Town file
Arkansas City, Kansas
Arkansas City, Kansas (Cowley County, Kansas) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 393, "The Neighborhood Monster" (1 June 2023). On the morning of 5 January 2007 Cindy Sanderholm came home from work to help her nineteen-year-old daughter Jodie with a contact lens.
- Town
- Arkansas City
- County
- Cowley County
- State
- Kansas
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 393
- Approximate location
- 37.072, -97.038
Episode 393 / 1 June 2023 / 167 min / full
The Neighborhood Monster
"We're going to Arkansas City, Kansas, which is in Cowley County, south central Kansas, about an hour from Wichita." about 0:05:01
The case: Murder of Jodie Sanderholm (January 5, 2007). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2023
- Population
- 12,028
- Median household income
- $37,139 a month
- Median home value
- $90,100
- Two-bedroom rent
- about $700 a month
- Cost of living
- 65
- Religious
- 48.4%
- Property crime
- ▼ about a third over the average
- Violent crime
- ▲ about 20% high
- Chance of being raped, attacked or killed
- one in 140
History, in brief
- People started settling here in 1870. about 0:06:39
- The town could not settle on a name and was called Adelphia, then Creswell, then Walnut City before Arkansas City. about 0:06:59
- The name Arkansas City was finally chosen and a post office was established in 1870. about 0:07:50
- Railroad companies built a line from Florence to El Dorado in 1881, extended to Douglas and later to Arkansas City. about 0:07:57
- The railroad was abandoned by 1942. about 0:08:09
- In 1891 there was a population explosion in anticipation of the Cherokee Strip land run. about 0:08:18
- At the turn of the century Arkansas City was about the same size as Wichita, only a little smaller, with hotels, an elegant opera house, a manufacturing base and a lot of agriculture. about 0:08:53
- The town had a swimming hole called Paris Lake. about 0:09:14
- A huge flood in 1919 destroyed the town's attractions, including the swimming hole. about 0:09:19
- By the 1980s the railroads had shifted their crews to other stops. about 0:09:42
- The Rodeo meat packing plant, for a time Morrell's Meats, closed, and the only passenger train serving the city, Amtrak's Lone Star, was discontinued. about 0:09:48
- In 1996 Total Petroleum closed its refinery and a lot of jobs were lost. about 0:10:49
- In 2003 the Binny Smith Crayola plant closed with the loss of 400 jobs. about 0:10:55
- The town is now home to Creekstone Farms Premium Beef LLC, which employs 1,100 workers. about 0:11:17
- Locals call the town Ark City, the area code is 620 and there is no motto. about 0:06:13
The reviews read out
4 stars
"A good small town with its imperfections; you can find things to do if you look hard enough and there is always a good neighbour, with Polynesian and Hispanic communities on the rise, though traffic is getting worse, schools need funding and there are always bad apples."about 0:11:35
4 stars
"The reviewer loves knowing their neighbours; a neighbour stopped their two-year-old daughter who had wandered out of the house and called the police, possibly saving her from a dangerous outcome."about 0:12:31
3 stars
"The town is very boring, the neighbourhoods feel unsafe, the roads are bad and the town looks run down."about 0:13:37
3 stars
"The city is number eight in the most dangerous cities in Kansas, with the chances of being raped, attacked or killed put at one in 140 and getting worse, although this reviewer generally does not feel threatened."about 0:14:31
2 stars
"Job opportunities are scarce, there are no attractions, taxes are high, drug problems abound, the town is drying up and many houses are condemned; this is where dreams go to die."about 0:16:20
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Wellington, Kansas25 miles
- Dewey, Oklahoma64 miles
- Bartlesville, Oklahoma65 miles
- Enid, Oklahoma65 miles
- Newton, Kansas69 miles
- Kingman, Kansas71 miles
Everything here is as told in the episode, on the date it went out; figures and places may have changed since. Endings are covered: open an episode and use the spoiler switch to read them.