and
Santa Fe Railroad station in Hutchinson. The city of Hutchinson was founded in 1871 when frontiersman Clinton "C.C." Hutchinson contracted with the
Santa Fe Railway to make a town at the railroad's crossing over the
Arkansas River. The town actually sprang up about one-half mile north, on the banks of
Cow Creek, where a few houses already existed. Hutchinson later founded the Reno County Bank in 1873, and by 1878 had erected the state's first water mill at Hutchinson. The community earned the nickname "
Temperance City" due to the prohibition of alcohol set by its founder who placed a deed restriction on every lot prohibiting the sale or gifting of any alcoholic beverage which, if violated, would result in forfeiture of the lot, improvements, and payments associated with its sale and purchase. Hutchinson was incorporated as a third-class city in August 1872. In 1887, the
Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway built a main line from
Herington through Hutchinson to
Pratt. In 1888, this line was extended to
Liberal. Later, it was extended to
Tucumcari, New Mexico and
El Paso, Texas. It foreclosed in 1891 and was taken over by
Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway, which shut down in 1980 and reorganized as
Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas Railroad, merged in 1988 with
Missouri Pacific Railroad, merged in 1997 with
Union Pacific Railroad. Most locals still refer to this railroad as the "Rock Island". Also in 1887, local salt deposits were discovered for the first time, when Ben Blanchard, a land speculator who founded
South Hutchinson, drilled for oil in the area.
Salt mining would become a major industry in Hutchinson, with the city eventually earning the nickname "Salt City". Hutchinson had been holding county fairs since 1873. By 1900, many referred to the Hutchinson Fair as the Kansas State Fair, even though there was no state-supported Kansas State Fair yet. In 1913, after lobbying in the Kansas Legislature, Hutchinson gifted the State of Kansas the land that became the Kansas State Fairgrounds. The official Kansas State Fair has been held in Hutchinson ever since. In 1943, German and Italian prisoners of
World War II were used in Kansas and other Midwest states as a means of solving the
labor shortage caused by American men serving in the war effort. Large
prisoner-of-war camps were established in Kansas:
Camp Concordia,
Camp Funston (at
Fort Riley), Camp Phillips (at
Salina under
Fort Riley).
Fort Riley established 12 smaller branch camps, including Hutchinson.
2001 gas explosions On January 17, 2001, of
compressed natural gas leaked from the nearby Yaggy storage field. It sank underground, then rose to the surface through old
brine or salt wells, making around 15 gas blowholes. An explosion in the downtown area at 10:45 am destroyed two businesses and damaged 26 others. An explosion the next day in a mobile home park killed two people. The
Kansas National Guard was called in to help evacuate parts of the city because of the gas leaks, and a team of specialists checked the city for leaks after the event. These events were televised on news stations across the country.
Present On June 21, 2013, following a grassroots campaign in an effort to promote Smallville Con, a
comic-book convention hosted at the Kansas State Fair, the mayor of Hutchinson decreed the city's name would be changed to "
Smallville" for one day in honor of
Superman's fictional Kansas hometown of the same name. The tradition has continued annually, coinciding with the convention for two days every June. ==Geography==