[5][6] Each year, Hutchinson hosts the Kansas State Fair, and National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Men's Basketball Tournament.

Hutchinson contracted with the Santa Fe Railway to make a town at the railroad's crossing over the Arkansas River.

The town actually sprang up about one-half mile north, on the banks of Cow Creek, where a few houses already existed.

[8] The community earned the nickname "Temperance City" due to the prohibition of alcohol set by its founder who placed a deed restriction on every lot prohibiting the sale or gifting of any alcoholic beverage which, if violated, would result in forfeit of the lot, improvements and payments associated with its sale and purchase.

[10] In 1887, the Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway built a main line from Herington through Hutchinson to Pratt.

Also in 1887, local salt deposits were discovered for the first time, when Ben Blanchard, a land speculator who founded South Hutchinson, drilled for oil in the area.

Fort Riley established 12 smaller branch camps, including Hutchinson.

[14][15] On January 17, 2001, 143 million cubic feet (4,000,000 m3) of compressed natural gas leaked from the nearby Yaggy storage field.

[16] It sank underground, then rose to the surface through old brine or salt wells, making around 15 gas blowholes.

[17][18][19] On June 21, 2013, following a grassroots campaign in an effort to promote Smallville Con, a comic-book convention hosted at the Kansas State Fair, the mayor of Hutchinson decreed the city's name would be changed to "Smallville" for one day in honor of Superman's fictional Kansas hometown of the same name.

[27] The 2020 United States census counted 40,006 people, 16,535 households, and 9,708 families in Hutchinson.

[39][40] As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 42,080 people, 16,981 households, and 10,352 families residing in the city.

Salt was originally extracted using the evaporation method by pumping water into brine wells.

Excavated portions of the mine are used for archival storage of movie and television masters, data tapes, and permanent business records.

Underground Vaults & Storage[46] currently houses the masters for The Wizard of Oz (1939), Gone with the Wind (1939), and Star Wars (1977), among many others.

The company still operates a distribution center and headquarters for Dillons and Kwik Shop in town.

[48] On September 2, 2008, the Hutchinson Hospital changed its name to Promise Regional Medical Center.

StraightLine HDD, a leading directional drill tooling manufacturer, has a 70,000 sq ft (6,500 m2).

In May 2009, Siemens announced it would open its American wind turbine nacelle assembly facility in Hutchinson.

[citation needed] Hutchinson is a city of the first class with a council-manager form of government.

Council meetings occur on the first and third Tuesday of each month, broadcast live on local cable channel 7.

Reno County Area Transit (RCAT) provides local public transport bus service.

The agency operates three bus routes colored Red, Blue, and Yellow.

[61] Greyhound Lines offers long-distance bus service on its route through Hutchinson from Wichita to Pueblo.

Bus service is provided daily towards Wichita and Salina by BeeLine Express (subcontractor of Greyhound Lines).

One is the La Junta Subdivision of the BNSF Railway which runs east-west through the city.

[64] Amtrak uses the La Junta Subdivision to provide passenger rail service.

Hutchinson is a stop on the Southwest Chief, which provides daily train service between Chicago and Los Angeles.

[65] Lastly, Hutchinson is the terminus of two lines of the Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad: the Hutchinson Subdivision, which enters the city from the south, and the Great Bend Subdivision, which enters the city from the northwest.

Located on the north eastern edge of Hutchinson is the Sand Hills State Park.