In a town criticized for a lack of entertaining attractions, Lake Wichita Park provides residents and visitors with a central location for a plethora of outdoor activities from hiking to baseball.
Lake Wichita, a man-made lake located about three miles southwest of the city, was constructed in the late 1890’s to create a city irrigation and water supply.
John Alexander Kemp, a business entrepreneur, arranged for the construction of a city lake at a natural basin that he discovered.
Although the lake originated as a local resort, nowadays it is mainly serves as a water source and local attraction.
Residents visit the park for its running trail, dog park, disc golf course and a mound of dirt unofficially named Mt. Murphy after Jack Murphy, the city’s director of parks and recreation.
“The hill started about 15 years ago,” Murphy said. “It came as a suggestion when deciding how to use the excavated dirt from the bottom of Sikes Lake.”
Murphy said the hill is 83 feet tall right now. He said the plan is to build it up to 100 feet and turn it into a local attraction with perhaps a spiraling trail going up and a metal structure on top.
In addition to the hill, there is a 10-unit picnic shelter that can seat 60 people and is available for renting.
The park also has two lighted baseball fields, two lighted softball fields, three lighted football fields, a dog park and the only model airplane landing strip in the Texas state park system—all of which are free.
One local, Kelsey Berg, even chose the lake as the location for her non-profit 5k event Run for a Reason.
“It’s a good place to host a run because you don’t have to block off any streets, it has a bathroom, and a pavilion area,” Berg said. “Also, it’s fun to see people flying their toy planes, flying kites, and playing disc golf.”
Golden algae blooms and periods of low dissolved oxygen caused by drought have damaged the fish population in the lake making it unstable for fishing.
Lake Wichita, completed in 1901 at a cost of $175,000, has a surface area of 2,200 acres, a capacity of 14,000 acre-feet, and a drainage area of 143 square miles. Its current water level is at 29.9 percent.
