Wichita Falls, Texas Wichita Falls Wichita Falls, Texas The "restored Falls" of the Wichita River in Wichita Falls, Texas, off Interstate 44 The "restored Falls" of the Wichita River in Wichita Falls, Texas, off Interstate 44 Flag of Wichita Falls Nickname(s): Falls Town Location in the state of Texas Location in the state of Texas Country United States United States State Texas Texas County Wichita Website City of Wichita Falls Wichita Falls (/ w t t / witch- -taw) is a town/city in and the governmental center of county of Wichita County, Texas, United States. Wichita Falls is the principal town/city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay, and Wichita Counties.
According to the 2010 census, the town/city had a populace of 104,553, making it the 29th-most crowded city in Texas.
In addition, Wichita Falls' central company precinct is five miles (8 km) from Sheppard Air Force Base which is home to the Air Force's biggest technical training wing and the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training (ENJJPT) program, the world's only multi-nationally manned and managed flying training program chartered to produce combat pilots for both USAF and NATO.
See also: Timeline of Wichita Falls, Texas Map of Wichita Falls in 1890 The town/city was officially titled Wichita Falls on September 27, 1872.
On that day, a sale of town lots was held at what is now the corner of Seventh and Ohio Streets the place of birth of the city. The Fort Worth & Denver City Railway appeared in September 1882, the same year the town/city became the governmental center of county of Wichita County. The town/city interval westwards from the initial FW&DC train depot which was positioned at the northwest corner of Seventh Street and the FW&DC. This region 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.
A flood in 1886 finished the initial falls on the Wichita River for which the town/city was named. After nearly 100 years of visitors wanting to visit the nonexistent falls, the town/city assembled 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.
The town/city is presently seeking funding to rebuild and restore the downtown area. Downtown Wichita Falls was the city's chief shopping region for many years, but lost ground to the creation of new shopping centers throughout the town/city beginning with Parker Square in 1953 and other similar developments amid the 1960s and 1970s, culminating with the opening of Sikes Senter Mall in 1974.
Wichita Falls was once home to offices of a several petroleum companies and related industries, along with petroleum refineries directed by the Continental Oil Company (now Conoco Phillips) until 1952 and Panhandle Oil Company (later American Petrofina) until 1965. Both firms continued to use a portion of their former refineries as gasoline/oil terminal facilities for many years.
A devastating tornado hit the north and northwest portions of Wichita Falls along with Sheppard Air Force Base amid the afternoon of April 3, 1964.
As the first violent tornado on record to hit the Wichita Falls area, it left seven dead and more than 100 injured.
Main article: 1979 Red River Valley tornado outbreak Wichita Falls, Texas An F4 tornado hit the heavily populated southern sections of Wichita Falls in the late afternoon on Tuesday, April 10, 1979 (known locally as "Terrible Tuesday").
Record not topped by an individual tornado until the F5 Moore-Oklahoma City tornado of May 3, 1999. Wichita Falls is about 15 miles (24 km) south of the border with Oklahoma, 115 mi (185 km) northwest of Fort Worth, and 140 mi (230 km) southwest of Oklahoma City.
According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town/city has a total region of 70.71 square miles (183.1 km2), of which 70.69 square miles (183.1 km2) is territory and 0.02 square miles (0.052 km2) (0.03%) is veiled by water. Wichita Falls experiences a humid subtropical climate (Koppen climate classification Cfa), with some of the highest summer daily maximum temperatures in the entire U.S.
Temperatures have hit 100 F (38 C) as early as March 27 and as late as October 17, but more typically reach that level on 28 days annually, with 102 days of 90 F (32 C)or higher annually; the average window for the latter mark is April 9 October 10.
In September 2011, Wichita Falls became the first Texas town/city to have 100 days of 100 F (38 C) in one year. During the 2015 Texas Oklahoma floods, Wichita Falls broke its all-time record for the wettest month, with 17.00 inches of precipitation recorded in May 2015. Climate data for Wichita Falls, Texas (1981 2010 normals, extremes 1923 present) Average snowy days ( 0.1 in) 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.1 0.7 2.0 Wichita Falls is no longer experiencing drought conditions.
The town/city implemented momentous conservation accomplishments and constructed a direct potable reuse fitness (DPR) that took treated wastewater, which normally emptied into the Wichita River, and sent it to the water treatment plant, where it was blended with raw lake water and treated a total of five times through various cleaning processes, all allowed and monitored by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
The ethnic makeup of the town/city was 75.1% White, 12.4% African American, 0.9% Native American, 2.2% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 6.4% from other competitions, and 3.0% from two or more competitions.
According to Wichita Falls' 2011 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the town/city are: 2 Wichita Falls Independent School District 2,059 3 North Texas State Hospital 1,974 5 City of Wichita Falls 1,477 See also: List of newspapers in Texas, List of airways broadcasts in Texas, and List of tv stations in Texas By default, Dallas' KERA-TV serves as the default PBS partner for Wichita Falls via a translator station on UHF channel 44.
Nearby Lake Wichita was dredged in 1901 at a cost of $175,000 through the accomplishments of entrepreneur Joseph Kemp.
The 234-acre (95 ha) Lake Wichita Park is on the north shore of the lake.
The park has the only model aircraft landing strip in the Texas state park system.
Because of drought, the fish populace in Lake Wichita has been damaged by golden algae blooms and periods of low dissolved oxygen.
Wichita Falls is the home of the annual Hotter'N Hell Hundred, the biggest century bicycle ride in the United States. Mark Rippetoe, a prominent strength coach and author of Starting Strength Basic Barbell Training, resides in Wichita Falls and owns the black-iron gym, the Wichita Falls Athletic Club.
The town/city has been home to a number of semiprofessional, developmental, and minor league sports teams, including the Wichita Falls Drillers, a semipro football team that has won various league titles and a nationwide championship; Wichita Falls Kings (formerly known as Wichita Falls Razorbacks), the experienced basketball team Wichita Falls Texans of the Continental Basketball Association; Wichita Falls Fever in the Lone Star Soccer Alliance (1989 92); the Wichita Falls Spudders baseball team in the Texas League; the Wichita Falls Wildcats (formerly the Wichita Falls Rustlers) of the North American Hockey League, an American "Junior A" Hockey league; and the Wichita Falls Roughnecks (formerly the Graham Roughnecks) of the Texas Collegiate League. The Dallas Cowboys held training camp in Wichita Falls amid the late 1990s.
In 2014, the Wichita Falls Nighthawks joined the Indoor Football League. It has multiple paved walkways suitable for walking, running, biking, or rollerskating, including a river walk that goes to a recreation of the initial falls for which the town/city was titled (the initial falls were finished in a 19th-century flood; the new falls were assembled in response to various tourist requests to visit the "Wichita Falls").
In addition, an off-leash dog park is inside Lake Wichita Park and a skatepark adjoining to the city's softball complex.
The Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame relocated to Wichita Falls from Amsterdam, New York, in November 2015.
See also: List of mayors of Wichita Falls, Texas The mayor of Wichita Falls is Stephen Santellana, who was propel in 2016.
The Wichita Falls City Council has six members: District 1-Stephen Santellana, District 2-De - Andra Chenault, District 3-Brian Hooker, District 4-Tim Ingle, District 5-Tom Quintero, and Councilor-at-Large-Michael Smith.
Wichita Falls is positioned in the 69th precinct of the Texas House of Representatives.
Lanham Lyne, a Republican, represented the precinct from 2011 to 2013; he was the mayor of Wichita Falls from 2005 to 2010.
Wichita Falls is positioned in the 30th precinct of the Texas Senate.
Wichita Falls is part of Texas's 13th congressional precinct for the U.S.
Allred Unit is positioned in Wichita Falls, 4 mi (6.4 km) northwest of downtown Wichita Falls.
Allred, a Democrat and a native of Bowie, Texas, who lived early in his longterm position 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. Wichita Falls is home to Midwestern State University, an accredited four-year college and the only autonomous liberal arts college in Texas offering both bachelor's and master's degrees.
Public major and secondary education is veiled by the Wichita Falls Independent School District, and the City View Independent School District.
Two schools in the Wichita Falls ISD participate in the International Baccalaureate programs.
Other enhance high schools are Wichita Falls High School and S.
Rider High School (Wichita Falls ISD) and City View High School (City View ISD).
Wichita Falls is the end for Interstate 44.
Highways dominant 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 biggest freeway mileages for a town/city of its size as a result of a 1954 bond copy approved by town/city and county voters to purchase rights-of-way for a several expressway routes through the town/city and county, the first of which was opened in 1958 as an alignment of U.S.
287 from Eighth Street at Broad and Holliday Streets northwestward athwart the Wichita River and bisecting Lucy and Scotland Parks to the Old Iowa Park Road, the initial U.S.
277 into a continuous four-lane expressway between Wichita Falls and Abilene. Greyhound Lines provides intercity bus service to other locations served by Greyhound via its new terminal at the Wichita Falls Travel Center positioned at Fourth and Scott in downtown.
The Wichita Falls Municipal Airport is served by American Eagle, with four flights daily to the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
The Kickapoo Downtown Airport and the Wichita Valley Airport serve smaller, private planes.
"Times Square", which includes the Wichita Falls Times Record News and Kemp Center for the Arts on Lamar Street The Museum of North Texas History on Indiana Street in downtown Wichita Falls The Wichita Falls City Hall is situated in the bottom floor of the Memorial Auditorium, 1927; a municipal annex building is positioned to the right of the auditorium Wichita Falls Public Library Bob Waggoner/First Wichita Building "Big Blue", 1920.
The Wichita Tower office building (established 1920) The Kell House, positioned athwart from the First Baptist Church in Wichita Falls, was inhabited by members of the Kell family from 1910 to 1980.
It was turned into a exhibition after the death of Willie May Kell, daughter of entrepreneur Frank Kell and the former Lula Kemp, sister of another Wichita Falls company pioneer Joseph A.
Wichita Opera House/Wichita Theater, 1908 Downtown Wichita Falls with locale of the first Zales jewelry store on front left, Holt Hotel on front right, American Bank and Trust Company in back right, and Wichita Tower on back left Orville Bullington, Republican Party nominee for governor of Texas in 1932; son-in-law of town/city entrepreneur Frank Kell Conner (1920 2009), federal judge for United States District Court for the Southern District of New York Mia Hamm, NCAA, World Cup, and Olympic champion soccer player, attended Notre Dame Catholic School in Wichita Falls.
Don Owen, Louisiana news anchor and politician from Shreveport, Louisiana, got his start at KFDX-TV in Wichita Falls in 1953. representative 1962-1973; postal service on Lamar Street in downtown Wichita Falls is titled in his honor List of exhibitions in Wichita Falls, Texas Geology of Wichita Falls, Texas The previous record was 79 in 1980; a 52-day stretch, June 22 to August 12, of uninterrupted 100 F highs, and 100-day stretch, May 27 to September 3, of interrupted 90 F highs occurred.
"Wichita Falls History".
"Full circle: residences, businesses returning to spot where Wichita Falls began".
Wichita Falls Times Record News.
Wichita Falls, Texas: E.
They say company and citizens have been moving westward in Wichita Falls ever since the town/city was born on Sept.
Austin, Texas: Texas Electric Cooperatives.
Wichita Falls Times Record News.
Wichita Falls, Texas: E.
The Wichita Falls Landmark Commission wants to more than double the size of the downtown historic precinct in an accomplishment to slow the loss of buildings that proclaim the city's heritage.
Texas State Historical Association online.
"WICHITA RIVER", Handbook of Texas Online, accessed April 12, 2013.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
See also: Assessment of Channel Changes, Models of Historical Floods and Effects of Backwater on Flood Stage, and Flood Mitigation Alternatives for the Wichita River at Wichita Falls, Texas United States Geological Survey "Wichita Falls, TX Tornadoes (1900-Present)".
"Station Name: TX WICHITA FALLS MUNI AP".
"Monthly Averages for Wichita Falls, Texas".
"Texas City Working To Turn Sewer Water Into Tap Water".
"Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2015".
"Texas Almanac: City Population History 1850 2000" (PDF).
"Fact Sheet- Wichita Falls city, Texas".
City of Wichita CAFR "Lake Wichita Park".
"Wichita Reservoir".
"Texas Panhandle Plains".
"Wichita Falls Nighthawks Officially Join IFL Indoor Football League [VIDEO]".
"Post Office Locations in the WICHITA FALLS, TX area".
Texas), Texas Department of Transportation (State of.
Texas State Historical Association online.
See also: Bibliography of the history of Wichita Falls, Texas Wichita Falls, Texas Municipalities and communities of Wichita County, Texas, United States State of Texas Mayors of metros/cities with populations exceeding 100,000 in Texas
Categories:
Wichita Falls, Texas - Cities in Texas - County seats in Texas - Cities in Wichita County, Texas - Wichita Falls urbane area
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