Arkansas City Wedding

Arkansas City is a city situated at the confluence of the Arkansas and Walnut rivers in the southwestern part of Cowley County, located in south-central Kansas, in the central United States. The population was estimated to be 11,581 in the year 2005.[1] It is the second most populous city of Cowley County.

The name of this city is not pronounced like the nearby state of Arkansas, but rather as "Ar-Kansas" (the final "s" is pronounced). Over the years there has been much confusion about the non-standard regional pronunciation of "Arkansas," which locals render as "Ar-KAN-zus" rather than "AR-ken-saw." Throughout much of Kansas, residents use this alternate pronunciation when referring to the Arkansas River, as well as Arkansas Street in the city of Wichita. Because of this, and for the sake of brevity, Arkansas City is most often referred to as simply Ark City.

White settlers first congregated in the area where Arkansas City now stands in the 1860s. The natives referred to the place as "Nichonka," which roughly translates as "place between the waters" a reference to the confluence of the Arkansas and Walnut rivers.