Great Bend is in the middle of Kansas. This town was originally named after the Great Bend of the Arkansas River, a feature noted as early as the first days of the Santa Fe Trail. by the early 1870s a town had formed and Great Bend participated for a short time as a cow town, complete with shoot outs, Texas cowboys and saloons. In its later years the town served as a major World War II Army Air Corps training base. Since then the community has continued to develop as a medical, legal and technical service center, as well as a regional shopping and entertainment provider.
