QUICK FACTS ABOUT WICHITA 

Wichita, the largest city in the state, has the state's largest buildings, biggest industries, and most venturesome businesses. It is also the largest metropolitan area in the state with nearly one-fifth of the state's population

It is home to more than 330,000 people living in neighborhoods scattered over 120 square miles. Wichita encompasses some 203,000 households with a mean household income of $38,000. The population has grown steadily over the past decade with roughly 31,000 newcomers arriving since the early 1980s.

Founded in 1864 as a trading post on the site of a village of the Wichita Indians, Wichita 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 centre. By 1875 farmers' fences obstructed the movement of beef herds, but grain became an important commodity