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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. ĭowntown Wichita Falls was the city's main shopping area for many years. Kemp and Kell were pioneers in food processing and retailing, flour milling, railroads, cattle, banking, and oil. The early history of Wichita Falls well into the 20th century also rests on the work of two entrepreneurs, Joseph A. This area is now referred to as the Depot Square Historic District, which has been declared a Texas Historic Landmark. 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. The Fort Worth & Denver City Railway arrived in September 1882, the same year the city became the county seat of Wichita County. 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. They are visible to south-bound traffic on Interstate 44. The recreated falls are 54 ft (16 m) high and recirculate at 3,500 gallons per minute. After nearly 100 years of visitors wanting to visit the no longer existing falls, the city built an artificial waterfall beside the river in Lucy Park. Just ten years later in 1886, a flood destroyed the original waterfall on the Wichita River for which the city was named. The city was named Wichita Falls on September 27, 1876, as the Wichita River runs through the area and there was a waterfall in the river’s course in 1876. Īmerican settlers arrived in the 1860s, mainly as cattle ranchers. As late as 1841, a large Indian settlement was present in the area that is now the city of Wichita Falls. The treaty was signed and proclaimed in 1830-1831. The Choctaw Native Americans settled the area in the early 1800s from their native Mississippi area once Americans negotiated to relocate them after the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. Kemp-Kell Building, circa 1910, now known as the Holt Hotel, was one of the first five-story office buildings in the city. The city is home to the Newby-McMahon Building (otherwise known as the " world's littlest skyscraper"), constructed downtown in 1919 and featured in Robert Ripley's Ripley's Believe It or Not!. In addition, its central business district is 5 miles (8 km) from Sheppard Air Force Base, which is home to the Air Force's largest technical training wing and the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training program, the world's only multinationally staffed and managed flying training program chartered to produce combat pilots for both USAF and NATO. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 104,553, making it the 38th-most populous city in Texas. It is the principal city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay, and Wichita counties. Wichita Falls ( / ˈ w ɪ tʃ ɪ t ɑː/ WITCH-i-tah) is a city in and the county seat of Wichita County, Texas, United States.