) • KYYI (104.7 FM; Classic rock) • KBZS (106.3 FM; Active rock).

Lucy Park Lucy Park is a 170-acre (69 ha) park with a log cabin, duck pond, swimming pool, playground, frisbee golf course, and picnic areas. It has multiple paved walkways suitable for walking, running, biking, or rollerskating, including a river walk that goes to a man-made waterfall feature in lieu of the original falls for which the city was named (the original falls, located in the river, were destroyed in a 19th-century flood; the new waterfall attraction, located in the park and discharging into the river, were built in response to numerous tourist requests to visit the "Wichita Falls"). It is one of 37 parks throughout the city. The parks range in size from small neighborhood facilities to the 258 acres of Weeks Park featuring the Champions Course at Weeks Park, an 18-hole golf course. In addition, an off-leash dog park is within Lake Wichita Park and a skatepark adjacent to the city's softball complex. Also, unpaved trails for off-road biking and hiking are available.

Hotter'N Hell Hundred Wichita Falls is the home of the annual Hotter'N Hell Hundred, the largest single-day century bicycle ride in the United States and one of the largest races in the world. The race started as a way for the city to celebrate its centennial in 1982. The race takes place over a weekend in August, and multiple events are hosted for people to participate.

Sport In 2014, the Wichita Falls Nighthawks, an indoor football team, joined the Indoor Football League but suspended operations after the 2017 season.

The city has also been home to a number of semiprofessional, developmental, and minor league sports teams, including the Wichita Falls Drillers (bankrupt 2002), a semipro football team that won numerous league titles and a national championship; the professional basketball team Wichita Falls Texans (relocated 1994, bankrupt 1996) of the Continental Basketball Association; Wichita Falls Fever (bankrupt 1992) in the Lone Star Soccer Alliance; the Wichita Falls Spudders baseball team (bankrupt 1957) in the Texas League; the Wichita Falls Wildcats (bankrupt 2017) of the North American Hockey League, an American Tier II junior hockey league; and the Wichita Falls Roughnecks (bankrupt 2008) of the Texas Collegiate League. The Dallas Cowboys held training camp in Wichita Falls during the late 1990s. In 2015, it was acknowledged that the sustainability of minor or rookie league sports franchises in the Wichita Falls region had a questionable future.

The Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame relocated to Wichita Falls from Amsterdam, New York, in November 2015.

State and federal politics Wichita Falls is located in the 69th district of the Texas House of Representatives. Lanham Lyne, a Republican, represented the district from 2011 to 2013; he was the mayor of Wichita Falls from 2005 to 2010. When Lyne declined to seek a second term in 2012, voters chose another Republican, James Frank. Wichita Falls is located in the 30th district of the Texas Senate. Craig Estes, a Republican, had held the senate seat since 2001, until Pat Fallon won election in 2018. Wichita Falls is part of Texas's 13th congressional district for the U.S. House of Representatives. Ronny Jackson, a Republican, has held this seat since 2021.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice James V. Allred Unit is located in Wichita Falls, 4 mi (6.4 km) north-west of downtown. The prison is named for former Governor James V. Allred, a Democrat and a native of Bowie, Texas, who lived early in his career in Wichita Falls. The United States Postal Service operates the Wichita Falls Post Office, the Morningside Post Office, the Bridge Creek Post Office, and the Sheppard Air Force Base Post Office.

Education Public primary and secondary education is covered by the following school districts: Wichita Falls Independent School District, City View Independent School District, Burkburnett Independent School District, and Iowa Park Consolidated Independent School District. Several private and parochial schools operate in the city, as does an active home-school community. Many of the local elementary schools participate in the Head Start program for preschool-aged children.

Two schools in the Wichita Falls ISD participate in the International Baccalaureate programs. Hirschi High School offers the IB Diploma Programme, and G.H. Kirby Junior High School for the Middle Years Programme. Other public high schools are Wichita Falls High School and S. H. Rider High School (Wichita Falls ISD) and City View High School (City View ISD).

By 1879, the first school was established. The first public school was a log structure established in the 1880s; in 1885, it was replaced with a former courthouse. Wichita Falls High School opened in 1890. That year, a school district was created, but problems with the law allowing its establishment meant it was dissolved in 1894 and the city provided schooling until the second establishment of a school district in 1900. In 1908, the Texas Legislature issued a charter for WFISD.

The city has a school for German children, Deutsche Schule Sheppard (DSS).

Education: University Wichita Falls is home to Midwestern State University, an accredited four-year college in the Texas Tech University System and the only independent liberal arts college in Texas offering both bachelor's and master's degrees.

Vernon College is the designated community college for all of Wichita County. A local branch nearby offers two-year degrees, certificate programs, and workforce development programs

Wayland Baptist University, offering both bachelor's and master's degrees, has its main branch located in Plainview, Texas.

Transport: Road Wichita Falls is the western terminus for Interstate 44. U.S. Highways leading to or through Wichita Falls include 287, 277, 281, and 82. State Highway 240 ends at Wichita Falls and State Highway 79 runs through it. Wichita Falls has one of the largest freeway mileages for a city of its size as a result of a 1954 bond issue approved by city and county voters to purchase rights-of-way for several expressway routes through the city and county, the first of which was opened in the year 1958 as an alignment of U.S. 287 from Eighth Street at Broad and Holliday Streets northwestward across the Wichita River and bisecting Lucy and Scotland Parks to the Old Iowa Park Road, the original U.S. 287 alignment. That was followed by other expressway links including U.S. 82–287 east to Henrietta (completed in the year 1968), U.S. 281 south toward Jacksboro (completed 1969), U.S. 287 north-west to Iowa Park and Electra (opened 1962), Interstate 44 north to Burkburnett and the Red River (opened 1964), and Interstate 44 from Old Iowa Park Road to U.S. 287/Spur 325 interchange on the city's north side along with Spur 325 from I-44/U.S. 287 to the main gate of Sheppard Air Force Base (both completed as a single project in 1960). However, cross-country traffic for many years had to contend with several ground-level intersections and traffic lights over Holliday and Broad Streets near the downtown area for about 13 blocks between connecting expressway links until a new elevated freeway running overhead was completed in 2001.

Efforts to create an additional freeway along the path of Kell Boulevard for U.S. 82–277 began in 1967 with the acquisition of right-of-way that included a former railroad right-of-way and the first project including construction of the present frontage roads completed in 1977, followed by freeway lanes, overpasses, and on/off ramps in 1989 from just east of Brook Avenue west to Kemp Boulevard; similar projects west from Kemp to Barnett Road in 2001 followed by Barnett Road west past FM 369 in 2010 to tie in which a project now underway to transform U.S. 277 into a continuous four-lane expressway between Wichita Falls and Abilene.

Transport: Public The city operates a bus system, Falls Ride, which runs on an hourly schedule with seven routes (except on Sundays, when only one route is in operation).

Greyhound Lines provides intercity bus service to other locations served by Greyhound via its new terminal at the Wichita Falls Travel Center located at Fourth and Scott in downtown. Skylark Van Service shuttles passengers to and from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on several runs during the day all week long.

The Wichita Falls Municipal Airport is served by American Eagle, with two flights daily to the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The Kickapoo Downtown Airport and the Wichita Valley Airport serve smaller, private planes.