Flint Hills Great Plainess--TRIP 3

Last night thunder rumbled for an hour until the building shook, but Kansas City never got rain. "It's going to come when everything I've planned is outdoors," said Andy.
Of course. Murphy's Law.  We packed up, waved good-bye to Kansas City and headed southwest on Route 35 towards Wichita. Emporia, Kansas was our destination for the night.
Slightly rolling hills stretched as far as we could see.  "It's called the Flint Hills. Even though the land looks like it would be great for farming, a layer of rock under the surface keeps crops from growing," explained Andy.
Would that rock be flint?" I wondered.
"I don't know," he answered. He focused on the construction tie-up ahead of us.
Since it was too early to check into the motel, we headed to Tall Grass Prairie National Preserve. 

"As far as the eye can see" is the usual description of the
tallgrass prairie. Here that is about 30 miles in any direction.

"It's sunny here," said Andy, "and it's hot too."  This is the true prairie, and we saw the searing effects of the drought. Ponds had dried up and everything alive had yellowed.
"The Santa Fe Trail went right through here," said Andy, pulling into Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, the 370th parcel set aside by the National Park Service. In 1996 the federal government worked with The Nature Conservancy to acquire this land for preservation.
"What's the deal here?" asked Andy when we entered the Visitor Center.
Ranger Heather told us about the National Park Service bus tour.

Ranger Eric chats with members of the tour group and
teaches us about the ecology of tallgrass.

Ranger Eric checked us on the bus with 12 others. at 11 a.m. We boarded and bumped along the rock trail, no more than two tire treads in the grass, to discover the wonders of Tallgrass. A flock of at least 30 pelicans circled overhead. "They probably touched down at Council Grove Reservoir to the north," guessed Ranger Eric.

Andy notices that each step in the grass of Windmill Pasture
crunches in the dryness of severe drought. This area
is more than ten inches below the normal yearly rainfall.

Part way out to the Scenic Overlook along Scenic Overlook Trail and with an eye on the American bison herd nearby, Ranger Eric asked us to de-bus for a history, geology and ecology lesson. "This is the 370th unit of the National Park System," he explained, "but it is the only unit specifically designed to preserve grasses." We learned that the ranch was acquired in 1994, at the request of Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum-Baker from Kansas, who encouraged the National Park Trust, a non-profit group, to purchase the Spring Hill/Z Bar Ranch with the intent of creating a national park. On November 12, 1996, the 10,894-acre Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve became a national park unit. In April of 2005, the National Park Trust transferred its land ownership to The Nature Conservancy, who now works closely with the National Park Service for management and restoration.
"The prairie is threatened with extinction," said Ranger Eric. "We need to preserve this vanishing landscape. It is the most threatened ecosystem in North America. With only five and a half to six million acres, that's four percent of the original range, and two thirds of the remaining tallgrass landscape is in Kansas."
Ranger Eric talked about ecology, the study of 

This area of Great Plains was once covered by a vast inland sea.
Andy and I walk four miles to the ranch in the distance.

the shared relationships that living organisms have with their environments. He explained that grasses can thrive on 30 percent of the world's land surfaces, capturing billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and releasing oxygen, depositing organic material into the soil, and storing carbon for decades. "Our planet's survival and our survival could hinge on the survival of the grasslands," he said.
While he talked, we checked out the flowers and kept an eye on the bison herd.

Fall flowers, one of the favorite foods for cattle,
bloom everywhere. Bison prefer grasses.

"Trees don't grow here because there is not much soil," explained Ranger Eric, "with layers of limestone and shale just beneath the surface. Ancient peoples learned to adapt to the geology of the area and live in harmony with the land. Now the annual plants thrive because there has been so little rain. All the perennials have shut down." We saw yellow broomweed, blue sage, white heather aster and yellow curly cup gum weed. Lovely as it looked from a distance, the broomweed indicated a heavily stressed environment due to extreme lack of moisture.
One guest asked about the tallgrass. Ranger Eric chuckled. "True, it's not very tall. That's because of the drought. At this time of year it is usually waist high, but we are at least ten inches down in rainfall." Most of the grass barely reached our ankles. "But there is huge variety and diversity here," explained Ranger Eric. "The Tallgrass Prairie supports 70 species of grass, 500 species of herbaceous plants, 300 species of animals and 1000 species of insects."
A short drive later at Scenic Overlook, we learned that moisture, fire and grazing allow people and nature to co-exist on the Tallgrass Prairie, so the National Park Service practices patch burning, setting controlled burns to about 30 percent of the park every year. The rotational burns, natural from lightning in years past, destroy old thatch, which gives grass roots access to sunshine and moisture. The ash absorbs sunlight and nourishes the soil.  Ancient peoples, like the Kansa Indians, understood this. They set burns to encourage the growth of tender, young grass shoots, which attracted the bison.
"We have no Kansa left in Kansas," said Ranger Eric. "They were all relocated to Oklahoma in 1872."

Along the trail, a Texas Horned Lizard poses for us.

The bison herd stayed near their water hole in the distance. "That is a herd culled from the Wind Cave bison," said Ranger Eric. "We started with 13 a few years ago, seven males and six females. They had six young this year; one baby and one adult died. We are up to 20, and Windmill Pasture can support 75 to 100."
Before the group boarded the bus to return to the Visitor Center, Ranger Eric explained the origin of the name Flint Hills. He said, "Zebulon Pike, of Pike's Peak fame, wrote in his journals that he was 'passing through rough hills of flint.' The name stuck." We picked up pieces of flint and looked at the sharp, rough cutting edge. Funny how stories and experiences interconnect.

Completed in 1882, the Lower Fox Creek School served
the community for about 50 years.

As the group boarded the bus, Andy and I set out on foot across the tallgrass. We followed the Prairie Fire Loop Trail to the Davis Trail to the Schoolhouse Spur Trail for four miles to return to the Visitor Center.
The Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse served the community from 1882 to the early 1930's. Desks and stove still exist inside, but the building was locked and the windows, clouded.

The Jones Ranch dominates the landscape.

With 30 miles of stone fence as reported by the 1885 census, the Spring Hill Farm Stock Ranch stood out against the gently rolling landscape. Here, Stephen F. Jones and his wife Louisa created a 7000-acre cattle ranch in 1878. His barn, 60 x 110-feet, housed animals and sheltered equipment and feed in the winter. The house was completed in 1881, but the Jones family only lived here ten years. Many other owners followed. By 1955, the Merrill Grain Company occupied the land. The bank bought the land from the Z-Bar Ranch in 1986, and in 1994 the house and 10,894 areas were purchased by the National Park Trust. What a treasure to preserve for history and ecology!