Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Podcast Library https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm A collection of podcasts about the nature, history, and culture of Tallgrass Prairie NPres and the surrounding region. Copyright 2024 NPS - For Personal Use Only NPS RSS Generator en A collection of podcasts about the nature, history, and culture of Tallgrass Prairie NPres and the surrounding region. National Park Service no epatterson@nps.gov National Park Service no nature, culture, tallgrass prairie, history episodic no https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/BC4C3E33-B34E-650C-37D22CE4BB4EB0DA.jpg Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Podcast Library https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm Fri, 29 Mar 2024 00:59:09 -0400 Discover the Wonder of Tallgrass ]]> Sun, 11 Feb 2024 00:00:00 -0500 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/F655D4B7-F354-364C-E1D4A3513967C8B0.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-F6948DFB-F619-A2B5-6D0176480FB886CC Discover the Wonder of Tallgrass An in-depth discussion about the nature, history and culture of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem. 2263 no full 1

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Discover the Wonder of Tallgrass, a ten-chapter guided exploration of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.

Program written and produced by Park Ranger Eric Patterson of the National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior.

• Introduction.

On behalf of the National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy, welcome to Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. We hope you enjoy the journey and find meaning that is uniquely yours as you Discover the Wonder of Tallgrass.

A good place to begin this journey of discovery is with a timeless quote from noted environmentalist Rachel Carson’s 1964 book, The Sense of Wonder, which can help bring focus to this and many other excursions into the natural world:

Exploring nature...is largely a matter of becoming receptive to what lies all around you. It is learning again to use your eyes, ears, nostrils, and fingertips, using your senses. For most of us, knowledge of our world comes largely through sight, yet we look about with such unseeing eyes that we are partially blind. One way to open your eyes to unnoticed beauty is to ask yourself: What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?

• Chapter 1: Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve establishment.

In June 1994, US Senator from Kansas, Nancy Landon Kassebaum-Baker, became a driving force in the preserve’s establishment. She encouraged a private nonprofit group, the National Park Trust, to assist in the creation of a national park by purchasing the Spring Hill Z Bar Ranch located five miles north of Cottonwood Falls, Kansas.

On November 12, 1996, the ranch became the 10,894-acre Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, the 370th national park unit, standing out as the first national park area specifically established to preserve grass for its own sake, as well as the first national park area set up as a shared, cooperative, landowning partnership.

At the preserve’s dedication, Senator Kassebaum-Baker called the partnership a “model for the nation,” demonstrating how the public and private sectors can cooperate to achieve a shared goal. The National Park Service currently owns the Visitor Center, most of the historic buildings and the lands around them, approximately 34 acres and can own up to 180 acres total, thereby leaving the majority of the preserve’s land in private non-profit ownership.

In April 2005 the National Park Trust completed its mission at the preserve by transferring its land ownership to The Nature Conservancy, with the help of another private non-profit group, the Kansas Park Trust.

The Nature Conservancy now works closely with the National Park Service on a wide range of tallgrass prairie management and restoration projects.

A major part of the park’s cooperative mission is to be a destination for one-on-one, hiking-boots-on-the-ground contact with the tallgrass prairie, making the park one of the largest and most publicly accessible areas of tallgrass prairie in Kansas, if not the entire country.

• Chapter 2: Amount of tallgrass prairie remaining in North America. Looking out over the wide-open spaces of the Flint Hills, it’s hard to believe that any landscape that stretches from one horizon to the other could ever be considered vanishing and endangered, but that is exactly what the tallgrass prairie ecosystem has become.

In fact, on a percentage basis, more of the Florida Everglades, both inside and outside of that national park, remain intact than native tallgrass prairie.

This is astonishing when you consider just how much native tallgrass prairie at one time covered North America, upwards of 170 million acres, roughly the size of Texas. However, it has been reduced to around 4% of its original size, roughly the size of the Hawaiian Islands.

This 96% reduction makes the North American tallgrass prairie one of the most humanly altered ecosystems on the planet, reflecting the great peril that grasslands face worldwide.

Today, these lands have been transformed into agricultural use, growing the food that millions of people in the United States and around the world depend upon every day.

However, most of what remains of North America's tallgrass prairies is found here in the Flint Hills Ecoregion of Kansas and Oklahoma.

• Chapter 3: Ecology.

A great deal goes into preserving tallgrass prairie in the Flint Hills, as we'll discover during this program, but it all really boils down to a single word, ECOLOGY.

Now this word is a fairly new word to the English language, coined in the 1870s, from the Greek roots oikos, -meaning home, and ology, -meaning the study of.

Placing these roots together gives us oikos, ology, or ecology, the study of one's home.

However, it hasn’t come into widespread popular use until the 1970s and now you can hear it everywhere.

It’s a very timely subject these days, but it still has that science fiction ring to it whenever you hear someone talking about electric cars, wind turbines, or anything with “eco” in front of it.

Simply put, ecology deals with the shared set of relationships that living organisms have with their environment, our shared home. It’s how the Earth’s various lifeforms interact with one another and how they interact with weather, climate, geology, geography, landscape, etc., creating the vast array of interconnections that weave the web of life here on Earth.

• Chapter 4: Flint Hills geology and erosion.

The literal foundation of the Flint Hills region is its geology, with its subtle but solid influence demonstrating that just because you're small and seemingly insignificant or satisfied to do your best work behind the scenes, doesn't mean you're not also very, very important.

Science describes that these layers were laid down nearly 300 million years ago during a time scientifically referred to as the Permian Period of the Paleozoic Era, when present-day Kansas was covered at various times by a vast, inland sea.

As this shallow sea rose and fell, layers of carbon-bearing sediment and the calcium and silica bearing remains of marine plants and animals were deposited in alternating layers at the bottom, eventually solidifying into layers of shale & limestone, with flint, also known as chert, found within the limestone.

The rain and water flowing on the surface and from over 200 springs at the park, as well as the countless springs throughout the Flint Hills have in fact, put the "hills” in the Flint Hills, demonstrating what can be achieved when small, determined efforts are consistently combined together.

This process, called differential erosion, gives the hills their distinctive steep slopes, flat-topped mesas, and stair-step appearance, due to shale eroding faster than the limestone.

Now within perhaps 18 to 24 inches of the surface is where thick formations of shale & limestone begin to emerge. These thin soils, full of eroded pieces of flint, prevented plowing these lands for crops, except for the deeper soils and flatter terrain in the bottomlands along streams and rivers.

This situation helps to maintain many of the Flint Hills’s original characteristics, making them very well suited to growing grasses, wildflowers, and other tallgrass prairie plant life, which have nursed and nurtured a great many lives and livelihoods in the Flint Hills for hundreds or even thousands of years.

• Chapter 5: Origins of the name Flint Hills.

Although the Spanish conquistador Francisco Vazquez de Coronado explored what is now central Kansas in the mid-1500s, the American explorer Zebulon Pike is credited with naming this area “Flint Hills,” crossing through this area in September 1806, toward present-day Colorado.

He kept detailed journals of his travels and wrote at the time that he had been traveling through quote, rough hills of flint, unquote.

In the present-day “Flint Hills” is the name given to this large area of east central Kansas that influences around 25% of the state.

It starts about 100 miles north of the park near the Nebraska border and extends southwards, soaking up most of the space between Salyna and Topeka, narrowing down to the west of Emporia and to the east of Wichita and then enters the Osage Nation in Oklahoma, where they are called the Osage Hills.

This combined area of intact tallgrass prairie measures over THREE TIMES the size of Yellowstone National Park, highlighting the unassailable fact that most of the intact tallgrass prairie that remains in North America, as well as any hope for its future, falls outside of any sort of public, protected boundary.

• Chapter 6: Legs of the Tallgrass Prairie.

Many of the views throughout the park and the Flint Hills provide a look back in time to 500 or even 1,000 or more years ago.

And over this long stretch of time, the various peoples of the Flint Hills have found ways to succeed that cooperate with what the ecosystem needs for its survival, combining the realities of living, with the necessities of life.

For the most part, the same three powerful ecological processes that have sustained the tallgrass prairie in the past, moisture, fire, and grazing, continue to do so in the present, forming the “legs of the tallgrass prairie.”

These three strong legs are like the three legs of a stool. If one or more of the legs are damaged or broken, the stool would be quite unsteady and could collapse.

Something similar could happen to the tallgrass prairie ecosystem if its legs are not balanced with one another, and with the human element being capricious and unpredictable at times, maintaining such a tenuous balance becomes an even greater challenge.

This challenge begins with moisture. The Kansas Flint Hills region receives an average of around 24 to 36 inches of total precipitation a year.

Since the amounts will vary widely, due to weather variations and increasing climate change, the plants animals and people of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem must find ways to adapt to this and the many other challenges of this environment or be eliminated by them, a cleansing that while harsh and severe, is nevertheless quite effective at building grit and fortitude.

Fire, a natural grassland process, has been adapted for use by both the Indigenous peoples of the Flint Hills and by incoming European and American settlers.

Fire burns away old plant growth or “thatch” and gives the roots of tallgrass prairie plants greater access to sunshine and moisture.

At the same time, fire stimulates tallgrass prairie grass species to grow, because grasses have their growth parts right on or just below the soil’s surface, protecting them from fire.

The ash left behind becomes a soil nutrient and the darkened ground absorbs the sun’s heat after a burn, helping to kickstart the growth process.

What is burned away is only the top 20 to 25% of the total grass plant.

Most of the plant is found in the roots, protected underground, which are then prompted to grow a new shoot on the surface.

Grazing is another natural grassland process.

Elk, pronghorn, deer, and bison provided the major grazing presence in the tallgrass prairie ecosystem for thousands of years. Calcium from the eroded limestone makes the Flint Hills especially nutritious for grazing animals.

In the 1500s, Spanish explorers and colonists brought horses, cattle, and cattle culture to North America.

Over 300 years later, in the 1870s, European and American settlers began building cattle ranches in the Flint Hills, using the Spanish example from centuries earlier as a model.

In fact, the English word “ranch” comes from the Spanish word “el rancho” or livestock farm.

This transformation, from open range grazing to enclosed pastures, established cattle grazing as a cornerstone of the Flint Hills economy, with a firm understanding that there cannot be a functioning economy without a functioning ecology.

Although the grazing activity of cattle is somewhat different than that of native grazing animals, their grazing activity can still be beneficial to the tallgrass prairie ecosystem.

When done in balance with the other forces at work, this built-in challenge encourages the lifeforms within the ecosystem to become stronger and more resilient.

And then the grasses, far from being burdened by these challenges, are strengthened by them, very much like we humans, we are only as strong as the challenges we face daily.

And if all the challenges are checked and balanced with each other, everything tends to remain in equilibrium.

However, when one force begins to dominate and dictate over the others, when community breaks down, imbalances and inequalities begin to emerge, which is why it's not called an "ego" system. It's called an "eco" system for a very specific reason.

Ecosystems are not concerned with the specifics of life or its expression, only with maintaining the balance of that expression.

And whether we human beings will be able to make a living, not just as a species, but as families and individuals, in the new balance of life forming around the planet is a wide-open question that many are finally now beginning to reckon with, and it's not a moment too soon.

One way the park is addressing this timely issue is to demonstrate different methods of regenerative and restorative types of agriculture that would return nutrients and resources to the soil rather than just continually extracting them.

Patch-burn grazing is one possible method that seeks to mimic what took place naturally on the prairie by burning small portions of pastures at different times of the year, rotating the affected areas and the timing every three to five years.

As these patches move around, grazing animals follow the fresh plant growth that arises, thereby naturally spreading their grazing activity over a wider area.

Virtual fencing achieves a similar goal, using sensory cues from a physical collar that delivers a sound or vibration when the cow nears a virtual boundary, a boundary that can be moved quickly in response to changing grazing conditions.

The areas that aren’t grazed as much are given a chance to rest, grow their roots, and store energy, while also serving as ground cover for wildlife, with the Greater prairie-chicken serving as a good example.

Reduction and fragmentation of the Greater prairie-chicken’s habitat due to agricultural use has severely reduced its numbers across its range.

However, from the time the park began patch-burn grazing, which creates a mosaic of taller and shorter areas of vegetation, the Greater prairie-chicken population on the preserve has tripled.

Areas of shorter vegetation can function as booming grounds, or leks, where male Greater prairie-chickens put on an elaborate courtship dance, fluffing their feathers, stomping their feet, and making a distinctive hooting sound to the female Greater prairie-chickens also gathered on these courtship grounds.

Nearby, taller denser areas of plant growth provide good nesting environments to hide away eggs and young chicks from predators. Ranchers and land managers often use a football to see if the prairie has enough ground cover for nesting.

If the football is hidden in the grasses, then the area supports enough grass to maintain good nesting habitats, providing cover for young chicks when a hawk or other predator is nearby.

The burned areas also give way to places where these little chicks can more easily forage for food.

Having these environments near each other helps to give the iconic Greater prairie-chicken a fighting chance for survival, demonstrating how people can choose to be a positive force for the environment.

• Chapter 7: Flint Hills scenery and uses for flint.

From most hilltops in the Flint Hills, you can gaze out on a horizon of more than 10 to 20 miles and by turning in a circle you can see a veritable ocean of tallgrass.

From this one view you will see more intact tallgrass prairie than you will see today in the states of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa combined.

This demonstrates just how much of the tallgrass prairie is being put to various agricultural uses and clearly illustrates the steep challenges of protecting the few unplowed areas that remain.

And the toughness of the area's namesake, the flint itself, helps make this possible.

Flint consists of silicon dioxide, microscopic quartz crystals, similar to sand, glass, and the quartz in a battery-powered wristwatch.

When flint is hit in some way, or knapped, a sharp-edged flake can break off, sometimes leaving behind a telltale scalloped-shaped dent in the stone.

These flint flakes can be quite sharp and in the hands of skilled flintknappers can become knives, scrapers, spearheads, and arrowheads, some of the many skills possessed by the area’s Indigenous peoples, the Osage, Pawnee, Wichita, and Kansa.

• Chapter 8: Indigenous nations of the Flint Hills.

The Osage, the Pawnee, the Wichita, and the Kansa, or KahnZay Nations shared the Flint Hills as communal hunting and gathering grounds and were some of the first people to adapt the environment to suit their own needs, many decades before European and American settlers arrived in the Flint Hills.

Being keen observers of their surroundings, these Indigenous peoples saw that bison and other grazing animals were attracted to the tender new plant life that grew immediately after lightning had set vast grass fires.

They adapted this natural process by setting grass fires of their own and waiting for bison and other grazing animals to find the new growth.

The practice of starting fires on the tallgrass to encourage grazing, long practiced by these Flint Hills tribes, continues in the Flint Hills today, establishing prairie fire as one of the oldest human activities in the region, a vibrant and living connection to the past.

However, this and other similarities between the incoming European and American settlers and Flint Hills tribes were overshadowed by their differences, with the name of this state providing a stark illustration.

The KahnZay, Kaw, or People of the Southwind, no longer live in the state that now bears their name.

Only eleven years after Kansas became the 34th American state in 1861, the Southwind People were removed from their lands in Kansas to present-day Oklahoma, a dismaying pattern repeated with each of the Flint Hills’s 4 main Indigenous nations.

• Chapter 9: Surviving ad-versity through di-versity.

Intact unplowed grasslands are some of the most robust and varied ecosystems on Earth, leading to the potent and poignant phrase, “surviving ad-versity through di-versity.

This plant and animal variety can be compared to having a good set of tools at home, in your car, or in your head, like knowledge, experience and judgement, meaning you can improvise, you can adapt, you can overcome a great many unknown unknowns, because emergencies rarely announce themselves beforehand.

But pride and complacency in one’s accomplishments can stifle creativity, so that when a real crisis comes along, the only tool available might be a hammer, and then everything and everyone looks like a nail.

In the Flint Hills, over 70 different species of grasses & grass-like plants and over 500 species of trees, shrubs, and broad-leafed herbaceous plants called forbs or wildflowers, can be identified.

Most tallgrass prairie plant life, 80% or more, are grasses, which account for only 20% of the total plant species, highlighting the tremendous influence of grasses.

However, 80% of the total plant species are forbs, wildflowers, or other non-grass plants, while accounting for only 20% of total plant life.

Dozens of different species of reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals can be identified, such as collared lizards, gopher snakes, and bullfrogs, greater prairie-chickens, upland sandpipers, and meadowlarks, coyotes, badgers, and bison.

Dozens more fish and aquatic invertebrates, and thousands of insect species can also be identified, like bluegill, catfish, and Topeka shiner, crawfish, clams, and freshwater mussels, lubber grasshoppers, dung beetles, and monarch butterflies.

And tens of thousands of microbial species can be found in the living soil, with more individual bacteria found in a cup of tallgrass prairyerth than there are people on the planet.

It would be impossible for these various lifeforms to get along with each other if they were all attempting to gather the same resources in the same ways at the same time.

But throughout the Flint Hills, a balance has been struck among the various lifeforms, because they have each found a place, or niche, where they can take only what they need and give back only what they can, and thereby support the entire community of life, a self-sustaining and self-repairing equilibrium.

Simply put, they survive ad-versity through dye-versity by living in ways that reduce the head-to-head winner-take-all pursuit of limited resources by mixing in a dose of cooperative competition.

A good illustration of this is suggested by the often-asked question, "Where is all the tallgrass?"

The phrase, short in the spring, tall in the fall, hints at an answer.

Most of the region’s seasonal prescribed burning takes place in March and April, preparing the ground for cattle grazing, although tallgrass prairie plant life can benefit from burning throughout the year.

Although wildflowers bloom throughout the growing season, May and June are where they tend to congregate.

Most are only 12 to 20 inches tall at best and grow rather bushy and broad, meaning that they would have a much harder time growing if they had to compete for sunshine and nutrients with denser stands of taller plant species.

They would then not be able to do all the beneficial things that they do, such as nitrogen fixing, done by a special kind of plant called a legume.

These beneficial plants, such as wild alfalfa and leadplant, play host to bacteria on their roots, forming a symbiotic relationship where the two lifeforms live together for mutual benefit, the bacteria taking nitrogen from the air and fixing it into the soil as a nutrient.

The increased nitrogen and other nutrients encourage more root growth, which provides more living space for the bacteria, which encourages more nitrogen fixing, which encourages more root growth, and so on.

However, farmers often must artificially add chemical nutrients and fertilizers to the soil, unlike the natural processes at work here.

July and August are often the hottest and driest months of the year with many plants altering their growth to match the growing conditions, using their stored energy to survive until better growing conditions develop.

Some plants will take advantage of this situation, like ironweed, broomweed, and curly-cup gumweed, and are often some of the few plants seen blooming in July and August.

These quick-growing native plants can often be found in areas that have seen disturbance, use, and activity, like around ranches, roads, trails, and grazed pastures.

They are successional plants, filling in areas that have seen use and activity and acting like a bandage, healing over an area.

This activity can be temporarily protective until the disturbance passes, giving the native plant community time to rebalance and strengthen itself.

However, if the disturbance doesn’t pass or increases, the successional plants can use the opportunity to spread and as a result, become what many people call weeds, placing additional stress on an already weakened native plant community.

September and October are when the tallgrasses can finally take center stage, 48 to 72 inches high, given the right combination of growing conditions and location.

The taller wildflower species, such as blazingstar and goldenrod, can also be seen blooming at this time, adding a welcome splash of color.

The root systems of tallgrass prairie plants provide another good illustration.

Many tallgrass prairie wildflowers have deep taproots which, like leadplant for example, can be ten feet or more in length.

These act like pumps, drawing moisture and nutrients from deep in the ground for their own benefit, while bringing trace minerals closer to the surface where the tallgrasses can reach them.

Because tallgrasses don’t have a single taproot, but rather a dense network of thin root fibers close to the surface, they bind the soil together like steel in concrete, forming something like a sponge.

For example, a cubic yard of big bluestem sod can contain twenty MILES of root material, the distance between the park and Emporia Kansas, creating a spongy reservoir that stores moisture and nutrients to benefit all of the tallgrass prairie’s lifeforms.

Furthermore, the sheer number of different native plant and animal species combine their cooperative ways of living with the competition they have with one another for resources.

This helps the tallgrass community maintain equilibrium, share limited resources, resist disease, and control the growth of undesirable, invasive, and non-native species, like cheatgrass and Serecia lespedeza, that could upset this fragile ecological balance, highlighting the fact that any life form can grow to troublesome numbers, given an unopposed opportunity to do so.

• Chapter 10: Bison.

Estimates vary, but there could have been upwards of 30 to 60 million bison living in North America at the start of the 19th century.

By 1890 however, due to rapid settlement and widespread hunting, there were less than 1,000 bison remaining in existence.

But they are making a limited comeback in portions of North America on various preserves, parklands, refuges, and tribal nations.

Hundreds of thousands more bison are raised privately as livestock for human consumption. Today, around half a million bison are alive at any given time in North America, outnumbered by cattle roughly 200 to 1, with only a small fraction of the bison population, perhaps 20,000, in protected custody.

In October 2009, the National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy reintroduced bison to the park after a 140-year absence, beginning with seven male and six female bison from Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, which cares for a population of around 400 bison.

These Wind Cave bison, originating from bison transferred in 1913 from the Bronx Zoo in New York City along with several others from Yellowstone National Park in 1916, turn out to be some of the most genetically pure bison remaining in North America, having been some of the first bison to receive such protection.

Bison and cattle are distant genetic relatives, belonging to different genuses. They can however, still have offspring and transmit diseases to one another. As a result of crossbreeding experiments in the late 19th century, most bison have at least some cattle introgression into their DNA.

The Wind Cave bison herd is culled every few years and the surplus animals are transferred to suitable sites in North America, creating genetically pure satellite herds, enabling the park to participate in one of the oldest environmental conservation movements in the world.

The Windmill and West Traps pastures at the park could be home for up to 100 bison year-round, with the park sharing its population as needed with herds of similar genetics, providing much needed living space to help preserve this rare bison lineage.

Caring for these animals, however, involves more than just releasing them into the park, for while they might look like cattle, with both belonging to the family Bovidae and both possessing a four-chambered ruminant stomach, they are in fact, quite different animals.

Not being native to North America, cattle, scientific name Bos taurus, brought grazing habits from Europe and elsewhere with them and one of them is a taste for forbs, or wildflowers.

Although most of their diet is in the grasses, perhaps around 70%, the remaining 30% is in wildflowers which tend to grow in their densest concentrations in the spring, which is also when Flint Hills ranchers put out most of their cattle to graze for a three to six month grazing season.

If not watched closely, the cattle can graze too heavily in the wildflowers and consume most of the beneficial legumes, which decrease under heavy grazing.

This strains the ability of the remaining legumes to fix beneficial nitrogen into the soil.

Also lost is the trace mineral conduit for the tallgrasses, further upsetting the resilient but delicate balance in the tallgrass prairie plant community.

However, since bison are the native grazing animal, they prefer to graze among the grasses almost exclusively with around 90% of their diet in the tallgrasses, especially the dominant four species, big bluestem, little bluestem, indiangrass, and switchgrass.

This helps control their growth and encourages the growth of other beneficial plants, like the legumes, further maintaining balance in the tallgrass prairie plant community.

Another challenge to bison restoration is related to their intense instinct to create and defend space for themselves.

Although bison have keen senses of hearing and smell, their eyesight is quite poor beyond 100 yards, and as a result can be especially sensitive to sudden movement, becoming very edgy and irritated if they find themselves crowded into a small group in a small space or crowded by curious onlookers, either on foot or in vehicles, with the bison’s own behavior directly reflecting the state of their living conditions.

This sharpened awareness often drives them to act out in self-defense, with unpredictable, sometimes lethal explosiveness, for while bison can grow to 1,000 to over 2,000 pounds as adults, they are still prey animals with those powerful survival instincts very much intact.

Also, if the bison really do think the grass is greener on the other side of a fence, they might investigate for themselves, another intact and forceful survival instinct, for while bison can live on less-than-ideal forage, they are more eager to seek out better grazing.

This instinct drove bison of the past to migrate for hundreds and hundreds of miles across the Great Plains in a relentless search for food and water.

One more thing, in casual conversation the terms “bison” and “buffalo” are relatively interchangeable.

Spanish-speaking explorers, some of the earliest Europeans to explore North America and document their observations in writing, already had a word, “el bufalo,” to describe a large grazing mammal that was not a cow, or “la vaca.”

They continued this naming practice as they explored portions of North America in the mid-1500s, making the word buffalo one of the many dozens of Spanish words that have entered the English language, a subtle reminder of the continued Hispanic influence on the continent.

However, scientific studies conducted 300 years later in the mid-1800s, determined that the North American buffalo was actually closely related to the wisent, or European bison, scientific name Bison bonasus. As a result, Bison bison is now the scientific name for North America’s largest grazing animal, but the term “buffalo” remains a popular common name for the bison in North America.

• Conclusion

Imagining planet Earth as a living organism, consisting of many interconnected parts, like oceans & lakes, rivers & wetlands, deserts & forests, polar & tundra regions, & grasslands, evokes a well-known Latin phrase, E Pluribus Unum, from diversity comes unity.

And to maintain this unity they all need to operate very efficiently together, much like the many interconnected parts of your car.

For example, your car’s waterpump might be leaking, putting your car's cooling and other systems under increasing strain. You might be altering your behavior to deal with the inconvenient changes, making repairs hoping they last, or just ignoring the changes and their root causes altogether. And then the day comes when your car can no longer deal with all that has been asked of it and simply stops working, with circumstances finally making the hard choices all too clear.

A similar fate could befall our planet if one or more of its many interconnected parts don’t function well with one another.

And grasses are spectacular in their shared capabilities, for they are indeed the meek who have inherited the earth.

Perhaps 30% of the planet’s land surface can support grasses in some fashion, making grasses the dominant plant life form on Earth, 10,000 species strong on over 11 billion acres worldwide, or a combined area nearly 5 times the size of the United States.

These areas are known worldwide as the African Savanna, the European and Asian Steppe, the Australian Outback, the South American Pampas, and the North American Prairie, providing ample space for grasses to rapidly grow, capture, and quickly recycle tens of thousands of megatons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere if not overwhelmed by agricultural needs.

This emphasizes the tremendous importance of protecting grasslands where they still exist as well as the fate that could befall our planet if its grasslands are lost.

For our planet’s survival and our combined futures could very well hinge on the survival of its grasslands.

For grasslands have nursed and nurtured humanity for perhaps as long as there has ever been a humanity on Earth.

They now look to us, their children, for help.

So thank you for your help today, because life for "We The People," is what we choose it to be.

And with your visit today you have done exactly that; choosing to come together as a tallgrass community, bravely and boldly demonstrating what E Pluribus Unum could still be in America and around the world, because ultimately, Mother Nature always bats last and she never, EVER, strikes out.

So with apologies to dead poets, past, present, and future, please accept this short verse as a farewell and as one final challenge:

Gather ye rosebuds, enjoy their perfume, But pay heed to this omen-tide. Tomorrow lives not for us to bloom. But our fruit's florescence, shall abide.

In other words, "Carpe Diem Cordia Sapienta." or Seize the Day with a Wise Heart.

So on behalf of The Nature Conservancy and the National Park Service, thank you very much to you all. Thank you.

]]> Tallgrass Prairie NPres Orientation Film Audio ]]> Thu, 30 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/EF7B190B-9646-F579-B58C9C079BD5AF21.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-EF877DE7-0B20-49C5-8DA94331CAF6FD19 Tallgrass Prairie NPres Orientation Film Audio Audio from Tallgrass Prairie NPres orientation film 541 no full

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Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve VISITOR CENTER VIDEO This film has been made possible by a gift from the Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation.

“Whenever you stop on the prairie to lunch or camp, and gaze around, there is a picture such as poet and painter never succeeded in transferring to book or canvas. [We] ought to have saved a Park in Kansas, ten thousand acres broad-the prairie as it came from the hand of God, not a foot or an inch desecrated by “improvements” and “cultivation.” It is only a memory now.” -- D.W. Wilder, editor of the Hiawatha World, Kansas, 1884

Welcome to one of the most magical places on earth, America's Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, established November 12, 1996. This magnificent "sea of grass" once covered almost one third of North America. This landscape of subtle beauty was named “prairie” - the French word for “meadow.” At this moment, you sit in the heart of one of the most remarkable stretches - a unique place that is being preserved by those who have banded together in their love of the prairie, setting aside a place for all to enjoy, a jewel in our National Park system.

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve: Once an Inland Sea Over 250 million years ago this area was covered by a vast inland sea that left behind sediment and sea creatures to form layers of limestone, shale, and flint. The Flint Hills are the result of differential erosion. This process eroded away the softer shales and limestones, leaving behind the hardened flint and eroded shelves. These layers of flint and limestone enabled natural springs to form, which provide entire aquatic habitats, home to crayfish, turtles, frogs, and fish. Three types of grasslands occur in North America, ''tallgrass, mixed grass, and short grass prairie", each dependent on a specific amount of rainfall; the four main grass species - big and little bluestem, switchgrass, and Indian grass, provide a nurturing habitat for hundreds of prairie animals. There are magnificent stands of wildflowers - with different ones brightening the prairie every few weeks throughout the growing season. In the rich bottomland the grasses grow taller, where the deposited soils are deeper and more fertile and hold more rain runoff. What has made the tallgrass prairie truly thrive for thousands of years are two surprising factors: Fire ... and grazing. Nature allows tall grasses to grow to several feet high. Fire reduces shrub and tree encroachment, inhibits exotic plant species, and removes dead plant growth. This "thatch" blocks sunlight from reaching the soil - choking off new plants. Nature's solution for this dilemma is fire. Throughout the tallgrass prairie's history, lightning would strike the dead undergrowth and start a fire. These fires would race unchecked across the prairie for hundreds of miles, until they came to a river wide enough to stop them. What was left behind looked likethe surface of the moon with the limestone against the blackened prairie.

Plains Indians and the Prairie Long before the settlers came to the prairie, it was home and hunting grounds for numerous Plains Indians -Wichita, Osage, Pawnee, and the Kansa. The word "Kansa" has been translated to mean "people of the southwind". The value of bison to the Plains Indians is well documented. This magnificent animal provided food, shelter, weapons, tools, medicine, and figured prominently in ceremonial life. American Indians knew the potential of these grasslands and were “managing” the grasslands using fire, or "red buffalo" to attract bison. They watched as the bison herds sought out the fresh new shoots in the recently burned areas. Fire also improves plant palatability to grazers. Large grazers of the past included bison, elk, and pronghorn.

A Young America Moves West In 1806 Zebulon Pike and his party camped on the east bank of the Cottonwood River, below Florence, Kansas close to the preserve. He unknowingly named this area through a journal entry: "Commenced our march at seven o'clock. Passed very ruff flint hills. My feet blistered and very sore. I stood on a hill, and in one view below me saw buffalo, elk, deer, and panthers." Once considered the "Great American Desert" early explorers and traders rushed through the prairie's vast reaches for the rich soils of Oregon or even richer gold fields of California. Eventually however, this prairie land was found to be rich with nutrients and suitable for farming. Sodbuster plows tilled the North American tallgrass prairie and within a generation these vast grasslands began to disappear. Today, less than 4 % remains - mostly here in the Flint Hills of Kansas. As the westward settlers expanded into Kansas, peace officers and plowshares began to tame the "wild" west. With the vanishing bison, also came the end of nomadic tribes as they were removed to reservations and the land was settled, primarily by Euro-Americans. Not long after settlement people realized the grazing potential of the Flint Hills. The land was quickly purchased and fenced, thus ending the open range.

Spring Hill Farm and Stock Ranch One of the most significant ranches in this area was the Spring Hill Farm and Stock Ranch, where you are today. Beginning with 160 acres in 1878, Stephen and Louisa Jones grew their holdings to 7,000 acres as they developed a self-sufficient farm and stock operation. The house was completed in 1881 for the sum of $25,000. The outbuildings, including the three-story barn were completed in 1882 for $15,000. These buildings were built using local Flint Hills limestone. In addition to the stone buildings, Mr. Jones donated land for the construction of the Lower Fox Creek School in 1882. To enclose his land and divide into pastures, 30 miles of stone fence were built. Jones raised Durham, Galloway, Hereford, and Polled Angus cattle. A variety of other livestock was also raised. Large gardens, orchards, and vineyards occupied the bottomland across from the house.

A Preserve for All Today at nearly 11,000 acres the preserve is a partnership between the National Park Service, ·The Nature Conservancy, and the Kansas Park Trust. Together they are working to preserve and enhance a nationally significant remnant of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem, along with the cultural resources of the preserve and the heritage associated with former ranch property. The ranch headquarters area, comprised of the limestone buildings, is open to visitors year-around, including special events that highlight the natural and cultural heritage of the Flint Hills. By making such a magnificent piece of our natural and cultural heritage a reality, it is now available to be experienced and enjoyed by all. So, go .... experience the trails, breathe in the air at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve; you are in the heart of America's tallgrass prairie ...

D.W. Wilder's vision is more than a "memory now". The Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is waiting for you to discover its beauty, vastness, and significance to our nation's history. The prairie is beckoning ....

]]> Spring Hill Ranch House Tour Stop 1: Introduction ]]> Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/EDA9C4BC-947E-671F-94896346BB49C47B.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-EDC05C98-B9F6-D97B-F6717325E8A35097 Spring Hill Ranch House Tour Stop 1: Introduction Introduction to the Spring Hill Ranch House 37 no full

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Welcome to the Spring Hill Ranch House at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. The grand 4-level ranch house forms the centerpiece of the Spring Hill Farm and Stock Ranch. Completed in 1881, it stands as a beautiful example of French Second Empire Architecture, a style popular in the late 19th century. This large, stately home is also an example of great change in the American West, the transition from small ranches on the vast open range to large, enclosed ranching businesses, laying the foundations for the present-day American cattle industry.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch House Tour Stop 2: Beginnings ]]> Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/EDCA5EDB-0EAC-8259-4AAA641AD17B7D49.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-EDD9BE2B-FAD2-22D0-E488C65EB0A15B93 Spring Hill Ranch House Tour Stop 2: Beginnings Origins of the Spring Hill Ranch House at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 108 no full

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Historic Spring Hill Ranch House Beginnings

Born in Tennessee on November 6, 1826, Stephen F. Jones, his wife Louisa, born in Georgia on January 6, 1833, and daughter Loutie, born in 1871 as the youngest of five children, all came to Kansas in August of 1878 to start a cattle ranch in the Flint Hills, building on success found in the cattle business while living in Texas and Colorado from the 1850s through the 1870s.

The ranch house, built with native limestone, faces east, making a dramatic first impression. The French Second Empire style of architecture was very popular in the 1870s and 1880s, with many public buildings, like the Chase County Courthouse and other large homes, sharing the style. This architectural style is notable for the mansard roof enclosing the upper story, with dormers and projecting gables, as well as stone cornices, brackets, and quoins adding to the elegance of the style.

Constructing the four-level, eleven room ranch house cost $25,000 and, according to local records, took 20 men working night and day to complete the home. In fact, so much activity occurred during construction, that travelers often thought they had reached Strong City, Kansas, two miles to the south, and would try to find a room for the night.

Jones came to Kansas with $100,000 to use in building the Spring Hill Farm and Stock Ranch, named for the many springs he found on the property. He eventually acquired 7,000 acres of land and built 30 miles of limestone fences to enclose the ranch.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch House Tour Stop 3: Formal Entry, Parlors, and Interiors ]]> Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/EDE77448-ED2E-473C-378DE841F6DF7DE1.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-EDFE39B1-B897-E491-A3722CE9D98DD6BE Spring Hill Ranch House Tour Stop 3: Formal Entry, Parlors, and Interiors History and description of the formal entry, parlors, and interiors of the Spring Hill Ranch House at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 82 no full

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Historic Spring Hill Ranch House Formal Entry, Parlors, and Interiors

The formal entry and two parlor rooms were the most elegantly decorated areas in the entire ranch house. The large formal entry doors, ornate walnut staircase, custom built for the house, and tall foyer, add to the grand feel of the space.

The parlor furnishings were donated to the preserve in 1995. None of the original furnishings survive to the present. However, the mantelpieces in both parlors, as well as the basebords, the woodwork with faux walnut paint finish, the doors and windows and associated hardware like handles and doorknobs, and most of the plaster crown molding still survive and can be found throughout much of the house.

The parlors were used for both formal and more casual gatherings. A newspaper reporter visiting the ranch in 1882 described the house as "one of the most elegantly furnished in eastern Kansas," adding that the house is "richly furnished throughout. The floors are all laid with velvet and Brussels carpets, while large and costly mirrors and an ample supply of appropriate furniture for the various rooms convinced the visitor that rare good taste was employed in the selection."

]]> Spring Hill Ranch House Tour Stop 4: Staircase and Original Wood Floor ]]> Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/EE147B78-BC21-2C74-96A0270942857769.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-EE1AAFF7-C9BD-0D49-BC79694BB49F371C Spring Hill Ranch House Tour Stop 4: Staircase and Original Wood Floor History and description of the walnut staircase and original wood floor at the Spring Hill Ranch House at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 54 no full

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Historic Spring Hill Ranch House Staircase and Original Wood Floor

With only minor modifications, the elegant walnut staircase remains as it was when installed in the 1880s. It was custom built for this house off-site, then assembled when the house was under construction from 1880 to 1881. Each of its 98 balusters was hand carved individually. The banister consisting of seventeen separate, hand-carved pieces of walnut, was assembled with the aid of Roman numerals on the underside of each piece.

Also, please note the original pine floorboards on the staircase landing. Most of the original pine flooring was replaced in the 20th century and is now covered in oak flooring.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch House Tour Stop 5: Former Kitchen Areas ]]> Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/EE2FEAED-A118-C9FB-3356E5C293CE3986.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-EE3A2C9D-FC3B-7559-9B74C71D658908B5 Spring Hill Ranch House Tour Stop 5: Former Kitchen Areas History and description of the former kitchen areas of the Spring Hill Ranch House at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 122 no full

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Historic Spring Hill Ranch House Former Kitchen Areas

The former kitchen areas of the ranch house, separated from the parlors by a short set of stairs and doorway, illustrate the changes that have taken place inside the ranch house more than any other space. Later residents would transform the space by dividing it and creating the present-day utility room and bathroom

The Joneses prepared their food downstairs in the kitchen and then carried it up a short staircase and by dumbwaiter to a butler's pantry, where the food was put onto plates and served in the dining room. Later residents would modify the butler's pantry into a modern kitchen and remove the dumbwaiter.

The root cellar stored preserved fruit, vegetables and homemade foodstuffs for the Joneses in a cool, dry environment and doubled as a storm shelter. Stephen's wife, Louisa, insisted on a storm shelter she could get to quickly since she had a great fear of tornadoes and the damage they could cause.

Down the tunnel is the spring room, where the Jonses stored perishable food. Cool spring water was piped into the house from the cistern atop the hill west of the ranch house, where it was used in the kitchen, as well as diverted into this room, continually filling a shallow trough. Glass and ceramic containers of milk, cheese, and other perishable foods were immersed in this cold, spring water, helping to preserve them for longer periods. Cool air trapped in the spring room help keep foods from spoiling.

The water followed a channel around to the other side of the spring room and was piped into yet another cistern, located underground east of the spring room. From there the water was used to power a small fountain in front of the house and to irrigate gardens, an orchard, and a vineyard in the bottomland east of the ranch house.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch House Tour Stop 6: Office/Bedroom and Back Porch ]]> Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/EE873046-B67D-2015-78C83C168B5A5FE6.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-EE883943-D6F5-06EB-5A5EA7C96D36F865 Spring Hill Ranch House Tour Stop 6: Office/Bedroom and Back Porch History and description of the office/bedroom and back porch in the Spring Hill Ranch House at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 35 no full

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Historic Spring Hill Ranch House Office/Bedroom and Back Porch

The first use of this room was as the Spring Hill Ranch Office, complete with telephone service. People conducting ranch business would enter the office directly from the outside through the side door to the west. The back porch enclosure was added in the 1920.

Later ranch house residents would make good use of this back porch access to turn this room into a bedroom, with the quick access to the outside useful in case of any overnight emergencies on the ranch.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch House Tour Stop 7: Dining Room and Sitting Room ]]> Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/EE9313B0-B90C-F5F6-E4D9D8A004813F49.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-EEA4A672-B64F-673B-47420B17E498A7A1 Spring Hill Ranch House Tour Stop 7: Dining Room and Sitting Room History and description of the dining room and sitting room of the Spring Hill Ranch House at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 62 no full

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Historic Spring Hill Ranch House Dining Room and Sitting Room

The two rooms north of the back porch were the ranch house's original dining room and sitting room. A doorway to the north provided entry into the dining room from the outside. The sitting room located east of the dining room were where most evenings were spent when the parlors were not being used.

This room may have also become the primary household living room in the 20th century when the parlors downstairs were turned into storage rooms. The butler's pantry and the top of the staircase from the former downstairs kitchen are along the north wall. In the 1920s and 30s, the ranch house's kitchen was moved from downstairs into the butler's pantry. To make this possible, the butler's pantry was widened to accommodate a stove, refrigerator, and other modern appliances. A doorway was also added connecting the dining room to the sitting room/living room space.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch House Tour Stop 8: Upper Floor Rooms ]]> Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/EEAE25D9-AFEB-D0CB-85A4F29056DCB614.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-EEB83BD9-9BC7-586C-DCA762CB6AD5C489 Spring Hill Ranch House Tour Stop 8: Upper Floor Rooms History and description of the upper floor rooms of the Spring Hill Ranch House at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 21 no full

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Historic Spring Hill Ranch House Upper Floor Rooms

Three rooms on the upper floor were used as bedrooms and guest rooms. Although the Jones family still had to use an outhouse, the upper floor of the ranch house also featured a bathing room, complete with a copper bathtub and water holding tank.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch House Tour Stop 9: Front Porch ]]> Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/EED47BE9-C369-6A56-D3A2EB422A4BC72D.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-EED4C10E-E036-F0BC-229CF1575805AFD9 Spring Hill Ranch House Tour Stop 9: Front Porch History and description of the front porch of the Spring Hill Ranch House at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 43 no full

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Historic Spring Hill Ranch House Front Porch

Explore the front porch and view the impressive eastern face of the house and the lovely terraces and landscaping Mr. Jones constructed to enhance the look of his ranch. Along Fox Creek, marked by a line of trees east of the ranch house, Jones began building the Spring Hill Farm and Stock Ranch. In August 1878, he purchased 160 acres of rich Fox Creek bottomland for $2,000. He eventually purchased around 7,000 acres from local landowners and railroads and built.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch House Tour Stop 10: Jones Family History After Leaving the Spring Hill Ranch House ]]> Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/EEDBA6AC-09CB-D70E-590E2D7CE0E1AEB0.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-EEED31EB-9C7D-C738-4BFCB77B3E43710D Spring Hill Ranch House Tour Stop 10: Jones Family History After Leaving the Spring Hill Ranch House History and description of the Jones family's life after leaving the Spring Hill Ranch House 120 no full

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Historic Spring Hill Ranch House Jones Family History After Leaving the Spring Hill Ranch House

The Jones family lived on the Spring Hill Ranch for only eight years, from 1878 until 1886, living in the ranch house for only five of those years, from 1881 until 1886. In 1886, they moved to Kansas City, Missouri so their daughter and two of her nieces could attend high school. However, within a year, Loutie married E. Percy Hickman and Stephen and Louisa returned to the Flint Hills, taking up residence in Strong City.

In 1888, they sold the Spring Hill Ranch to their southern neighbor, Barney Lantry, a limestone supplier. Stephen would then go on to be successful in banking, real estate, and several other businesses throughout the remainder of the 19th century.

In 1891, Stephen and Louisa celebrated the birth of their granddaughter, Mildred Hickman, but three years later mourned the passing of their youngest daughter and Mildred's mother, Loutie Jones Hickman at the age of 23. Mildred would be then raised for a short time by her grandparents, until she went to go live with an aunt in 1905. Then in 1908, Louisa passed away, leaving Stephen to live his final days in Wichita with his daughter, Christiana and her husband, Calvin "Wit" Adair.

Finally, in April 1914, Stephen passed away at the age of 87. He was laid to rest in Prairie Grove Cemetery in Cottonwood Falls, Kansas, five miles to the south of the Spring Hill Ranch, along with his wife Louisa, daughter Loutie, and his wife's mother, Adeline Barber.

The experiences of the Jones family on the Spring Hill Ranch helped to set in place the foundations of the beloved way of life in the Flint Hills, a way of life that continues today.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch Barn Tour Stop 1: Introduction ]]> Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/F150EC4E-9359-CB92-54ABE1D9C09C70EE.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-F15F040E-EDC5-24B3-85A34329FB036DC5 Spring Hill Ranch Barn Tour Stop 1: Introduction Spring Hill Ranch Barn Introduction 30 no full

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Historic Spring Hill Ranch Barn Introduction

The massive Spring Hill Ranch Farm and Stock Ranch Barn stands as an impressive example of form following function. Completed in early 1882, the three-floor barn's multiple functions of animal keeping and hay, grain, and equipment storage, have given it a beautiful working form that has stood up quite well to many decades of use and varied activity.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch Barn Tour Stop 2: Beginnings ]]> Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/F1847C1E-CF5E-CE4E-431202BAA2984BDB.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-F17D68C6-D1ED-FB76-2564857AD45DA387 Spring Hill Ranch Barn Tour Stop 2: Beginnings Beginnings of the Spring Hill Ranch Barn at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 78 no full

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Historic Spring Hill Ranch Barn Beginnings

Finished in early 1882 and costing around $15,000 to build, the barn is the working center of the ranch. It remains one of the largest historic limestone barns in Kansas, standing three stories tall and measuring 60 feet wide by 110 feet long. The lower floor was set up as stables for cattle and horses. The main floor stored wagons, hay, an other equipment. The upper floor was used for more hay storage, as well as for grain storage, and was large enough to accommodate entire teams of horses and wagons. These wagons entered the upper floor by driving up one ramp and exited by driving out the other ramp. A large, two-headed, 30 feet in diameter windmill was at one time attached to the barn and could generate 12 horsepower to grind grain and drive other equipment. However, it was dismantled in 1884 when high Kansas winds threatened to destroy it. An 1887 lithograph, however, draws the windmill back into its original place, between the two upper-level ramps.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch Barn Tour Stop 3: Main Floor ]]> Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/F19ED4C5-E88F-05D0-FDFBB5FFDE0445CB.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-F1AE7E06-E679-884C-D809D964F5BE3737 Spring Hill Ranch Barn Tour Stop 3: Main Floor History and description of Main Floor inside the Spring Hill Ranch Barn at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 59 no full

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Historic Spring Hill Ranch Barn Main Floor

The main floor of the barn, which used to store wagons, plows, harnesses, and other equipment and vehicles useful on the Spring Hill Ranch. In the 1940s the barn was modified to accommodate modern uses. On the barn's western side, a grain dump and auger were installed to move grain and feed, dumped by trucks entering the barn's west side, into four, 1,000 bushel storage bins on the upper floor. On the barn's eastern side, steel I-beams were installed to support the new storage bins. Small augers were installed to move the grain and feed into trucks entering the barn's east side. Finally, the floors on both sides of the barn were strengthened to carry the extra weight of the incoming feed trucks.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch Barn Tour Stop 4: Lower Floor ]]> Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/F1BDEEE9-C730-E346-2022834EEAB72938.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-F3576CBE-B8C0-3E91-E6CD8E0B9E363D43 Spring Hill Ranch Barn Tour Stop 4: Lower Floor History and description of the lower floor inside the Spring Hill Ranch Barn at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve 20 no full

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304: Historic Spring Hill Ranch Barn Lower Floor

The lower floor of the Spring Hill Ranch Barn was used as a stable area and could accommodate cattle, horses, and other livestock. A hopper for the large, modern grain auger is also visible on the lower floor.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch Barn Tour Stop 5: Upper Floor ]]> Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/F3654811-0822-308C-67009792AAC5C49A.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-F3706423-ABC2-F605-7E8A1A7529DDF8C4 Spring Hill Ranch Barn Tour Stop 5: Upper Floor History and description of upper floor inside the Spring Hill Ranch Barn at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve 28 no full

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Historic Spring Hill Ranch Barn Upper Floor

Originally, the upper floor of the barn was used to store hay and grain. Later ranch owners would also use the upper floor for storage. In the 1940s, four 1,000 bushel grain and feed bins were installed on the upper floor. Remnants of the former windmill can be seen in the rafters of the barn's roof.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch Barn Tour Stop 6: Stone Corrals ]]> Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/F376D89E-A6B7-675C-D917D1FAF9B048CE.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-F383915F-E604-508B-C0DCFFBF52ECAA4F Spring Hill Ranch Barn Tour Stop 6: Stone Corrals History and description of stone corrals of the Ranch Barn at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 37 no full

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Historic Spring Hill Ranch Barn Corrals

Stone corral walls enclosed space to the south and west of the barn to contain cattle during roundups. These walls had been reconstructed by stonemasons from Lexington, Kentucky using traditional dry stone building methods and techniques. No mortar is used to hold the stones together. Only the sheer weight of the stones themselves, the friction between them, and the precise shaping and fitting of the stones, hold the walls together.

]]> Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse Tour Stop 1: Introduction ]]> Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/F768B9A1-B034-CEF7-621CD69399E44BE2.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-F7772AAC-9202-1803-AA6ADB07D1CC0C6F Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse Tour Stop 1: Introduction Introduction to the Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 31 no full

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Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse Introduction

The Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse, completed in 1882, was just one of many signs that a more settled, stable, and established existence was taking shape in the American West. One room schoolhouses would soon spread across the West, as settlers established themselves, believing that only through education and knowledge could a child one day fully participate in American society.

]]> Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse Tour Stop 2: Beginnings ]]> Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/F77D0894-BB47-C500-675576C7CCB5052B.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-F788E89E-D819-601A-37406B74611F13AB Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse Tour Stop 2: Beginnings Beginnings of the Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 94 no full

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Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse Beginnings

Residents of the Fox Creek area decided in 1897-79 that a school district should be formed for the education of their children. Being one of the earlier districts formed, it was given the number 14, though it was commonly called the Lower Fox Creek School.

The site for the schoolhouse was donated by Stephen F. Jones, located approximately 1/2 mile north of his Spring Hill Farm and Stock Ranch. He stipulated in his donation of the land, that if the school were to ever close, the land would revert back to the ranch owner.

The limestone for the schoolhouse came from the quarry of David Reddiger. David Reddiger, the same architect who built the Chase County Courthouse and the Spring Hill Ranch House, built the schoolhouse for $1,000, completing the work in 1882

The Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse did not hold its first class, however, until September 1, 1884, when the first school teacher was finally hired. The average enrollment at the L1ower Fox Creek Schoolhouse ranged from one to nineteen students in grades 1 through 8. Classes continued to be held in the Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse until 1930, when the school was closed.

The school district disbanded in 1946-47 and the schoolhouse property reverted back to the ranch owner at that time, George Davis.

]]> Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse Tour Stop 3: Restoration ]]> Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/F78EAD84-CA11-B429-3CBB31B2AAEDD0DC.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-F79BDBE3-90C3-4EE6-3FAF555C13B98B55 Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse Tour Stop 3: Restoration Restoration of the Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 69 no full

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Restoring the Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse

After the Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse reverted back to the Davis Ranch in 1946, it was used for a time as a residence by some of the ranch's employees. in 1950 a tornado or windstorm collapsed the original roof and roofline. The roofline was repaired when the ranch was owned by the Davis, Nolan, Merrill Grain Company and a tin roof applied. The schoolhouse was then used to store hay.

In 1968, the fourteen garden clubs in the Mideast District of the Garden Clubs of America, selected the restoration of the Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse as their special project. After the approval of the ranch owner at that time, the Davis, Nolan, Merrill Grain Company, the clubs raised the funds and restored the building to as close to its original 1882 configuration as possible.

The Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 6, 1974.

]]> Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse Tour Stop 4: Interior ]]> Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/F7B0832C-005C-677E-54039F87A611CC48.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-F7B1000F-9B12-A532-EA6745CE1DC27A3A Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse Tour Stop 4: Interior History and description of the interior of the Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 39 no full

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Interior of the Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse

The interior of the Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse has been restored as much as possible back to its original 1882 appearance. Although no original furnishings survive to the present, period furnishings from other one room schoolhouses in the area were acquired by the fourteen garden clubs in the Mideast District of the Garden Clubs of America, to complete the interior restoration. The preserve conducts programs for school groups recreating the experience of attending classes in a one-room prairie schoolhouse.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 1: The Barn ]]> Fri, 17 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/D2C30F98-0D18-1097-32F3AAF6BA42FF3D.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-62CCFA00-CEF8-783B-A7A74E62FAAC0A82 Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 1: The Barn History and description of the Spring Hill Ranch barn at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 131 no full

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Tour Stop 1: The Barn

The ranch where you are standing today represents a continuous ranching legacy from the 1878 Spring Hill Farm and Stock Ranch to the Z Bar Ranch that sold in 1986. Over the years the ranch has undergone many transformations. The buildings show remnants from its earliest beginnings as well as changes made by the ranch's many owners.

The original owners, Stephen and Louisa Jones, came to Chase County, Kansas in 1878 at the end of the Open Range Era to create a cattle feeding station for the Jones brother's Colorado cattle company. Stephen began buying land from individuals and the railroad, amassing 7,000 acres.

Both a man of opportunity and ingenuity, he built this ranch 2 miles north of the railhead at Strong City, Kansas for the shipping of his Durham, Galloway, and Hereford, and Polled Angus cattle to the Kansas City market. After the Colorado ranch sold, Jones focused on raising purebred stock and Hambeltonian race horses. Surprisingly, Jones owned the ranchland only ten years, from 1878 to 1888.

The massive 3-level limestone barn in front of you measures 110 feet by 60 feet, with ground access to each level. It housed livestock and equipment and also stored the hay and grain necessary to feed the animals throughout the winter months.

In 1882, 5,000 lbs of tin covered the roof. According to local newspapers of the time, Mr. Jones also gave the tin roof a coating of paint, although it did not describe its color. It also supports a double-headed windmill that was used to grind grain.

In the mid-1940s, four large grain bins and two cupolas were added, along with iron support beams in the barn's interior. The iron I-beams support the weight of the grain and the cupolas allowed the grain dust to escape, thereby preventing grain dust explosions.

The barn has undergone changes throughout its history, but largely remains the same.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 2: Corrals and Fences ]]> Fri, 17 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/66167479-D9CE-D4D8-53754BFE3811F6C6.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-62EDCE12-E067-15B7-77DEBF59ED595FC2 Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 2: Corrals and Fences History and description of stone corrals and fences at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 89 no full

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Tour Stop 2: Corrals and Fences

For a better view, travel a short distance to the west to look out over the stone fences and wooden corrals. These played a pivotal role in controlling animal flow and grazing patterns.

Stephen Jones came to Chase county at the end of the open range. The law thus stated that a person's land must be fenced. Mr. Jones fully enclosed his 7,000 acres using a readily available resource, limestone. He also built inter-pasture fences for selective breeding and grazing distribution to prevent overgrazing any one particular area.

Over the years the corrals have been updated using metal pipe. What you are seeing is a continuation of time periods and how the ranch was changed to fit the needs of its time.

The little tin roof overhang structure in the northwest corner of the corral is called a horse loafing shed, where horses may go to protect themselves from the harsh winter weather.

Try to imagine cowboys gathering cattle for shipment to market, while listening to their cattle calls and the response of the cattle and their gentle bawling sound.

For your safety and to help preserve the rock walls and buildings, please refrain from climbing on or disturbing the rock fences, buildings, or entering the corrals. Animals are unpredictable and even the most well trained animal will respond to a threat. Please do not feed, pet, or throw objects at the animals.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 3: The Outbuildings ]]> Fri, 17 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/631CDA73-A495-EB12-AE754B632AF8E929.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-632C8672-C8E9-54F6-E85BB5AE6B2FBC3B Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 3: The Outbuildings History and description of the outbuildings at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 29 no full

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Tour Stop 3: The Outbuildings

The tin roofed buildings were built after 1900. These were used as workshops and to store vehicles and equipment based on the needs of the ranch.

The building with the white front and double doors has been converted for modern usage while still retaining some of its original exterior features. According to local historic newspapers, a blacksmith shop and a carpentry shop were utilized by Mr. Jones somewhere at the ranch site.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 4: The Scratch Shed ]]> Fri, 17 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/63383075-A2CF-CA2F-53B869D35170A833.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-6345848A-E402-8506-AA371EFEFC48F215 Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 4: The Scratch Shed History and description of chicken scratching shed at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 83 no full

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Tour Stop 4: The Scratch Shed

According to the 1881 book, Barn Plans and Outbuildings, "the latest idea in poultry houses is to provide an open shed attached to the roosting room, in order that the fowl may have a place to exercise in the open air during the winter months. If the floor is kept covered with several inches of straw, chaff, leaves or other dry, light material, the whole grain is scattered in this. The fowl will get abundant exercise in scratching for their feed. This keeps them warm as well as busy and they are healthy for it, lay more eggs, and are more fertile."

The Scratch Shed was, in essence, the chicken gymnasium, devoid of treadmills, cycles, and barbells. The front of the shed was closed off in severe weather. The scratch shed has been converted to a vehicle storage shed over the years. The original structure has a series of windows on the front side. The chickens would roost in the sod-covered house by night and then visit the building to the west to feed during the day. This lavish poultry complex provided the essential requirements to keep hens healthy for maximum egg production and safe from owls, hawks, skunks, and cats. A coop of this size could easily accommodate 20 to 35 chickens. The scratch shed has been converted over the years to accommodate vehicle storage needs for the ranch.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 5: The Chicken House ]]> Fri, 17 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/65235A8B-F10D-20F1-A233871DFA62ADDB.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-6532F205-DAB9-82D0-006E16411F63E0F9 Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 5: The Chicken House History and description of the chicken house at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 74 no full

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Tour Stop 5: The Chicken House

This limestone structure was built into the hillside and topped with an arched stone roof covered by sod, both acting as insulation for Mr. Jones' chickens. Even in the heaviest rain, the Chicken House remained dry and the chickens kept warm.

Ventilation is very important for egg production, so Mr. Jones provided the chickens with two skylights through the sod. Today, they are covered over for safety, but originally the skylights could be opened for ventilation.

The south-facing windows are large enough to admit the sun freely and are positioned to give the most sunlight on the floor during the cold winter months. The twenty-five inch thick walls keep the coop free from dampness in the rainy season, warm in the winter, and cool in the summer. The most important requirement in raising poultry is pure air and good ventilation. The south windows can be slid opened to work in conjunction with the ceiling vents, allowing air to flow freely throughout the house. The two openings in the ceiling can be adjusted depending on the weather conditions, temperature, and seasons. This was truly the Cadillac of chicken houses. The house was also used as a cowboy bedroom later in the ranch's history.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 6: The Carriage House ]]> Fri, 17 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/654F3E0D-D77E-BC53-682DAC3DA67660FB.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-655FE40E-F89F-D51D-1017FE67A68F27D9 Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 6: The Carriage House History and description of the carriage house at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve 43 no full

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Tour Stop 6: The Carriage House

Like a modern garage, this building was made to house a carriage or buggy. However, this carriage house was constructed after the Jones' occupancy during the 1920s, during the Benninghoven ownership. It is known that Court Benninghoven used this building to store his Farmall tractor. Today, it is used for storage.

In 1994 when the National Park Trust purchased the property, a buggy was found in the barn. Oral histories state that this buggy was intentionally dismantled by the ranchhands before the Z Bar ranch auction in February 1986. After the sale, it was reassembled and is now on display in the Ranch Barn.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 7: The Ranch House ]]> Fri, 17 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/656703DA-B721-5C73-A7573D19B6C2E9F9.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-657B778E-F087-C7D4-26B2252B86B35892 Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 7: The Ranch House History and description of the ranch house at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 184 no full

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Tour Stop 7: The Ranch House

When Stephen and Louisa Jones first moved to Chase county, Kansas, they bought 160 acres to the east of where you are standing now. On that land in the bottomland, Mr. Jones had a small A-frame house built for his family to live in.

Soon after that he began purchasing land and in 1880 he started construction of the large limestone ranch house before you. By late 1881, it was complete. Mr. Jones named his ranch the Spring Hill Farm and Stock Ranch, for the natural springs found on the hill west of the house. This house was built on a hillside with a 2 1/2 story exposure on the upper level and 3 stories on the lower level.

The architecture represents a blending of Renaissance influence and Plains Vernacular. It is in the Second Empire style of 19th century architecture with a mansard roof enclosing the upper story with dormers and projecting mansard gables, cornices, brackets, and stone quoins at the corners of the house.

The builder was contractor David Reddiger of Strong City, who also worked on the Chase County Courthouse. The two buildings bear a striking resemblance. On a clear day, the ranch can be seen from the oval window in the very top of the courthouse.

The cost of the Spring Hill Farm and Stock Ranch was $40,000, $25,000 for the house and $15,000 for the barn and outbuildings. According to local newspapers, it took "twenty men working around the clock to complete the home. There was so much activity during the construction, that travelers often thought they had reached Strong City and tried to put up for the night."

The 1883 Kansas Picture Book describes the interior of the home as "all the principle apartments are supplied with soft and spring water, floors are laid with Brussels and velvet carpets, while large and costly and mirrors and the selection of appropriate furniture for the various rooms, witness the good taste, no less than the wealth, of the proprietor."

The front yard was terraced and a fountain was supplied with water piped down the hill and through the home from the springs located on the hill behind the Icehouse. Their youngest daughter, Loutie Jones, used the fountain as a "resort for goldfish" when she lived in the home. Today, the spring that supplied the home is no longer running and its once-full capacity has since been capped.

The Spring Hill Ranch House was obviously a grand showpiece for the Jones family. But circumstances would lead them to sell the ranch after only living in this magnificent house for 5 1/2 years. In 1886, they moved to Kansas City so that Loutie could further her education. At this time, Chase county had only grades 1 through 8, which was very common for the time period. In 1888, Stephen sold the ranch to friend and business associate and also neighbor, Barney Lantry, for $95,000. The home remains today a testament to hard work and ingenuity.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 8: The Curing House ]]> Fri, 17 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/660B5400-A3A3-A9C2-7465A18BF0148460.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-65999F46-9F2C-BDE7-47EAF865021335B1 Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 8: The Curing House History and description of the curing house at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 68 no full

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Tour Stop 8: The Curing House

Mr. Jones built this structure in 1881 to cure hams and other meats which were hung from hooks in the rafters. Portholes and cupola vents allowed for air circulation, which is a requirement for proper curing. The air flow allows the salted hams to become infused with salt which has been rubbed from the outside, therefore allowing proper curing to take place.

The March 5, 1885 Chase County Leader newspaper stated that " S. F. Jones last week butchered 20 large, fat hogs for his own use. Mr. J believes keeping his family and hired help well fed, whether he lays up a cent or not." The newspaper article goes on to say that "we regret to learn that Mr. J is getting so extravagant in his old age. Him not being able to lay up a cent is a result horrifying to contemplate."

Whether or not he was able to lay up a cent is irrelevant to the fact that this large curing house could easily support the curing of 20 hams.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 9: The Outhouse ]]> Fri, 17 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/65A6BAB9-03E3-DC89-A4C9C3F42AF20510.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-65B45D29-EBA8-4FB1-392D803175C56C9C Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 9: The Outhouse History and description of the Outhouse at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 97 no full

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Tour Stop 9: The Outhouse

Lovingly called "The Little Privy on the Prairie" how fitting this little outhouse is to the Spring Hill Farm and Stock Ranch complex. Stephen Jones did not cut corners on this building. The exterior walls are built with block limestone and the keystones have a hammered face, with tooled stone edges. The cornerstones also have tooled edges.

The interior walls are rough cut ashlar stone which are dressed at the windows. There is evidence that the interior was meant to be enclosed with either wood or wood lath and plaster. The outhouse even has curtains in the windows for that added element of privacy.

Inside you will find that it is a three-seater. The purpose is for biodegradability. Lime was used to break down solids while the other opening could be utilized until the waste was dissolved.

An outhouse was necessary as this was before indoor plumbing. The only thing that saved someone from a trip to the outhouse on a cold, snowy night, was the chamber-pot. There are many names for these little helpers, such as thunderbucket or rumblepot.

Another reason for this structure's three seats may have been to accommodate each individual member of the household at the time. Mr. and Mrs. Jones and little daughter Loutie. To answer a common question, Victorian modesty and culture only allowed the outhouse to be utilized by one member of the household at a single time. It was never occupied by all three at the same time.

Continue your self-guided tour of the grounds by following the steps up the hill to the Icehouse.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 10: The Icehouse ]]> Fri, 17 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/65B9F5B5-FBC5-01F2-E175AFA92DDC2F53.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-65CDD2A3-C314-75AD-EF64E0DE0F424953 Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 10: The Icehouse History and description of the icehouse at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 97 no full

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Tour Stop 10: The Icehouse

The Icehouse and cistern were built of native limestone in 1882. Originally, the doorway was located on the north face of the building. Placing the entrance here denies sunlight from reaching the ice. Some icehouses place the entrance several feet off the ground, because cold air flows downward. An entrance reaching the bottom would allow this cold air to escape. Eventually, this icehouse's doorway was moved to the south side to support the changing needs of the ranch and was converted to a garage.

The winters were colder in the 1800s and the Cottonwood River would freeze. There was an ice cutting factory on the river and large blocks of ice were sold. They were then carried by a wagon to the icehouse for storage and place in sawdust and prairie hay for insulation. Try to imagine the blocks of ice that could be stored in this icehouse.

This gave the Jones family access to ice the year round, a luxury for the time. The old saying, "The rich man gets his ice in the summer, and the poor man gets his ice in the winter" may very well ring true in this case.

The icehouse also supported an 11,000 gallon cistern on its east side. It collected both the natural spring water on the hill, but also any runoff from ice being melted from the icehouse, by evidence shown along the east floor of the building. Today, it is being utilized for storage.

Feel free to continue your journey along the Southwind Nature Trail to the Prairie Overlook and onward to the Schoolhouse.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 11: Prairie Overlook ]]> Fri, 17 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/65EE8F77-FF99-AE27-783DEE83CCE4076A.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-65EED5A2-A71D-C2CA-5466E41E02EF56B3 Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 11: Prairie Overlook History and description at the Prairie Overlook on the Southwind Nature Trail at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 80 no full

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The large and imposing stone structures of the ranch are dwarfed by the vastness of the landscape. For centuries, the interplay of climate, fire, and grazing have combined to produce and sustain the tallgrass prairie ecosystem. Throughout most of the tour, you have observed the influence of people on the prairie. Now consider the influence of the prairie on the people. What you are feeling as you step from the shade and comfort of the trees into the exposed openness of the overlook, is exactly what the settlers were experiencing over a century ago, when they stepped from the forests into the openness of the prairie beyond the Mississippi River.

Many people judged this almost treeless land to be worthless. The pioneers soon realized the value of the prairie's rich soil. Today, less than 4% of North America's tallgrass prairie remains. Although the Flint Hills were too rocky to plow, settlers discovered its many resources, something long known by American Indians. The Flint Hills have furnished people with edible and medicinal plants, year-round spring water, stone for tools, weapons, fences, and buildings, wind for power, rich bottomlands for farming, and lush grasses for grazing, both on which bison and, more recently, cattle could fatten.

]]> Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 12: Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse ]]> Fri, 17 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/65F781D1-E3E4-3A24-61FF8A41B524A977.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-6608971B-BA1A-AA69-C89D74276466B61F Spring Hill Ranch HQ Tour Stop 12: Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse History and description of Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse at Tallgrass Prairie NPres 38 no full

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Tour Stop 12: The Lower Fox Creek School

The Lower Fox Creek School was built in 1882 on land donated by school's first superintendent, Stephen F. Jones. Mr. and Mrs. Jones' daughter, Loutie, attended school in this very building, going through all eight grades. This one-room school provides a setting for educating local area students until 1930 when it was abandoned and it reverted back to the ranch owner. Feel free to peek through the windows as you imagine children studying their lessons and learning the three "R"s, Reading, 'Riting, and 'Rithmetic.

]]> Tallgrass Bus Tour, Scenic Overlook to Visitor Center ]]> Fri, 03 Jan 2020 00:00:00 -0500 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/BCDACA29-A662-5296-B4A4C90380B19CFD.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-BCE80F1E-DD77-B171-9AAA7975CD9A8A80 Tallgrass Bus Tour, Scenic Overlook to Visitor Center Tallgrass Bus Tour, Scenic Overlook to Visitor Center 1531 no full

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Alright, so here we go. So here's one quiz question for you on the way back, "How big is the park?" Has everybody been doing the math there? Yes? No? Maybe? Well, 10,894 acres, 17 square miles, or 44 square kilometers if you're a metric-minded person. And if that winds up being the only tallgrass prairie we can say we preserved and protected and defended, I would say that we probably failed in that overall mission, because again it's going to fall to those folks who live outside of the park who try to make a living on this landscape, the land owners, the land users, what have you, to find a way to make a living out here and do it in such a way that others who come later can make a living, because they probably more than most understand that there cannot be a functioning economy without a functioning ecology.

So if we can be of any benefit to the wider community, perhaps it is to be a place to demonstrate and educate into different methods of regenerative and restorative types of agriculture. Ways of growing and grazing that would return nutrients and resources to the soil rather than just continually extracting them.

And to pull that off out here, is mainly just to change up the fire cycle out here. The role of fire is well known and fundamental, but maybe we can change it up a little bit, the timing, the placement, the frequency of fire. Because in a natural setting, fire would happen every three to five years, when lightning would hit the ground or some other random act that would ignite a fire and burn across the landscape.

But these days, fire is far more frequent. It's generally kind of hemmed in at the beginning of the growing season, mid-March to mid-April. And then that is quickly followed up by about three to four months of cattle grazing, 90 to 100 days of intense cattle grazing. And that in the short term, that grows a lot of grass which ends up growing a lot of cattle, but when that pattern is repeated over and over and over again, it starts to have some long-term effects, very similar to say sharpening a knife blade over and over again.

I mean, you have to sharpen it to get it to cut well, and you use the knife, you go sharpen it, you use it again, you sharpen it up some more, you go bang some nails with it, open some paint cans, pry up some 2x4s, and then all of a sudden, many, many years later, you realize, "Wow, my knife doesn't cut as well as it once did. I have to work harder at it to get the same effect. I need a new one." Toss the old one and buy yourself a new one.

But it's a little hard to toss away and entire landscape, so maybe we can rebuild the edge on these pastures by just changing up when you burn. Maybe burn a little bit in the fall, burn a little bit in the spring, or move that burning around, burn one side of a road one year, the other side of the road the next year, the other side of a creek the third year, and just rotate it around.

Because that has a nice little side effect, the grazing animals are also inspired, they move, too. They follow the green grass, just like they always did. And cattle, for all of their domestication, still have that habit, they still seek out the fresh grass growth.

And another benefit of that rotational burning, is that the landscape that doesn't get burned or grazed as heavily, well that gets to simply rest. It's just as beneficial for plants as it is for people, because it has a very similar effect as going to the gym over and over again. The first few trips you're getting stronger, faster, healthier. But on and on, you start to get a bit beat up, a little weak, a little worn out. And many of these pastures are exactly that. They're still fairly healthy, but they're feeling a little stressed out and a little worn out by always being forced or challenged to grow up, to grow the green part of the plant, the stem, the leaf, the blade of grass that gathers the sunshine and the energy.

And then if the grass is always growing up, it's not growing down as much. And as the roots weaken, it cannot absorb as much resources and other plants will go after those resources. I mean, checks and balances aren't just for government class anymore. It's a very ecological idea. Ecologies that are balanced are kept in check. It can't even be described without saying the words.

But when some plants dominate over the others, when disturbances begin to take hold, well that's when ecosystems get weak and other plants begin to fill in the gaps. Like that yellow plant back there. That is what is often derided as a "weed." It's called broomweed, but it responds to disturbance quite well. So by moving the disturbances, that encourages other plants to grow. Cattle will not eat that. So, that's one reason why it grows so well.

But by moving the disturbance around, grazing can become a benefit, by moving the fire around, that spreads out the impact a little bit, let's other plants rest some. So, it strengthens the community of plant life as a whole, especially when considering invasive plants and any plant, any life form, can be invasive given the opportunity, especially if they have no natural competitors. And there is a particular legume, a forb out here, called Serecia Lespedeza, or East Asian Bush-clover. And that's a plant that has no real competitors in North America but had plenty back in East Asia.

So, it was a Depression-era experiment in animal forage and soil conservation. But it had the unintended effect of just becoming a real hazard to grazing, because it squeezes out many plants that grazing animals will eat. So it is a Public Enemy Number One out here in the plant world.

But, again, another benefit of all this rotational burning and grazing…I'll slow down for you to get a good look at the buffalo there...is that the habitat that gets left over becomes the home for the vast majority of tallgrass prairie animals, who are not the "charismatic megafauna." That's the name of my garage band, by the way. The buffalo, the elk, the pronghorn, the gray wolf, the grizzly bear, the animals that get all the magazine covers. The big, highly visible animals. They have the additional benefit of being able to make it in other parts of North America, which they do, much to their credit.

But other animals, the vast majority of these tallgrass animals, are specialists. They have adapted their entire lives and livelihoods to living in the tallgrass. And when the grass disappears, so do they. And a good example of that is the Greater Prairie-chicken. It's about as big as my hat, minus the brim, of course. About 3 pounds of bird that lives most of its time on the ground, hiding in the grass, laying its eggs, going after seeds and insects, roosting and raising the next generation.

But it cannot do that out in the wide-open spaces. That's just asking for trouble, it's only a matter of time before a red-tailed hawk or some other predator animal comes and nicks it away for dinner as the main course. So, as tallgrass has disappeared, so have their numbers. They've declined quite a bit. And they share the fate of ground-dwelling birds across North America, the sage grouse of Wyoming and the Dakota oil patches, the Lesser Prairie-chicken of the panhandle region of Texas and Oklahoma, southwestern Kansas.

But at least in our neck of the woods, maybe we can demonstrate some different methods of burning and grazing, changing up the way we do things in order that all life forms can have a better shot at life, having their cake and eating it, too. Maybe just not all at once.

But then we come around to the buffalo, one of the big draws out here is an opportunity to see the buffalo. And it's really cool that the park is playing a big role in maintaining the lineage and the legacy of North America's largest native grazing animal, the bison. Because at the end of the 19th century, there were less than a thousand left, down from an estimated 40 million at the start of the 19th century, so roughly within a lifetime, they went from a literal force of nature to functional extinction.

And that decline was probably, tragic though it is, it may have, in fact, been the wakeup call that got the attention of the culture at that time. And it was a culture that pretty much assumed that nature was infinite, and humans would never alter it and it was just had to take what comes.

But by the 1870s, it was becoming pretty obvious that human activity was starting to have a measurable effect. And fortunately, there were individuals at the time willing to stake their reputations on the speculation that if there is a human element to the problem, maybe there's a human element to the solution.

And that was kind of a radical idea, but they were willing to put their money where their mouths were, and yes I'm talking about Theodore Roosevelt and others, who formed an organization specifically aimed acquiring bison where they could still be found, transported them to the Bronx Zoo in New York City to just basically wait, wait out the time until a new time came along, when the bison could be safely reintroduced back to their homeland.

And that opportunity arose in 1914 at the newly established Wind Cave National Park. Wind Cave was established in 1903...1914, eleven years after that park was established it got its herd back. About a dozen bison were reintroduced up there, purebred stock living there in New York City.

And that population has been growing over time to the present number of about four to five hundred. But in order to keep that genetic lineage going, of course, you have to find good places to put the extras. And in 2009, after only 12 years of existence, this park had grown to such a mature state, that it could finally take on some bison of its own and be a part of that maintenance, restoration, rebuilding process. Probably not going to be 40 million anytime soon, but it beats zero any day of the week. Extinction is final, no matter what they say in Hollywood.

But it is nice to have the bison here. We have about a hundred these days, 87 adults, 13 newborns. And they'll probably be rounded up here in a couple of months to give everyone a good once-over, test who's related to whom, probably shuffle out about 20 or so to herds of similar genetics. Give this herd some more room to grow.

Which is good, because it's not every day that you get a chance to correct an error in your activity, even if it was an error born of sheer ignorance. They didn't know any better, perhaps. I mean, the word ecology didn't even exist until the 1870s. So, the whole idea of inter-relatedness of all life was still a bit of an alien idea in many circles.

But they're they are and a good portion of them there. Even when you stand 6 1/2 feet tall at the shoulder, these grasses can still do a good job at hiding you there, especially when you're sitting down there. Pretty cool!

But you've heard me call these animals both buffalo and bison and you might be wondering when I will make up my mind and fortunately that is a question that has two right answers, buffalo AND bison. I like the word buffalo; I like both words. But bison is the scientifically accurate term for that big brown animal back there.

But buffalo lives on. It's a nice remainder of this area's Hispanic lineage and legacy. Because again, it was Spanish speakers who came first and wrote down what they saw. And upon seeing that animal in the 15 to 1600s, to their understanding, they thought they were looking at a buffalo. It did not resemble "la vaca," the Spanish word for cow. It looked like "el bufalo," which, of course, becomes "buffalo" in English, two f's.

And that's the way it stayed for maybe 300 years, until the middle of the 19th century, when it became obvious that what we had been calling a buffalo had more in common with a European grazing animal, called a "wisent." And that translates to English as "bison."

And so "Bison bison," the scientific, Latinized name of North America's largest grazing animal. So how does the state song of Kansas go again? "Oh give me a home, where the bison roam, where the deer and the antelope play or deer and the pronghorn play?"

Well, you wouldn't be wrong if you wanted to sing "Home On The Range" that way, but maybe it's a little poetically clumsy, lyrically, maybe, a little boring? And I've been accused of a lot in my 24-year Federal career, but lyrically boring and poetically clumsy are accusations I do not want on my rap sheet. So I'm going to stick with buffalo and let the chips fall where they may.

But here we are about, wow! We're really getting our money's worth today. About five minutes from the ranch headquarters where I'll unload you all, which gives me one last chance to unload, ruminate upon the state of affairs here on planet Earth. It seems there's all sorts of wild and crazy things happening on our planet these days.

Oh, you wanted to drop off! Yes, my apologies. There you go there, right up the road there. Thanks for the reminder there.

Alright, where was I? Rumination! Deep thinking. And I still like to think of our planet as the living embodiment of a Latin phrase you might know, "E Pluribus Unum," from diversity comes unity.

But if that's not quite your cup of tea, and that's alright. Maybe your car is a more acceptable or appetizing an analogy. I mean your car has got a lot of parts that make it go. Like let's take your water pump, for example. It might leak. You might know about it. You might not know about it. You might be ignoring the problem. Or you might think your mechanic is just making it all up and you're just going to go about your business.

And your car will get you there for a short amount of time. It will get hotter and hotter along the way, until one day when you're really needing to get somewhere, your car will be too hot to do it for you anymore. And life as you knew it from that point forward, just got a lot more difficult.

And I like to imagine the grasses of the world as like that water pump. They're not so flashy most of the time. They're meek and humble, not out there "doin' it for the 'Gram" or for the Facebook likes, or whatever.

But if you ignore them in any significant way, they will clap you right back and remind you that they are, indeed, the meek that have inherited the Earth. And that ain't braggin'. Because, grasses can be found on the average, 30% of the planet's land surface, one-third of our land surface on Earth is a grassland. And you know these areas already, believe it or not.

I mean, you have the Prairie of North America, French word for meadow and all that, taken from the Latin word "pratum" for meadow. Then you move south to Argentina and you find your way onto the Pampas region of Argentina, Uruguay, down there in South America. Then you move across the Atlantic to Africa, and now you're standing on the Savannas of Africa, 2.7 billion acres of grassland in Africa. Then you move north to Europe, where they share a grassland with Asia called the Steppe, a 5,000-mile green highway connecting the cultural East with the cultural West, one of the oldest, most ancient human highways are the Steppe. Beginning in probably present-day Hungary and Romania on the European side, stretching eastward through the rest of Europe into central Asia, Mongolia, Manchuria in northeast China. Then you leap to the south and you wind up on the Rangelands of Australia, also known, of course, as the Outback.

And all of the plants of these grasslands, grasses included, absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, measured in the megatons. And they, of course, blend it with sunshine and water and other soil minerals and create a carbon compound for themselves called glucose, energy, sugar.

And then they emit the oxygen as a by-product, which is all very beneficial for us air breathers. And then what happens to the glucose, to the carbon in the glucose? Well, it becomes part of the plant, it's organic. That's the definition there, carbon-based life form.

And then whatever grows, eventually must decompose. So, remember, now, where most of a grass plant is found? Underground? In the roots? So, all of that carbon that was in the atmosphere has been sequestered, captured, recycled into the living soil, making it more fertile and more able to support future generations of plant growth.

And scientists are only just now realizing how big a piece of the puzzle grasslands really are and it's not a moment too soon. Because grasslands have been nursing and nurturing humanity upon the Earth for maybe as long as there has ever been a humanity on the Earth. And now they look to us, their children, for our help.

So thank you for your help today, for choosing to be here today, because life is for "We The People," we are what we choose to be. And you can either choose to be reactive individually and then you get to suffer the consequences, or you can choose to participate in existence together as a group, in a larger, more ecological, dare I say, fashion.

And by being here today in some small way you have done exactly that as individuals, you have come together, collectively, proving and bravely demonstrating what "E Pluribus Unum" could still be in America and around the world.

So, congratulations, you have made your Kindergarten teachers very proud today, but now is not the time to rest, of course. Far more existential challenges await us all in the next few decades, so definitely use today and every day to strengthen your inalienable ability to choose. Because, ultimately, Mother Nature always bats last and she never, EVER, strikes out.

So, "Terra Alta Prata Robustior!" Oh, no, he's really lost it. He's not even speaking English anymore. Well, that's Latin. I promised you a Latin phrase, remember, and so with you being here today, the tallgrass is definitely stronger and more resilient. But, of course, that's just for today, the only day we every really get.

Destiny comes for us all eventually, so with apologies to dead poets, past, present, and future, I give to you, let's see..."Gather ye rosebuds; enjoy their perfume. But pay heed to this omen-tide. Tomorrow lives not for us to bloom, but for our fruit's florescence to abide." In other words, "Carpe Diem Cordate." That's your assignment for today. Look that up. I think "Carpe Diem" we can all figure out already, but "Cordate" that's your challenge here. Thank you very much, you all. Thank you.

]]> Tallgrass Bus Tour, Scenic Overlook ]]> Thu, 02 Jan 2020 00:00:00 -0500 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/BCBF2AC3-E290-812D-F7D32C64E43CDB3D.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-BCC0EF0D-B79A-5DF0-DE4B0D18543C02B7 Tallgrass Bus Tour, Scenic Overlook Tallgrass Bus Tour, Scenic Overlook 662 no full

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Alright, everybody. Welcome to the top of the park. You're the next contestants on the tallgrass prairie. I'll get to your questions in just a little bit. I might actually be able to answer a few of them along the way. So, feel free to mingle around, mix and mingle, as it were.

Welcome to the top of the park. We are standing roughly one thousand, five hundred feet above sea level, which is, of course, nowhere near the height of any mountain in the Himalayas or even the height of Mt. Sunflower over in western Kansas, about 4,000 feet high, 2500 feet over our heads here.

But we can certainly pretend and imagine that we're standing atop a high mountain, by looking around this landscape. Looking to the south, especially, you're looking at probably a 20-mile horizon and probably a 10-mile horizon to the north. And within that whole panorama you're seeing in excess of 75,000 acres of intact tallgrass prairie. Which might not sound like all that exciting a factoid, but it is more tallgrass than you would see in the states of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa combined, plus another half a dozen American states.

I think I just described the American farm belt, a whole lot of cropland nowadays, a whole lot of food gets produced on those lands, especially in Iowa, the buckle of the Farm Belt, the state that probably had the most tallgrass prairie in it at one time, now has virtually no native tallgrass prairie. It's been entirely plowed to grow corn and hogs and put a lot of food on the table for millions of us.

So, you can look out over this landscape and understand why we don't have a lot of cornfields out here. These rolling hills, so full of rocks, thin soil, not very well suited for crop cultivation, except in very specific areas along rivers and streams. But it is ideal for the growth of grass. Grass loves this kind of environment and cattle of course come and graze upon it. Again, the economic engine of these parts.

So, but you have come from a long way to see the Flint Hills. Well, congratulations, you're standing on one. This is how you get flint in the Flint Hills. You find a hilltop that's been laid bare by erosion and other natural effects. The limestone that surrounds the flint dissolves away. It's calcium carbonate, pretty common material in these parts. And then in the presence of a weak acid, like water, it dissolves away. Then the elemental components, calcium, carbon, and oxygen, become part of the soil, which then gets picked up by the plant life, especially the calcium, which makes these grasses very fertile and nutritious for a wide range of grazing animals.

And then you get the flint showing up on the surface, flint or chert. And I've got a couple of pieces here in my hands here. Now you're probably looking at this and saying, "That one in his left hand might be something, but that one in his right hand, nah, that's glass. That's a piece of glass. He's trying to pull one over on us."

And I'm like, "Nope, not exactly." This is just a nice example that shows that just because you look different on the outside, doesn't mean you're not the same on the inside. And basically, these are two identical pieces of silicon dioxide. And you would be correct in observing that this is glass, and this is not, but they are the same elemental components.

And they do behave in a very similar way, if you want to look up close, and the prairie challenges you to look up close, you can see they each have the same kind of a dent/crack/fracture pattern going on, which ends up forming a remarkably sharp edge on these pieces. Some of the sharpest knives ever created have been made of chert or flint.

But, of course, the native population of these parts were not performing microsurgery with their flint tools, but they were utilizing that property, to form very sharp-edged knives and scrapers and arrowheads and spear points, which made life a whole lot easier for them along rivers and streams.

Because at the time of contact with Europeans and for many decades previous to that, they were already beginning to grow their own crops. They had made the revolutionary discovery, on their own, that has led to all others on Earth over the last several thousands of years. And that would be agriculture, itself. We would not be here chatting here today were it not for agriculture, because otherwise, if we existed at all, we'd be hunting and gathering from nature and probably from each other, for what we'd be eating just a few hours later. Hunting and gathering really fills the hours, but it doesn't leave much time for anything else. So, agriculture has tremendous impacts upon the planet, impacts that we are having to reckon with today.

But, again, at the time of contact, both cultures had things to share with each other. The incoming Spaniards had technology that had never been seen out here before, like firearms, other trade goods, metal goods, in addition to horses and cattle, which are two big icons in America's imagery of itself. But it often gets lost in the mix, that these major icons have Hispanic roots, something that should not ever be forgotten.

And then the native peoples, the indigenous peoples, had something even more important than material goods. They had the knowledge. they knew that fire and grazing go together out here, observing early on that when natural fires occurred, you would get green grasses that would be attractive to migrating grazing animals, like elk and pronghorn and buffalo and the like.

So they began to alter the environment to suit their own specific needs, basically burning the grasses in order to create hunting grounds that would alter the migrating patterns of these large grazing herds that would make hunting a little bit easier, because pre-1492, probably deep into the 1500s, there were no large horse populations in the Western Hemisphere. So it took some time before horses became part of many of these native cultures.

But, unfortunately, though, as it often happens in the clash of cultures, the similarities were overshadowed by their differences, which must, of course, be acknowledged lest myself, I will acknowledge them, I won't speak for you all, lest I be branded a hypocrite, and since I'm trying to be a good parent at home, I need all the hypocrisy I can get my hands on, because he's just entered middle school and there's going to be a lot of "do as I ask, not as I have done" type stuff, regardless, keeps you out of jail, let me tell you.

But the name of our state, Kansas, is a good reflection of that to keep in mind. The name of our state is Kansas, for People of the Southwind, we're having a nice little breeze from the south today. They, too, like much of us, are migrants to this neighborhood. The Kansa, themselves, came out of the Great Lakes region, probably 16-ish hundreds. They migrated into this area, establishing themselves along the present-day Kansas River near Manhattan and Topeka, Kansas.

But their numbers were small compared with the dominant cultures of the region, the Osage Nation and, later on, the United States, the American nation. And as a result, their numbers got smaller and smaller and smaller, until 1872, which is a date that doesn't exactly live in infamy for most of us, but maybe it does for the Kansa, because that is the date that the Kansa Nation, the lands in and around present-day Council Grove, were opened to full settlement.

So the Kansa, as of 1872, no longer had a home in the state that still today bears their name. So, they were moved, many, many native peoples suffered that fate. They were moved, not by their choice. They still exist today as a sovereign tribal nation about 3 hours south. They're called the Kaw Nation of Oklahoma these days.

So, about 3 hours south, but if that doesn't fit into your afternoon plans, maybe 30 minutes might, to the north. That's where Council Grove is, that's where the Kaw Mission State Historic Site is. Kansas making up for lost time, I hope. And then the Kansa themselves in one of the richer ironies of these parts, are actually purchasing lands that their ancestors may have at one time called their own, in order to form memorial parks and heritage areas and interpretive trails that all seek to keep the name "Kansas" from being just another name on a map.

So, here we are. I'm plenty drunk with power now, so now it's time to sober up with some questions from you all. We'll be bugging out here shortly.

]]> Tallgrass Bus Tour, Visitor Center to Scenic Overlook ]]> Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 -0500 https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/podcasts/BC6D3B74-CE6B-0E7C-69626951847F62CE.mp3 https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/tapr-podcasts.htm#episode-BCB3ED06-B708-3F3C-B14D383BDF01F84B Tallgrass Bus Tour, Visitor Center to Scenic Overlook Tallgrass Bus Tour, Visitor Center to the Scenic Overlook 1514 no full

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Alright there we go...so everybody...that will do it. Welcome one and all to our week-daily hike without the hike. Normally this 10-kilometer trip or thereabouts roughly speaking would take in the neighborhood of over two hours to do on foot, depending on how the weather conditions and your own physical abilities, but we will do it in about half that...a little over one hour. So, it should include everything you'd normally get on such an adventure except for all of the sweating and exertion that comes from such physical activity. So that should help keep us all minty fresh for the rest of the day, which is always a good thing. But while we're together, again, for something in the neighborhood of sixty minutes, we'll discover for ourselves what makes the tallgrass prairie unique and special and therefore worthy of our collective efforts to preserve, protect, and defend it.

Because there is nothing in the American Constitution that requires there to be a National Park Service or a Tallgrass Prairie. Nothing except for a vague four-word phrase in the Preamble, "Promote the General Welfare." So it does, indeed, fall to us, "We The People," which does also fall in the Preamble, to "Promote the General Welfare" to the best of our individual abilities. So, well done thus far, just showing up today, that's pretty good.

But before we dive into the park's story, let's kind of drop in on its backstory here a little bit. The park itself was established by an Act of Congress as the 370th unit of the National Park Service on November 12, 1996 and it stands out like all national parks do for what it does and how it does it. Number one, this is the first national park area set up specifically to protect and preserve and defend grass for its own sake. There ought to be a catchy Latin phrase to commemorate that. I'll get to work on that. Give me a few minutes. But it is also unique in how it goes about this mission. And that will become very obvious here in about three and two and one. Right there with that last little rumble, that lets us know that we have left public land behind us.

Currently, "We the People" own 33 acres roughly of this national park, one-third of one percent. So, the remaining 10,861 acres or 99.7% of the park is own by a non-profit group. Currently, that is The Nature Conservancy. But in 1994, it was a group called the National Park Trust, who at the request of US Senator from Kansas, Nancy Landon Kassebaum-Baker, purchased this ranch, in the hopes of one day establishing a national park up on it as a "model for the nation," as the senator put it when the park was dedicated. And that mission was accomplished again in 1996 and the two groups worked side by side establishing many of the activities we know and love today, like this bus ride, among many others.

And then in 2005 the National Park Trust pretty much said, "Well folks, it's been real, but our mission is accomplished. We've done what we've set out here to do at the park. Other parks need our help, so another group needs to step up long-term alongside the National Park Service.

And that's when The Nature Conservancy enters the picture. They are no strangers to this line of work. They've been active worldwide since 1951 doing this very land, water, animal, nature preservation thing. And then in 2005 again, that's when they took on this property from the National Park Trust. So, they've been very active in Kansas, most notably about an hour's drive to the north at a place called Konza Prairie Biological Research Station and that mouthful of a name gives you an idea what they do up there with Kansas State University, and it is not bus rides. They fill the hours up there deep in the evidence-based world, gathering raw, empirical data about the inner mechanisms of the tallgrass prairie. And in order to do that effectively, people are kept to the outside, with only a few areas that have any real public access. But that's not really the M.O. up there anyway. It's an outdoor, living laboratory up there near Manhattan, KS.

But that, in turn, gives places like this a niche to thrive in. Because, not only do we do a fair amount of our own research and restoration and demonstration and the like, we pile on top of that a whole lot of public access and public educational opportunities. Perhaps, more one-on-one, do-it-yourself contact with the tallgrass prairie than you'd get anywhere in Kansas. I mean, if you want to walk around in the grass, this is where you go. And that puts us right up there with some of the top tallgrass destinations on the continent. So, not bad for flyover country.

And now that we're on top of the hill here, you can see what we're attempting to achieve here together and that is the continued protection and preservation of a small portion of a vanishing ecosystem. Now tallgrass in North America shares the fate of grasslands around the world, in that they are perhaps the most humanly altered of ecosystems on the planet.

Just to underscore this fact, more of the Florida Everglades remain intact, as a percentage of the whole, that what you'll find remaining today of North America's tallgrass prairies. And that's astonishing, really, when you think about how much tallgrass covered North America at one time, something like 170 million acres, which is roughly the size of Texas, covering a good chunk of the Great Plains. But it's been whittled down over time to something like 4% of it's original size. So roughly the size of Hawaii, the Hawaiian Islands.

So, what happened? What happened to that other 96%? Did we lose it or misplace it or is there a Deep State conspiracy out there going on that I should be aware of? I'm like, no, sorry to disappoint you. I wish there were, actually. That would be a far more interesting story. But the truth is, as it often is, far more mundane. We are, basically, eating the tallgrass prairie. Transforming it. Converting it to suit human needs. So, because basically if you like to eat and that's kind of a thing that most life forms have in common, they consume resources. But as far as humans go, if you like to eat, you've got a connection to grass already. Because, if you eat it, there's probably a grass connection in there somewhere. So it's not necessarily a right or wrong, up or down, kind of question. It's more a question of conscience, one that has to be reckoned with from generation to generation.

But we are fortunate in Kansas to have more intact tallgrass prairie than you'll find anywhere else in North America. At least two-thirds of the remaining 4%. Which is pretty nice, because we are certainly lacking for Grand Tetons and Grand Canyons here in Kansas. But the one thing we are not lacking is grand prairie on a horizon-to-horizon landscape level, making this one of the few areas on the continent where you can get this kind of impression. And a lot of things go into that to making that a reality, and we'll encounter them while we're together. But they all, basically, boil down to a single word. That word is "ecology," which is a new word in the English language, coined in the 1870s from Greek roots. The Greek word for home and surroundings, that would be "oikos" matched up with the Greek suffix for study, that would be "ology." You put the two together, "oikos" and "ology" and you get the word ecology in English, the study of your home and surroundings and that's exactly what ecology seeks to do, get to know our homes a little bit better and all of the many, myriad interconnections that go on to weave the web of life here on Earth.

And the first of these relationships I like to bring out is one we don't see very easily, but it just goes to show that just because you're small and seemingly insignificant or content to do your best work behind the scenes, doesn't mean you're not also very, very important.

And this particular relationship is the geologic one, which is, quite literally, the foundation of the Flint Hills themselves, which are ironically enough, made not of flint, but limestone and shale, laid down long ago, no matter how you want to measure the passage of time, because Einstein is correct in that time is a variable, passing at different rates depending on your relative frame of reference and point of view.

But scientists go back to a period they call the Permian period, when this area was covered by water at various times and as the water would recede, you would get organic material building up on the surface which eventually became shale when the waters returned and started depositing the calcium and silica-bearing remnants of marine plants and animals and algae and the like and that eventually layered up into the limestone with flint kind of spicing up the limestone. So we get this layered effect, limestone/shale/limestone/shale with flint, again, spicing up the limestone.

And as you look around at the panorama in front of us, you can already, hopefully, begin to detect some of that layering going on. I mean we've definitely got down this eroded valley, you can probably pick out some of the layers just beneath the soil's surface. You might begin to pick up some of the differential erosion over here on the left side.

But you'll also notice as you scan the horizon a lack of trees, except in very specific areas where there is more moisture to work with. That's one of the many things playing against tree growth. But those very conditions make this area ideal for tallgrass and wildflower growth, which has been nursing and nurturing life in the Flint Hills, including human life, for hundreds, maybe even thousands, of years.

So why after all that exposition and description, do we still insist on calling this area the "Flint Hills?" Well, even though this area was known to Europeans, thanks to Spanish-speaking colonial explorers as early as the middle 1500s, it wasn't until the early 1800s, almost three centuries later, before the area got the name "Flint Hills" from an English-speaking American, of course, Zebulon Pike, in 1806, documenting in his journals that for several days, he and his party were traveling through "rough hills of flint."

And that's been the name on this area ever since. It effects about a quarter of the state and starts about 100 miles north near the Nebraska border. It extends southwards, soaking up most of the space between Salina and Topeka, Kansas. It narrows down to the west of Emporia and to the east of Wichita, Kansas and then juts into the Osage Native Nation within the American state of Oklahoma, where they are called the Osage Hills.

But you throw them all together and you have an area of intact tallgrass prairie that is over three times the size of Yellowstone National Park. And that's a wonderful comparison, I think, because number one, it highlights the unassailable fact that most of the intact tallgrass prairie that remains in North America falls outside of any sort of public, protected boundary.

And so when you do leave the public, protected boundaries here at the park and go out exploring elsewhere in the Flint Hills, you'll discover that what's outside the park is remarkably similar to what's inside the park. It's a nice little setup we have going on here, ecologically-speaking, a four-legged relationship I like to call the Legs or the Pillars of the Tallgrass Prairie. And they come to us in the form of moisture, fire, grazing and then the human element, the wild card, the fourth leg, which we can no longer afford to ignore.

Now moisture we get in the neighborhood of 35 maybe 38 inches of collected precipitation a year, but you never know what you're going to get. It's measured out over a 50-year average, so you can have periods of drought and flood and everything in between. So what that means, since there is such fundamental variability in that fundamental force, it ends up having fundamental effects on the ecosystem. Basically, cleansing away the plants and the animals and, yes, the people, who are unable to cope with that kind of situation, leaving behind those who can, who then go on to strengthen the ecosystem.

So, it's all very academic from our relatively comfy circumstances here, but it is all too real when it is your life and livelihood being cleansed away. Again, just another thing to reckon with, not a yes or no answer to a question like that. And there is a buffalo there, about 9 o'clock on the horizon there.

And then you throw fire and grazing on top of that. Now fire is of tremendous benefit out here, although at first glance it generally doesn't sound beneficial. In most places it is an agent of destruction, but out here it is an agent of rebirth, because it literally rakes away the previous year's growth, which will soon be shed by all of these plants. They will shed away what's on the surface, very similar to how a tree will shed its leaves shortly. And then all of that thatch eventually builds up and forms a pretty solid roof upon the landscape. And so, once all of that gets burned away, sunshine and moisture can penetrate deep into the ground and that's where the real action is, in the roots.

Now, three quarters of most prairie plants are underground where you will never see them. So we're only seeing the top quarter of the plant and one cubic yard of big bluestem sod can have twenty miles of root material within it, binding the soil together like steel in concrete, forming a sponge that absorbs moisture, especially in the spring. Generally, that's the high time for fire. Moisture soaks into the ground, kick starts the growing process, and then the grazers show up.

Historically, it would have been elk and buffalo and pronghorn migrating their way to the rich green grasses. These days cattle are shipped by truck into these areas to not only carry the grazing responsibilities, but also form the economic backbone of the region. And so both of these life forms, grazers and grasses, live together. The grazers, of course, have the stomach for this sort of thing, being ruminants and all that.

And then the grasses, far from being burdened by all of these challenges, are strengthened by them, very much like we humans, we are only as strong as the challenges we face on a daily basis. And as long as all of the challenges are checked and balanced with each other, everything tends to remain evenly balanced. But if one force begins to dominate and dictate over the others, well that is when imbalances emerge in an ecosystem. And ecosystems don't like that.

There's a very specific reason why it's not called an "egosystem." That would be very easy for us if it were called an "egosystem," that's what got us in the situation that we're in. It's called an "ecosystem," for a very specific reason. Ecosystems are not concerned with the specifics of life or its expression, only with maintaining the balance of that expression. And whether or not we human beings will be able to make a living, as a species, in the new balance of life forming around the planet is a wide open question that many are finally now beginning to reckon with, and it's not a moment too soon, either.

Now here we are about five minutes’ worth of moments away from the geographic high point of the park, one of the highest points in the Flint Hills is just in front of us and it's a good place to ruminate and for deep thinking, if you're of a mind. And a suggestion I like to throw out is one that's big in ecological circles or really anywhere relationships are found. You may have heard the phrase "strength is found in diversity"? You can never go wrong with that kind of thinking. That's a very good phrase, but I like to rephrase it slightly into "surviving adversity through diversity." Because, that helps to elevate the phrase out of the cliche, cat poster kind of world and puts it right into the "what's in it for me" real world, which is as much as we like to tell ourselves otherwise, that's where we live day to day, "What's in it for me/What am I going to get out of this/How is this going to benefit my life."

Well, in this case, it's very similar to having a good set of tools at home, in your car, or in your head (knowledge and experience), that means you can improvise, you can adapt, you can overcome a great many unknown unknowns that might be coming your way. Emergencies rarely announce themselves beforehand. But if you get a little too comfy and complacent or prideful in what you've accomplished, when the real crisis comes along you wind up realizing all you have at your fingertips is a hammer, and then everything and everyone looks like a nail. So not a good solution, especially in ecological situations.

But never fear, we have a good set of tools in terms of plant and animal life. Grasslands are some of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth, in terms of plant and animal life. We have 70 species of grasses alone out here; big bluestem, little bluestem, indiangrass, and switchgrass being the dominant four. And then probably 400 to 500 or more species of non-grass, non-woody, flowering plants called "forbs." You can call them "wildflowers." And then feeding on that are at least 300 to 400 species of animals, like reptiles, amphibians, mammals, birds, fish, that sort of thing. And then over 1000 species of insects and then literally, probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions of individual life forms, bacterial, microbial, in the living soil itself. And they all remarkably enough, get along with one another, by taking only what they need and giving back only what they can, they wind up creating the self-sustaining community of life we have all around us here.

And that leads to perhaps the big question, right up there with "Where's the buffalo"? It's "Where is the tallgrass"? I've been very patient with your efforts to educate me, but you can knock it off now and just show me the tallgrass. Well, number one, you've always been there, you've always been in the tallgrass, but fortunately the where and the when are one and the same. So, you can see some big bluestem out there right now, giving you the Vulcan salute or Rock 'n Roll Forever, whatever floats your boat. And the indiangrass is that wispy, golden seed head there.

But if you're still insistent on writing a letter to someone, feel free, just include in that letter, "Change the name of that park, why don't you, to 'Tall in the Fall' Grass National Park and Preserve," because that answers that question right now and gives you good insight into the ecology of the situation out here. The grasses, they do not even wake up until mid-May and they start their slow, steady pattern of growth, topping out in autumn-time, September and October.

And that is a very good thing, because that then encourages the vast majority of plant life, most of which do not mature at 4 or 5 feet high. Many of them are far shorter, probably less than 12 inches. And if you look beyond the tallgrass, look beyond the beautiful stems and look about a foot below, you'll see a lot of growth of just the grass itself, the blades and the leaves of grass gathering sunshine energy, a dense forest of grass there. And if you were trying to gather sunshine as a short, stubby plant in the midst of all that, well good luck, because you're not going to get much sun.

So, instead, they wind up separating from each other. They live in the same space by not competing head to head with one another, embodying an idea you might find in many indigenous cultures and Eastern philosophies, that the most noble and honorable of victories are found in the battles that never have to be fought. I like that idea, I try to embody that, especially when I'm trying to find a parking space at Walmart.

But it does kind of aim a little back toward the cliché, but it's not a cliché, just like bragging, it ain't a cliché, if you can back it up. And we back it up here on a daily basis, the vast majority of the plant and animal relationships are intact, with each life form doing what it does best when it can do it best and in doing so, they wind up sharing what would otherwise be a limited amount of resources. So here we are at the top of the hill. If you want to stick around by the side of the bus, I've got a few more things I can throw at you here. Otherwise, feel free to explore around the bus. I'll get to your questions momentarily.

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