WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — A cannon that was part of Wichita’s Spanish-American War Memorial went missing from Central Riverside Park on Thursday. It was later found damaged.
According to the City of Wichita, the cannon was captured in Cuba during the Spanish-American War in 1898 and presented to the citizens of Wichita by Mayor Finlay Ross in 1900.
The 800-pound cannon from 1794 disappeared sometime Wednesday morning. The memorial site is on Murdock, west of Nims.
Doug Ballard is the citizen who discovered it was gone. He’s lived in the neighborhood for 50 years and rides his bike through the park daily, so he noticed when something was wrong with one of his favorite sites when he drove by on Thursday…