1. In January 2013, Wichita police held a press conference to release the sketch of a suspect accused of tearing into and stealing marijuana bags in their evidence department building: a mouse.
2. In 2012, a group of students at the Friends University campus calling themselves the “Banana Bandits” started the tradition of buying bananas on Thursday night, and hiding them around campus for other students to find (and eat) on Friday morning.
3. Most Wichitans know that Dan and Frank Carney opened the first ever Pizza Hut in Wichita in 1958. They might not know that the brothers settled on “Pizza Hut” after realizing their building looked like a hut, and only had room for nine letters.
4. In Wichita, as in all of Kansas, it’s against the law to attempt to modify the weather without a permit.
5. It’s also illegal to serve cherry pie a la mode on Sundays.
6. Wichita State’s famously offbeat mascot the WuShock was created in 1948 when student Wilbur Elsea won an open design competition. Thus, “a big, bad, muscle-bound bundle of wheat” has sat gameside at Wichita State games ever since.
7. In the Wichita suburb of Derby, it’s illegal to hit a vending machine after it has stolen your money. Presumably, the law is still in effect even if it hasn’t stole your money.
8. While serving in the Wichita marshal’s office, famed lawman and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral participant Wyatt Earp’s reputation suffered after his revolver fell from his holster while he was sitting down and shot through the ceiling.
9. Most people know that The White Stripes’ tune “Seven Nation Army” references Wichita in its third verse. They might not know that Jack White wrote the song about the pressures of fame, and Wichita is his escape fantasy.
10. In August 1978, the Mead company chose Wichita as its test market for their next-level school supply: the Trapper Keeper. It was (of course) a huge hit and soon expanded into a national market.
11. In Wichita, if you conceal a “bean snapper”—a tube with a mouthpiece used to blow dried peas and beans through them—you risk being fined by a police officer.
12. In 2008, Wichita inventor Mike Miller debuted a new utensil called the “Knork” at the International Home and Housewares Show in Chicago. As you might imagine, the utensil combines the poking power of the fork with the cutting abilities of a knife.
13. The independent record label Wichita Recordings, home of artists like Peter Bjorn and John and Best Coast, has been one of the biggest record labels in independent music since it was founded in 2000. However, the label has pretty much nothing to do with Wichita, Kansas—the label is based in London.
14. The first ever night college football game west of the Mississippi took place in Wichita in 1905 when The Fairmount College Wheatshockers shutout Cooper College 24-0. The game was lit by gas lanterns from businessman W.C. Coleman’s lamp and stove company. Coleman would later go on to become the Wichita’s mayor in 1923.
15. Contrary to popular local belief, Wichita does not have the most fast food joints or restaurants in the country per capita. Not even close. Those distinctions go to Atlantic City for fast food and the San Francisco metro area for total eateries.
16. At 44 feet high, Wichita’s landmark Keeper of the Plains is the 12th largest statue in the United States. The Statue of Liberty is the largest, at 151 feet.
17. In 1928, the Wichita State became the first college basketball team to fly to an away game. The game was against Fort Hays University in Hays, Kansas.
18. While he doesn’t quite count as an alum since he never graduated, the WWE’s Paul “The Big Show” Wight briefly attended Wichita State University, where he played center on the basketball team.
19. In 2009, Newsmax named Wichita the most "Uniquely American," citing the city’s “historic downtown,” as well as its “ affordability, thriving industry, and accessible culture.”
20. Wichitans were among the first people in America to catch a glimpse of an electric guitar after musician Gage Brewer brought several of the first ever electric guitars from inventor the RO-PAT-IN Corporation in California to Wichita in the summer 1932.
21. Considering it’s current status as a beautiful and recently-renovated performing arts and film center, it’s somewhat hard to believe that in 1974 Wichita’s Orpheum Theatre was a rundown adult film theater.
22. Wichita’s Chance Rides (formerly Chance Rides Manufacturing) is the world's leading manufacturer of amusement rides. Notable rides built by the company include Seattle’s famous Great Wheel and the Eagles Life in the Fast Lane coaster at Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach.
23. Speaking of the Eagles, singer and guitarist Joe Walsh was born in Wichita, although he spent most of his childhood in Columbus, Ohio.
24. Starting in 1918, Wichita had one of the first completely motorized fire departments in the United States.
25. Tim Burton’s 1996 film “Mars Attacks!” was partially set in the fictional town of Perkinsville, Kansas. Several sequences were filmed in and around Wichita, including the pre-title sequence which features the invading Martians torching cattle.
26. Wichita is one of very few major cities left in America that doesn’t fluoridate their water. The people of Wichita voted against fluoridation in 1964, 1978 and 2012 despite major pushes from the medical and science communities.
27. You might know that the original Dennis the Menace comic strip was set in Wichita. It’s unclear why, exactly, considering the strips’ creator Hal Ketchum was born in Seattle, and spent most of the rest of his life in California. Regardless, he was made honorary mayor of Wichita for his location choice.
28. During the early 1900s, the Wichita-based Jones Automobile Company was one of the largest and most successful automobile manufacturers in the United States. However, after a series of setbacks killed the company during the 1920s. Today, fewer than 10 Jones automobiles are known to exist in the world.
29. During a 2013 Wichita Wingnuts game against the Grand Prairie AirHogs, event organizers attempted to break the Guinness World Record for the largest game of “Duck-Duck-Goose” ever played. They fell short, however, since the record still belongs to Logan-Rogersville High School in Rogersville, Missouri, whose game involved 2,135 participants.
30. Wichita State University is known for its upstart hoops program as well as its renowned aerospace program, but it also has one of the best opera programs in the country, having produced Grammy winners Joyce DiDonato and Samuel Ramey.
31. Wichita’s central location means that any direct flight within the continental United States is five hours or less.
32. 1905, Wichita State University, then known as Fairmount College, played Washburn University in a football game intended to test the viability of using three downs instead of four. The game was thought of as a failure after both teams failed to score.
33. A show set in Wichita called “Wichita Town” aired briefly on NBC between 1959-1960 and lasted for a total of 26 episodes. The show centered on law and order in the town following the Civil War.
34. Nu Way Café, famous for its loose-meat sandwiches, has been a Wichita fan favorite since 1930, and is partially credited with popularizing the dish.
35. Vernon L. Smith might is probably one of Wichita’s most impressive and overlooked native sons. The 87-year-old (and still practicing) economics professor attended Wichita North High School and Friends University. In 2002, he won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in experimental economics.
36. White Castle, and their famous mini-sliders, actually got their start in Wichita in 1921, although the chain hasn’t had a Wichita location since 1938.
37. Native Wichitan Hattie McDaniel became the first black performer to win an Academy Award in 1939 following her Best Supporting Actress win for “Gone With the Wind.”
38. The Sedgwick County Zoo is home to three Amur leopards, which are the most endangered large cats in the world. There are only about 40 left in the wild.
39. The Kansas Aviation Museum hosts a once-a-year "Play on a Plane Day," when spectators are allowed in eight of the museums thirteen outdoor planes, including a B-52, a KC-135, a Boeing 737.
40. In 2011, a group of 638 Wichitans set the world record for the largest zumba class at the Wichita YMCA. However their record has since been eclipsed several times. Currently a group from Hyderabad, India holds the mark with 6,671 participants.
41. Allen Ginsberg wrote the anti-war poem "Wichita Vortex Sutra" while driving through the Midwest and speaking off the top of his head and envisioning the contrast between the calm Kansas landscape and Vietnam War.
42. The Wichita Eagle isn’t just the area’s most prominent newspaper. From 1975 through 1998, while under the editorship of W. Davis Merritt, the paper was an early adapter of the civic journalism movements, which trended more towards opinions and further from dry fact reporting.
43. When Wichita State University first opened its doors in 1895, it wasn’t uncommon for students to ride horses to class.
44. The historic Allen-Lambe House was built by Frank Lloyd Wright on a budget in 1915 for a budget of $30,000.
45. Wichita is home to the nation's largest manufacturer of latex and Microfoil balloons: Pioneer Balloon Co.
46. Wichita State University has one of the most successful men’s golf teams in the country. Their squad has won the Missouri Valley Conference Championship every year but three since 1999.
47. Most Wichitans know that Barry Sanders is a Wichita native, and first showcased his football skills at Wichita North High School. They might not know that Sanders didn’t truly break out until his senior year. Up until then, he had split time with his older brother Byron.
48. In Wichita, a man’s mistreatment of his mother-in-law may not be used as grounds for divorce.
49. You might know that Wichita’s Dockum Drug Store sit-in in 1958, organized by cousins Ron Walters and Carol Parks-Hahn, was one of the first organized sit-ins in protest of segregation in the United States. You might not know that a 20 foot bronze statue depicting the sit-in now sits in Chester I. Lewis Reflection Park where Dockum Drug Store once stood.
What's your favorite Wichita fun fact? Tell us in the comments below!
