Heather D. Ferguson - Arkansas City

This project has been one of those that has needed to be done for years, and no one would touch it with a 10-foot pole. The problem has been that Arkansas City is a community with such a vast history that no one ever knew where to start or which stories they should leave out. In all honesty, Arkansas City could have a series of several volumes.

The Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum has many photographs in its collections. Obtaining photographs has never been a problem; obtaining detailed information has. There has never been an in-depth book written on the history of Arkansas City. Therefore, this book could have never happened without Wilbur and Elaine Killblane. Wilbur has done an exorbitant amount of research on the microfilm, finding Arkansas City Daily Traveler articles and dividing them into topics and then letting me use his findings to aid in putting this book together. Elaine, on the other hand, lent me her husband for research purposes. Thank you both for your overwhelming support.

Another individual that aided in our research was Terry Eaton. Terry has a vast collection of books, newspapers, photographs, and Arkansas City collectibles that she has graciously brought to my attention for use in the book. She has spent many an hour doing research to assure that the history contained in the book is correct. Thank you, Terry.

Dr. Susan Vehik, professor of archaeology at the University of Oklahoma, has been very helpful as well. Susan has allowed me to use her maps of the Wichita culture throughout Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Susan was wonderful about sending me what I needed. Another archaeologist who sent me a map was Robert Hoard from the Kansas State Historical Society. Thank you both for sharing your expertise with me and the Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum.

Thank you to all my other colleagues, friends, and family who have spent their time proofing this book. I am very grateful to you for your time and effort.

Unless otherwise noted, the photographs present are from the Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum photograph collection. However, many have been taken from the Arkansas City Daily Traveler . Several of the maps and images not received from the previously mentioned sources were obtained from other primary sources.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Berger, Ruth, and Bess Oldroyd. Between the Rivers: Pioneer Tales of Arkansas City, Kansas . North Newton, KS: Mennonite Press, 1969.

Connelley, William F. Kansas and Kansans . Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1918.

Cowley County Heritage Book Committee. Cowley County Heritage . Dallas: Taylor Publishing Company, 1990.

Farrar, Foss. The Tunnels of Arkansas City. Arkansas City Daily Traveler , February 12, 2005.

Newcomb, W. W., Jr. The People Called Wichita . Phoenix, AZ: Indian Tribal Series, 1976.

Odell, George H. LaHarpes Post: A Tale of French-Wichita Contact on the Eastern Plains . Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2002.

Oldroyd, Bess. Between the Rivers: Stories of the Eighties and Nineties in Arkansas City, Ks . North Newton, KS: Mennonite Press, 1975.

Rinehart, Bennett. Blaze Marks on the Border . North Newton, KS: Mennonite Press, 1970.

Savage, William W., Jr. The Cherokee Strip Livestock Association . Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1973.

Smith, Todd F. The Wichita Indians: Traders of Texas and the Southern Plains, 15401845 . College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2000.

Sokoll, Col. Mike. 101 Ranch Stars I Have Known . Self-published, 1975.

Vehik, Susan C. Wichita Ethnohistory. In Kansas Archaeology , edited by Robert J. Hoard and William E. Banks, 206218. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2006.

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One

WICHITA ORIGINS

Before the area that is now known as Arkansas City was settled by Europeans and later Americans, the Wichita natives called it home. The Wichitas have five major subdivisions to their cultural group, the Wichitas, Taovayas, Tawakonis, Iscanis, and Wacos. These groups were spread widely throughout the midwestern states of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, and Nebraska as early as A.D. 900. At this time, they were small groups of hunter-gatherers. As time passed, the Wichitas adopted more farming to supplement their diets, which made them more sedentary. Due to this, the groups converged into larger villages, and by 1450, the Wichitas were located in six more centralized locations: the Little Arkansas River area around the great bend of the Arkansas River, Cow Creek, and Smoky Hill River, which is called Little River Focus by archaeologists; the Cottonwood River area around Marion; the Lower Walnut Focus, as termed by archaeologists, which is where the Walnut and Arkansas Rivers merge; a group in southwest Oklahoma known as the Wheeler Phase; one in the Texas panhandle known as Tierra Blanca, which is thought to be Apache; and another south of Tierra Blanca known as the Garza.

The group that lived around Arkansas City was the Wichita subgroup of the Wichitas. This group remained in the same area up until around 1758. They were joined by other groups as European influence, disease, and other enemy native groups decreased their members and forced them to move southward. The Wichitas played an important role in the history of the area as well as the exploration and fur trade era of United States history.

The Wichitas were prominent in the plains from around A.D. 9001780. This map illustrates the Wichita cultural complexes around A.D. 1450. The Wichitas are Caddoan speaking. They are matrilineal and matrilocal, meaning that kinship passes through the womans lineage and a married couple resides with the womans family. They had a loose political system with a chief. (Courtesy of Dr. Susan Vehik.)

The Wichitas were always hunter-gatherers, but as time passed they adopted more farming into their lifestyle. They hunted bison, deer, antelope, birds, and other small animals. They farmed mainly corn, beans, squash, tobacco, and pumpkins. Women tilled the fields, tanned hides, cooked, and did other tasks, while the men were warriors and hunters. However, the men helped with difficult work. (Courtesy of The People Called Wichita .)

The Wichitas lived in grass houses constructed by both the men and women, with the men doing the most physically demanding tasks. These homes measured around 40 feet in diameter and housed 810 people. Each home had two doors, one on the east and one on the west. (Courtesy of The People Called Wichita .)