📷 Throwback Thursday: Rivers Banks Orchard

Rivers Banks Orchard - Original Cabin - Dillon Ave. & K-61 - 1947 (Later Dillon Family Cabin). Courtesy of the Conard-Harmon Collection.

Hutch Post, in partnership with Steve Harmon and the Conard-Harmon Collection, is proud to present Throwback Thursday. Enjoy a weekly release from Steve Harmon as he presents the "Hutch - Then & Now Collection."

STEVE HARMON
Hutch Post Contributor

Today's "Throwback Thursday Collection" takes us to Dillon Avenue and K-61 Highway. This is the first of two installments on the Rivers Banks Orchard.

After the Civil War, veteran Rivers Banks came to Reno County in 1873 and homesteaded 160 acres near 43rd & Halstead.

He built a small cabin on the property and developed the rest of the property into Rivers Banks Orchard. The first photo shows that early cabin about 1947.

Rivers Banks died in Hutch on April 1, 1895.

In 1900, Judge F.L. Martin bought the orchard land from Cornell University in New York, which had acquired the property in a foreclosure.

The orchard had grown to include 15,000 apple trees, 6,000 peach trees and 1,000 cherry trees until a killing frost in 1940.

The Martin family worked to replant some of the trees but sold out to Ray Dillon, then president of J.S. Dillon & Sons Stores, in the early 1940s.

Dillon asked Earl Stoughton to manage the orchard. The second photo shows an aerial of the completely-remodeled cabin location on the orchard property in the late 1950s.

Rivers Banks Orchard - Dillon Family Cabin Aerial - Dillon Ave. & K-61 - c. late 1950s. Courtesy of the Conard-Harmon Collection.

In 1944, the orchard management farm buildings were constructed. One of those buildings was a large white barn to house machinery and equipment. The third photo shows some of those buildings and the barn in 1947.

Rivers Banks Orchard - Farm Out Buildings - (showing Red Barn Events Center) - Dillon Ave. & K-61 - 1947 (managed by Earl Stoughton). Courtesy of the Conard-Harmon Collection.

Stoughton operated Rivers Banks for 52 years. After that, the orchard fell silent and the fruit trees were gone. The cabin was then just used for family get-togethers.

A few years ago, 80 acres were donated to the city of Hutchinson to develop into Rivers Banks Orchard Park.

In 2014, Connie and Dana Richman purchased the part of the property that included the big barn. They have painted and updated the barn and converted it into the "Richman Arboretum." The fourth photo shows the current Red Barn Events Center.

Rivers Banks Orchard - Richman Arboretum - Events Center - 2026. Courtesy of the Conard-Harmon Collection.

To purchase a photo print, contact: sharmon5@cox.net.

Throwback Thursday is brought to you by:

Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce
STRATACA Kansas Underground Salt Museum
Anchor Inn and Anchor Away

📷 Throwback Thursday: Rivers Banks Orchard - Vol. 175