Garden City

Sister cities

• Oristano

History

In February 1878, James R. Fulton, William D. Fulton and W.D.'s son, L.W. Fulton, arrived at the present site of Garden City. The original townsite was laid out on the south half of section 18 by engineer Charles Van Trump. The land was a loose, sandy loam and covered with sagebrush and soap weeds, but there were no trees. Main Street ran directly north and south, dividing William D. and James R. Fulton's claims. As soon as they could get building material, they erected two frame houses. William D. Fulton building on his land, on the east side of Main Street, a house one story and a half high, with two rooms on the ground and two rooms above. This was called the Occidental Hotel. William D. Fulton was proprietor. No other houses were built in Garden City until November 1878, when James R. Fulton and L.T. Walker each put up a building. The Fultons tried to get others to settle here, but only a few came, and at the end of the first year there were only four buildings. Charles Jesse Jones, later known as "Buffalo" Jones, arrived in Garden City for an antelope hunt in January 1879. Before Jones returned home, the Fulton brothers procured his services to promote Garden City, and especially in trying to influence the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad to put in a switch station. The railroad agreed to place its station at Garden City. In the spring of 1879, more people began arriving to homestead in the area. During the years of 1885–1887, a rush was made for Western Kansas, and a settler arrived for every quarter section. The United States Land Office also located at Garden City, and people went there to make filings on their land. Lawyers also arrived in Garden City. I.R. Holmes, the agent for the sale of lands of the ATSF, and Holmes' partner, A.C. McKeever, in…

Geography

Garden City lies on the north side of the Arkansas River in the High Plains region of the Great Plains. It is located in southwestern Kansas at the intersection of U.S. Route 50 and U.S. Route 83, Garden City is west-northwest of Wichita, north-northeast of Amarillo, and southeast of Denver. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land. It is the most remote city in America with a population over 25,000. Garden City has a semi-arid steppe climate (Köppen: BSk) with hot, dry summers and cold, dry winters. On average, January is the coldest and driest month, July is the hottest month, and June is the wettest month. The high temperature reaches or exceeds an average of 73.7 afternoons a year and reaches or exceeds an average of 15.6 afternoons per year. The minimum temperature falls below the freezing point on an average of 148.2 mornings per year and to or below on 4.1 mornings each year. The hottest temperature recorded in Garden City was on July 13, 1934, while the coldest temperature recorded was on February 12, 1899, 1948. On the days of April 30–May 1, 2017, the town was hit by a late-spring snowstorm which caused power outages and damaged almost every tree in town. Many tree limbs and some trees were downed because of it and the women's clinic had its roof collapse into the building, ultimately leading to its demolition in 2018. *Downtown is centered on Southern Main Street. The Windsor Hotel and the police station are among the tallest buildings, and there are many other historic buildings in the area. Most of the businesses in the main downtown area are locally owned and operated.

Most-observed species

• Eurasian Collared-Dove

  Streptopelia decaocto (Frivaldszky, 1838) · Aves
  1,066
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  971
• European Starling

  Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  807
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  715
• House Finch

  Haemorhous mexicanus (P.L.Statius Müller, 1776) · Aves
  658
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  628
• Great-tailed Grackle

  Quiscalus mexicanus (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  555
• Common Grackle

  Quiscalus quiscula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  466