Bisonte Hotel

The Bisonte Hotel, Spanish for bison, was constructed in 1908. The Bisonte was known as a "Harvey House". Prior to the 1870s, travel by rail to the frontier was often unpleasant and accomodations, sparse. Fred Harvey began his relationship with the Santa Fe Rail Road in 1876 and built his first hotel in Florence, Kansas. Harvey spent extravagantly to furnish his hotels and insisted on good food and lodgings. The staff was impeccably trained and paid a fair wage. The Hotel originally had 74 rooms with bathrooms in between each room that had hot and cold running water. Meals could be telegraphed into the hotel from the approaching trains so that when travelers arrived at the station, their food would be ready. At the time, this was all very extravagant traveling fare and the construction costs for the Bisonte Hotel made it the most expensive hotel on the entire Santa Fe line. By the 1940s, the Bisonte had passed it's prime and passed into the hands of the American Legion. In 1964 it was sold to investors in Wichita to turn it into a Ramada Inn. During the demolition phase, the Bisonte burned to the ground in 1965.