Holy City of the Wichitas – Cache

Current Usage:

Tourist attraction and Easter Sunday Passion Play

Description:

Nested in the Wichitas Mountains of Oklahoma you will find the Holy City of the Wichitas, a complete small replica of the City of Jerusalem which includes Pilate’s judgement hall, Calvary’s Mount, Herod’s Court, the Garden of Gethsemane, watch towers, rock shrines, and perimeter walls. Using funds of $94,000 the Works Progress Administration worked to complete this city in time for the next Easter Passion Play in 1936. The Works Progress Administration hired 150 craftsmen to construct the structures of wood. This play has been continuously preformed each Easter Sunday since 1926, and on the current location since 1936. Originally started by Rev. Mark Wallock as a choir and small play it quickly developed into a full production and in 1934 had 40,000 visitors. A Hollywood movie production crew film the full Easter Passion and made into a movie in 1949, although the studio did not like the Oklahoma accents and therefore redubbed the voices. The Chapel replicates the Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia with murals by artist Irene Malcolm adorning the chapel’s ceiling and walls.

Sources:

1. Oklahoma Landmarks Inventory Nomination
2. Oklahoma Landmarks Inventory Nomination Entry 2
3. Lowry, J. V. (2009). Images of America: Holy City of the Wichitas. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing.
4. O’Dell, L. (n.d.) Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society.

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