Wichita Falls, Texas


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. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 102,316, making it the 43rd-most populous city in Texas. Wichita Falls is home to Midwestern State University, enrolling more than 5,500 students.
WWW wichitafallstx.gov

History

From the early 18th century to the mid 19th century, the Wichita Falls area was inhabited by the Wichita and the Comanche people. The Spanish called the lands controlled by the Comanche as Comancheria. The Wichita were forced onto a reservation in Oklahoma after 1859. The last battle with the Comanche in this area occurred in 1872 and the Comanche were finally defeated in 1874.
Anglo American presence in the area began in the 1860s. The future city was platted and 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. The first permanent resident arrived in 1879. In 1886, a flood destroyed the original waterfall on the Wichita River for which the city was named. The city built an artificial waterfall in 1987 beside the river in Lucy Park. The recreated falls are high.
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 northwest corner of Seventh Street and the FW&DC. This area is now referred to as the [National Register of Historic Places listings in Wichita County, Texas|Wichita County, Texas|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.
The city is home to the Newby-McMahon Building, constructed downtown in 1919 and featured in Robert Ripley's Ripley's Believe It or Not!.
Downtown Wichita Falls was the city's main shopping area for many years. Those shops lost ground to the creation of new shopping centers 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 until 1952 and Panhandle Oil Company. Both firms continued to use a portion of their former refineries as gasoline/oil terminal facilities for many years.

1964 tornado

A powerful F5-rated tornado hit the northern and northwestern portions of Wichita Falls, along with Sheppard Air Force Base during 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. 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. 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 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 and climate

Wichita Falls is about south of the border with Oklahoma, northwest of Fort Worth, and southwest of Oklahoma City. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of, of which is covered by water.
Wichita Falls experiences a humid subtropical climate, featuring long, very hot and humid summers, and cool winters. The city has some of the highest summer daily maximum temperatures in the entire U.S. outside of the Desert Southwest. Temperatures have hit 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 or higher annually; the average window for the latter mark is April 9–October 10. However, 59 to 60 nights of freezing lows occur, and an average of 4.8 days where the high does not rise above freezing. The monthly daily average temperature ranges from in January to in July. The record low temperature is on January 4, 1947. The highest recorded temperature is on June 28, 1980. Snowfall is sporadic and averages per season, while rainfall is typically greatest in early summer.
From 2010 through 2013, Wichita Falls, along with a large portion of the south-central US, experienced a persistent drought. In September 2011, Wichita Falls became the first Texas city to have 100 days of or higher within one year. On every day from June 22 to August 12, the temperature reached 100 °F or higher, and from May 27 to September 3, the temperature reached 90 °F or higher. In addition, the all-time warm daily minimum of was set on July 26, and June, July, and August of that year were all the hottest on record.
During the 2015 Texas–Oklahoma floods, Wichita Falls broke its all-time record for the wettest month, with 17.00 inches of rain recorded in May 2015.
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Demographics

2020 census

American Community Survey estimates, there were people and households. The population density was. There were housing units at an average density of. The racial makeup of the city was 52.1% White, 30.8% Black or African American, 3.6% some other race, 2.8% Asian, 1.0% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and 0.6% Native American or Alaskan Native, with 9.1% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 22.4% of the population.
Of the households, 30.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 27.4% had seniors 65 years or older living with them, 40.1% were married couples living together, 6.9% were couples cohabitating, 24.0% had a male householder with no partner present, and 29.0% had a female householder with no partner present. The median household size was and the median family size was.
The age distribution was 22.9% under 18, 13.9% from 18 to 24, 27.0% from 25 to 44, 21.3% from 45 to 64, and 14.9% who were 65 or older. The median age was years. For every 100 females, there were males.
The median income for a household was $, with family households having a median income of $ and non-family households $. The per capita income was $. Out of the people with a determined poverty status, 15.2% were below the poverty line. Further, 21.4% of minors and 16.3% of seniors were below the poverty line.
In the survey, residents self-identified with various ethnic ancestries. People of German descent made up 9.6% of the population of the town, followed by Irish at 6.5%, English at 6.3%, American at 5.1%, Italian at 2.7%, Swedish at 1.9%, Scotch-Irish at 1.1%, Dutch at 1.1%, Sub-Saharan African at 1.0%, Scottish at 0.9%, French at 0.9%, and Norwegian at 0.8%.

Economy

Top employers

According to Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce, the top employers in the city are:
#Employer# of Employees
1Sheppard Air Force Base7,222
2Wichita Falls Independent School District2,378
3United Regional Health Care System2,100
4Midwestern State University1,276
5City of Wichita Falls1,217
6Arconic1,072
7Walmart 1,009
8North Texas State Hospital -Wichita Falls campus1,000
9Vitro934
10Texas Department of Criminal Justice James V. Allred Unit921

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 southwestern 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.

Newspapers

Times Record News
  • ''Falls News Journal''

Television stations

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.

Radio stations

Sports and recreation

Recreation

Lucy Park

Lucy Park is a 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. 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.

Circle Trail

The Wichita Falls Circle Trail system consists of over 24 miles of concrete trail that goes around the city. Almost all of the trails are 10-foot wide reinforced concrete. They can be used for walking, jogging, bicycling, and rollerblading. Started in 1987 and completed in 2025, the trail takes riders through several of the city parks and across a wide range of environments. It includes an off-shoot, the Wee-Chi-Tah Off Road Trail. This 13-mile loop has been voted the best in Texas.

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.

Sports

In 2014, the Wichita Falls Nighthawks, an indoor football team, joined the Indoor Football League but suspended operations after the 2017 season.
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 and closed in 2022.

Government

Local government

The mayor of Wichita Falls is Tim Short, who was elected on November 7, 2023. Mayors are elected on a nonpartisan ballot.
The Wichita Falls City Council has six members:
  • District 1: Whitney Flack
  • District 2: Robert Brooks
  • District 3: Jeff Browning
  • District 4: Mike Battaglino
  • District 5: Tom Taylor
  • At-large: Austin Cobb
The city manager is Jeff Jenkins.
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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, northwest 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

Primary and secondary schools

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 participated 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 were Wichita Falls High School and S. H. Rider High School. All the high schools closed in 2024. The city opened 2 new high schools that year, Memorial High School and Legacy High School. The city also has City View High School.
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.

Higher education

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.

Transportation

Highways

Wichita Falls is the western terminus for Interstate 44. U.S. Highways leading to or through Wichita Falls include [U.S. Route U.S. Route 287 in Texas|287 in Texas|287], [U.S. Route U.S. Route 277 in Texas|277 in Texas|277], [U.S. Route U.S. Route 281 in Texas|281 in Texas|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, U.S. 281 south toward Jacksboro, U.S. 287 northwest to Iowa Park and Electra, Interstate 44 north to Burkburnett and the Red River, 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. 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.

Public transportation

The city operates a bus system, Falls Ride, which runs on an hourly schedule with seven routes.
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.
Although still in the planning phase, local officials are currently working to potentially bring an Amtrak stop to the city. Wichita Falls last had passenger rail service in 1967.

Notable people