Hutchinson was founded in the 1870's by C.C. Hutchinson, a US Indian agent, as a community established where the Santa Fe Railroad crossed the Little Arkansas River. Today it is a community of approximately 40,000 persons, with an area of 22 square miles, located in the south central pan of the state of Kansas. The city is approximately 45 miles northwest of Wichita, and is the county seat of Reno County.