Wichita Falls, Texas map
33.91° N · 98.49° W · Wichita County · elev. ~950 ft · Central Time
Wichita Falls lost its falls in an 1886 flood and built new ones a century later. The city stands on the Wichita River 15 miles south of the Oklahoma line, the last Texas city on I-44 and the largest between Fort Worth and Amarillo on US-287.
The Wichita River loops through the north side past Lucy Park. Sheppard Air Force Base is the large fenced area north of the city center.
Where Wichita Falls is in Texas
The city is 140 miles northwest of Fort Worth on US-287 and about 50 miles south of Lawton, Oklahoma, on I-44. Archer County lies south, Clay County east toward Henrietta, and Wilbarger County west toward Vernon. The Red River forms the Oklahoma line north of Burkburnett.
This is rolling prairie at the western edge of North Texas, where the Cross Timbers give way to the Rolling Plains. The Wichita River, a tributary of the Red, drains the county and runs through the north side of the city. The county is small by Texas standards — 633 square miles — and about four-fifths of its people live in the city itself.
The town was platted in 1876 and grew after the Fort Worth and Denver railroad arrived in 1882; the Burkburnett oil boom of 1918, 15 miles north, turned it into an oil and supply center almost overnight, and derricks from that era still stand in Lake Arrowhead southeast of town.
Highways
- US-287 (Central Freeway) – southeast to Decatur and Fort Worth, northwest to Vernon, Childress and Amarillo.
- I-44 – its southern end is here; north through Burkburnett into Oklahoma toward Lawton and Oklahoma City.
- US-82 – east to Nocona, Gainesville and Sherman; west to Seymour and on toward Lubbock.
- US-277 – south to Seymour and Abilene.
- US-281 – runs with I-44 north to the Red River.
- SH-79 – south to Archer City.
- Loop 11 – the city loop connecting US-287, the airport and Sheppard AFB.
The falls and the river
The original falls on the Wichita River were only a few feet high and washed out in an 1886 flood, leaving the city with a name and nothing to show visitors. In 1987 the city built a new falls in Lucy Park: a recirculating cascade about 54 feet high, dropping in stages beside the river and visible from the highway. Lucy Park also carries the river trail, and the Wichita Falls trail system follows the water east and west from there.
Water for the city comes from reservoirs west and southwest — Lake Kickapoo and Lake Arrowhead among them — rather than from the river itself. Lake Arrowhead State Park, about 15 miles southeast on FM 1954, has camping and fishing on a lake with oil derricks standing in open water. Lake Wichita, on the southwest edge of the city, is the older and shallower in-town lake.
Areas and neighborhoods
| Area | What's there |
|---|---|
| Downtown | Ohio and Indiana avenues, the Newby-McMahon Building known as the world's littlest skyscraper, the Museum of North Texas History |
| Lucy Park | The man-made falls, river trail and the Kell House Museum nearby |
| Sheppard AFB | Air Force training base on the north side, sharing runways with the regional airport |
| Midwestern State | University campus on Taft Boulevard southeast of downtown, with Sikes Lake |
| Sikes / Kemp Boulevard | The main retail corridor south of downtown toward Sikes Senter |
| Lake Wichita | Park, levee trail and neighborhoods on the southwest side |
| Burkburnett | Separate city 15 miles north on I-44, site of the 1918 oil boom |
| Iowa Park and Electra | Small towns west on US-287 toward Vernon |
Sheppard Air Force Base
Sheppard is one of the largest training installations in the Air Force and the reason a city of 102,000 has an airport with a runway long enough for jet fighters. It runs technical training for maintenance specialties and hosts the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training program, in which pilots from more than a dozen allied countries earn their wings in Texas skies. Wichita Falls Regional Airport uses the same field. The city's other national fixture is the Hotter'N Hell Hundred, a 100-mile bicycle ride held in late August, when temperatures routinely top 100 degrees.
Distances from Wichita Falls
| City | Road miles | Route |
|---|---|---|
| Denton | 110 | US-287 SE / US-380 E |
| Sherman | 125 | US-82 E |
| Fort Worth | 140 | US-287 SE |
| Abilene | 145 | US-277 S |
| Amarillo | 220 | US-287 NW |
| Lubbock | 225 | US-82 W |