Hutchinson Schools

Hutchinson USD 308

Hutchinson students attend school in the Hutchinson Unified School District 308 with enrollment of about 5,000 students. USD 308 is made up of 7 elementary schools, 2 middle schools and 1 high school. Students can participate in a variety of activities including Business Professionals of America (BPA), Key Club, Scholar’s Bowl and many others.

Hutchinson Community College

For more than 80 years, Hutchinson Community College has been the premier two-year educational institution in Kansas.  “We welcome you here…come learn more.”

(Source- Hutchinson Community College-www.hutchcc.edu)

Hutchinson Lifestyle

Packed with big city conveniences in a metropolitan atmosphere, Hutchinson/Reno County is the best of both worlds. There is the vibrancy of a city determined to thrive and progress, yet without the big city problems.

Hutchinson/Reno County boasts a reasonable cost of living, beautiful scenery, friendly people and gets high marks for its lifestyle and quality of living. It's a mecca for creative talented people pursuing challenging careers.

Simply, they’re diverse. They’re innovative. They’re the community you should call home.

(Source- Hutchinson Chamber of Commerce-www.hutchchamber.com)

Hutchinson Transportation

Highway KS-61 runs through Northeast-Hutchinson, making for easy commutes. Hutchinson is home to an Amtrak station as well as the Hutchinson Municipal Airport.

Hutchinson Local Attractions/Activities

Hutchinson is full of interesting attractions and events. Residents enjoy a variety of entertainment options, restaurants, shopping, and historical attractions. Hutchinson offers many restaurants. Several new ones include Buffalo Wild Wings, Pie Five, Panda Express and Five Guys Burgers & Fries. Hutchinson is home to several churches including Faith United Methodist Church, Father’s House Church and Grace Bible Church. Sandhills State Park offers a great place to spend the day outside.

Historic Fox Theatre

Hutchinson's Historic Fox Theatre is a regional center for the arts dedicated to the expression of the human spirit through quality entertainment and educational programming.

(Source- Historic Fox Theatre-www.hutchinsonfox.com)

Kansas Cosmosphere Space Center

What is now one of the world’s premier space museums was once the dream of a Hutchinson civic leader, Patricia Brooks Carey. Her vision to create one of the first public planetariums in the central United States had humble beginnings. In 1962, the Hutchinson Planetarium opened inside the Poultry Building on the Kansas State Fairgrounds with a used star projector and rented folding chairs.

Four years later, the Hutchinson Planetarium relocated to the campus of Hutchinson Community College, in what today houses Dr. Goddard’s Lab.

In 1976, Carey and the Hutchinson Planetarium’s board of directors began planning to significantly expand the facility. They sought the advice of former employee Max Ary, who had worked for the planetarium while going to college. Ary was the director of Ft. Worth’s Noble Planetarium at the time and happened to be serving on a Smithsonian committee that placed tens of thousands of space artifacts in museums after the Apollo program concluded.

So the Cosmosphere was in the right place at the right time.

Launched as the Kansas Cosmosphere and Discover Center in 1980, the new facility featured permanent exhibit galleries in the Hall of Space Museum, one of the first OMNIMAX theaters in the world and the planetarium that started it all.

In 1997, the facility was further renovated and expanded to its present size, 105,000 square feet, nearly tripling the area devoted to the Hall of Space Museum. Today the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center is one of the most comprehensive space museums in the world and one of the leading educational tourist attractions in the United States.

(Source- Kansas Cosmosphere Space Center-www.cosmo.org)

Kansas State Fairgrounds

The Kansas State Fairgrounds hosts the annual Kansas State Fair every year in the fall. The Kansas State Fair is always interesting and offers new attractions and activities every year.

Hutchinson – History

Clinton Carter (C.C.) Hutchinson was an Indian Agent working for the Federal Government and in November 1871, he contracted with the Santa Fe Railroad to create a town at the Arkansas River/Cow Creek crossing point.  On January 1, 1872 Reno County was organized with Hutchinson as its lead city. The railroads played a significant role in the development of some of the smaller towns within the county. The arrival of the Santa Fe Railroad established Hutchinson, Partridge, Abbyville, Plevna and Sylvia, and the Rock Island and Frisco Railroads led to the establishment of some towns that later failed.

Hutchinson was initially known as “Temperance City” because alcohol was strictly prohibited for five years after its founding. Anyone caught selling or distributing alcohol was forced to relinquish the deed to his land. In addition, cattle drives through town were not allowed to prevent it from becoming a rowdy cowtown like Wichita and Dodge City.

The early settlers found abundant game in the sandhills including elk, deer, antelope and an occasional bison. They also found an abundance of sandhill plums.

When the first house was built in November 1871 at the intersection of Sherman and Main the buffalo bones that C.C. Hutchinson had used to lay out the city boundaries were still there.

Houston L. Whiteside and Leslie Perry published the first edition of the Hutchinson News on July 4, 1872.

By the summer of 1874 there were 1,500 residents and just when activity was really picking up, a grasshopper raid occurred that destroyed all of the “vegetation and left the farmers destitute.”  (Houston Whiteside Historic Hutchinson, 1910)

A series of good crop years followed and in order to expand growth, the State Reformatory was secured. This was followed by the discovery of salt by Ben Blanchard, the founder of South Hutchinson, in 1887.  The salt business quickly became a large and lucrative industry.  

By 1910, development had been rapid and Hutchinson had 16,000 residents. Houston Whiteside wrote: “There is no more prosperous region in the United States than Reno County and the wheat and stock belt tributary to the city of Hutchinson. “

(Source- Reno County Historical County)