Ackerman Island Removal - Wichita KS

City:: Wichita, KS
Site Type:: Infrastructure and Utilities, Flood and Erosion Control
New Deal Agencies:: Works Progress Administration (WPA), Work Relief Programs
Quality of Information:: Good
Marked:: Unknown
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

Ackerman Island was an island in the middle of the Arkansas River. In the early 1900s the land had been developed as an amusement park, but by the late 1920s it had fallen into disuse. Works Progress Administration workers widened the Arkansas River by removing the island and sculpting it in as part of the riverbank.

According to visitwhichita.com, “The baseball field survived for a while after the closing of the amusement park. By the 1930s, flooding had become a problem along the river, causing the Works Progress Administration to recommend getting rid of the sandbar to widen the river. As workers fixed the issue, Ackerman Island became part of the west bank of the river.”