Wichita Falls

Wichita Falls is a city in North Texas, United States, on the Wichita River near the Oklahoma border. It takes its name from a small waterfall on the river, and an artificial waterfall built beside the highway now stands in its place.

The town was platted and named Wichita Falls in 1876, and the first lots were sold at the corner of Seventh and Ohio streets. The railroad arrived in the early 1880s, and Joseph Kemp and his brother-in-law Frank Kell built a business of flour mills, railroads and food stores around the town. The oil fields found to the north at Burkburnett and Electra brought a boom in the 1910s, when office buildings and refineries rose downtown. The Newby-McMahon Building, built in 1919 and only four stories tall, was promoted to investors as a skyscraper and became known as the world's littlest skyscraper through Ripley's Believe It or Not!.

Cattle ranching and wheat farming on the plains around the city still feed its stockyards and grain elevators. Midwestern State University, founded in the 1920s, has its campus on the south side.

The Hotter'N Hell Hundred, a bicycle ride of 100 miles (161 km) held each August, brings riders from across the country into the summer heat. The Kemp Center for the Arts fills the former Kemp mansion with galleries and studios. Lucy Park, along the river, has walking trails, a duck pond and a log cabin from the pioneer days. Lake Wichita, south of the city, has fishing piers and a long trail along its shore.