Congress dedicates floodway that saved Wichita in honor of ‘Big Ditch Mitch’
When the Big Ditch was dug 60-plus years ago, not everyone bought into “Big Ditch Mitch” Mitchell’s vision for a mammoth floodway through west Wichita to protect the city.
Some didn’t like it because they had to give up land, while others saw it as an expensive boondoggle or federal intrusion on local affairs.
“As he staked out plans for the ditch, he was often threatened,” said Mayor Jeff Longwell. “The stakes he would put down would be plowed over by residents. He was cursed at, shot at and received a wave of criticism for his efforts.”
History sided with Mitchell.
On Wednesday, a U.S. senator, a congressman, the mayor and the chairman of the Sedgwick County Commission gathered with numerous local notables to honor him by rechristening the Wichita-Valley Center Flood Control Project as the M.S. “Mitch” Mitchell Floodway.
The dedication ceremony was held near the Big Ditch on the west bank of the Arkansas River, which breathed life into early Wichita but could turn nasty at a moment’s notice.
Tremendous floods were recorded in 1877, 1904, 1916, 1923, 1944, 1951 and 1955.
“Back in 1923, a flood covered 600 city blocks in Wichita,” said Rep. Ron Estes, R-Wichita. “At one point in time there were 5,000 families that were out of their homes.”
Mitchell, a young engineer who had served in the Air Force, was asked to come to Wichita in 1949 for a six-week gig helping to lay out a flood control channel.
He never left. He supervised the Big Ditch project to completion in 1959 and was a fixture in local flood-control and planning until his death in 2017.
County Commission Chairman David Dennis, who served with Mitchell on the Planning Commission, gave the tale of the tape on the Big Ditch: 18 miles, 50 miles of connecting channels, 100 miles of levies and 150 control structures.
“It is one of the largest diversion projects in the nation,” he said. “It has saved lives.”
Among the crowd at the ceremony was Jim Leiker, a retired heavy equipment operator who worked for Mitchell on the Big Ditch.
“I always respected that guy,” he said. “He was a straight shooter and about as honest as they get.”
Because the channel was originally an Army Corps of Engineers project and funded with federal money, it literally took an act of Congress to change the name.
Estes sponsored the bill in the House and Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, shepherded it through the Senate.
Moran said he could see how hard it would have been to push through the Big Ditch in the face of political opposition at the time.
“It’s an honor for me to be here to recognize this community . . . for making a long-term decision that wasn’t necessarily popular with everyone and the benefits accrue to everyone today,” he said.
Mitchell’s widow, Pat, said she didn’t marry him until long after he was done digging the Big Ditch. She said he was proud of the project. But he was a private man at heart and would often downplay his role and credit the team around him for the project’s success.
Pat Mitchell accepted a copy of the bill renaming the floodway, signed by President Trump, on her late husband’s behalf.
“When he came to Wichita, he came to just kind of step in for someone and ended up staying, and he said ‘This is my town,’” she said.
This story was originally published July 3, 2019 at 4:33 PM.
