Does Wichita have secrets? New book highlights more than 80 of them
Vanessa Whiteside is spilling Wichita’s secrets.
Whiteside, a travel blogger and writer, again draws on her natural curiosity and the love of her hometown for her second Wichita-centric book published through Reedy Press.
In the introduction to “Secret Wichita: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure,” Whiteside writes that she took on the task of sharing Wichita’s secrets “because I wanted to learn as much as possible about the city’s hidden gems, forgotten stories, and intriguing spaces.”
The book highlights more than 80 people, places, artifacts, collections and things in Wichita that fall in the category of being weird, wonderful, obscure and maybe, in some cases, odd.
Some will be familiar to locals, while some are likely lesser known, such as a museum dedicated to military tanks, a buried robot, a steampunk village in a west Wichita residential community, and a giant rollercoaster that was part of an amusement area on an island in the middle of the city.
“It’s meant to reveal or uncover things to remind you what about our city is weird, obscure and fun,” she said in a recent interview. “I think what I found most interesting is that when you dig a little deeper, you learn about some of the founding people of our community and entrepreneurs that despite all the doubters were true go-getters and forward-thinkers. Without them, our city wouldn’t be what it is today, so I tried to highlight some of them.”
For example, Whiteside has included three separate exhibits found at the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum, which occupies Wichita’s former City Hall built in 1890, and goes the extra step of including what makes those exhibits of particular importance to understanding the secrets of Wichita.
Under the heading of “Ornate Office,” readers not only find out about the museum’s re-creation of the first mayor’s office in the building but also that its inaugural occupant, Mayor John B. Carey, built a five-star luxury hotel in Wichita in 1887 that is now known as the Eaton Place apartment complex.
The museum’s electric guitar exhibition is featured because the instrument was invented by Wichitan George Beauchamp in 1931, with Wichita musician Greg Brewer debuting the guitar during a performance on Halloween 1932.
The story of a Wichita entrepreneur who thought he could compete with Detroit’s Henry Ford is told through the inclusion of the museum’s Jones Six car exhibit. The car is named after its co-designer and co-builder John Jones and the fact that it had six cylinders rather than the industry standard of four cylinders at the time.
She gives some attention to an unusual business practice by aviation pioneer and Beech Aircraft co-founder Olive Ann Beech, who posted flags outside her office to indicate what kind of day she was experiencing. Beech’s “mood flags” can be found at the Kansas Aviation Museum.
In the book, Whiteside shares her discovery of a museum found in a massive warehouse in an industrial complex in the north end of Wichita. More than a dozen military tanks and heavy armor vehicles are displayed in the House of Tank, including a M4A3E8 Sherman tank replica from the movie “Fury” that starred Brad Pitt.
She brings attention to some literal underground items in Wichita too, such as a buried art installation featuring a robot on the Wichita State campus. And yes, this book includes the iconic troll sculpture found in a storm drain near the Keeper of the Plains sculpture.
At book signings last year for her first book on Wichita, “100 Things to Do in Wichita Before You Die,” one of the most frequent questions asked by locals was whether that book included the troll. It didn’t. The troll is the first item mentioned in this book.
Whiteside spent hours and hours doing interviews, visiting and revisiting spots she includes in the book, and poring over local newspaper articles.
“It required so many interviews with people in the community and so much research that I know there’s no other book about Wichita like this,” said Whiteside, who grew up in Wichita, moved away for a while to attend college and work elsewhere, and then returned to discover how much she loved exploring, talking and writing about Wichita.
Whiteside continues to highlight interesting, obscure and fun things about Wichita through her Facebook page, facebook.com/secretwichitabook. She also includes posts about upcoming book signings, which often are sites included in her book.
Both of her books have been published by Reedy Press, a St. Louis publisher that looks for local writers willing to write and market books on local history, sports, food, nostalgia, travel and more. Another travel blogger and writer, Roxie Yonkey, has written the Kansas versions of the publisher’s “100 Things to Do Before You Die” and “Secret” series.
“Secret Wichita: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure” retails for $27 and is available at local bookstores and online through Amazon and Whiteside’s lifestyle blog site, “One Delightful Life.”
‘Secret Wichita: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure” book signing
When: 5-7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 25
Where: Hopping Gnome Brewing Co., 1719 E. Victor. The brewery’s extensive collection of more than 100 gnomes is among the more than 80 people, places, collections, artifacts and things included in the book.
Cost: Free admission; books available to purchase for $27
More info: facebook.com/secretwichitabook, onedelightfullife.com
