19 September 2023
Wichita, Kan. (KSNW) — If you’ve lived in Wichita long enough, you probably know of a few hidden gems around town. Maybe you’re aware of a bit of our city’s history that isn’t well-known.
Vanessa Whiteside’s motto is “Stay Curious.” She’s written a pair of books about Wichita. The latest features Wichita’s off-beat locations and tucked-away treasures. Many of them, you may already know about, and some you don’t.
The author, who has signed copies of her new book inside Watermark Books and Café, grew up in Wichita, graduated from Southeast High School, and loves researching her hometown.
“So, this book here, ‘100 Things to Do in Wichita Before You Die,’ is my first book. It came out about this time last year, and it’s a compilation of things you can do in the city. Some people treat it as a checklist or a scavenger hunt that they create for themselves. And there’s some hidden gems in there as well. And then the second book is ‘Secret Wichita: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure,'” said Whiteside at her latest book signing.
It’s interesting how much you can learn about the place where you live if you look closer or dig deeper. That’s what Whiteside did in “Secret Wichita.”
“So, this was really fun because it’s very different than the first book in that I got to go write more for it. I took all the color photography for it. And since it’s a guide to the weird, wonderful and obscure, it’s not things that you would expect to maybe find in Wichita,” said Whiteside. “If you pass by them, maybe you didn’t realize what the story was with it. It could be an artifact in a museum. It could be something that you see as you drive out on the street. It could be a business. There’s businesses in here. So, some tucked away treasures.”
Places like the Tunnel of Trees in Chisholm Trail Park on the Cottonwood Trail, the nearly one-hundred-year-old art-deco tower at Wichita North High School, with the Latin phrase ‘Ad Astra Per Aspera’ inscribed above the front doors, and the city’s first house; the Munger House built in 1868.
“Oh, did you know that there’s a bookcase inside of a bar here in Wichita, and if you open the bookcase, that leads to a speakeasy? Some people may not know about that. Why do we have a robot that’s a piece of art buried on the campus of Wichita State University? What is the history behind some of the oldest buildings or the founders of our city? So, I touch on museums, those kinds of things,” explained Whiteside.
There are lots of fun places too. Like Wichita’s Rainbow Row of houses near the Crown Uptown Theater, chrome creations like the horse made of old car bumpers on the eastern edge of the Delano District, and Delano itself. It was once a stop on the Chisholm Trail, where rowdy cowboys partied with saloon girls.
“Some people may not realize that we have great collections of things in the city. So, for example, there’s the House of Tanks. This is a museum in north Wichita that a gentleman created out of his own personal collection of military tanks. Who knew? But you can go visit it and get to know a little bit about that history,” said Whiteside.
The Union Station railway platform sign was another fun find.
“I love Wichita, and this book, for me, was an opportunity to inspire others to feel the same way as I do about the city. And I’m just taking a lot of pride in the city, and this is how I’m showing it,” said Whiteside.
The new book features 84 different places, sights, and people in Wichita.