Flint Hills Field Trip
I posted earlier that I was praying about all our field trip participants being able to go together on one bus to tour the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. Our principal had made two phone calls to companies that he thought might lease buses. One of them said no one in town does this anymore, and no one answered at the other company. He left a message. I heard from him that nothing was working out, and I said no more about it.
He proceeded to try to line up three vans. Then the second company finally returned the call, and he discovered that it seemed feasible to go on a leased bus. I learned about this on the last school day before we left, and thanked God. If we had gone just a bit further, it would actually have cost exactly the same as paying mileage for three vans. As it was, it cost about $20.00 extra--not bad for the convenience and the novelty of the experience.
Our park tour took place on the very last day of the 2010 season. We boarded yet another bus at the park headquarters and headed into the rolling Flint Hills inside the park. At the highest point on the looping trail into the grasslands, we got out and looked at about 150,000 acres of tallgrass prairie, the park ranger told us. We saw the bison only at a great distance. They were apparently taking shelter from the stiff wind, but a Greater Prairie Chicken flew up near the path. That was a rare sight.
At one point on the trip, the guide pointed out that on the one side of the path, the grass had been burned in the early spring. It had grown back lushly, and was clearly more robust-looking than the unburned grass on the other side. Regular burning is an important part of prairie grass management. It allows forbs (wildflowers, for example) to germinate by removing the "roof" of vegetation over the soil surface, allowing light and water to reach it.
In the afternoon we toured sights of interest in Council Grove, about 20 miles north of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. This town was a staging area for travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. On the east side of the river that runs through town, wagons would gather and wait till they had a sufficiently large group to travel safely on together. Sometimes they had to wait until the river was shallow enough to ford safely.
This town was also the site of a council between the Osage Indians and representatives of the U. S. government. At that meeting, the Indians of this tribe promised that they would grant travelers on the Santa Fe Trail safe passage through their territory. They kept their word. Other tribes farther west were not always peaceable, but no one had any cause to fear the Osage.
I couldn't help thinking about how the Osage surely came to regret their good-faith promise. No doubt they depended on the buffalo for sustaining their way of life, and it wasn't long before the U. S. government systematically killed off the buffalo to force the Indians into submission, and then relocated the Indians to reservations.
Council Grove also boasted three of the four trees designated in Kansas as historic trees. Two of them were oaks, now both dead, with their massive stumps preserved. At least one of them had begun to grow some time in the 1600's. One of the them was the tree under which the treaty was ratified, and another was a post office tree, where messages were stowed by travelers going east or west on the Santa Fe Trail. The third tree was the Custer Elm, which grew on land once owned by General George Custer, infamous Indian fighter and owner of the horse, Comanche, the only U. S.-side survivor of the Little Bighorn Battle.
Lunch was in a restaurant that has been in continuous operation longer than any other restaurant west of the Mississippi River.
If we had gone south to Cottonwood Falls, we would have seen a courthouse with the same designation--oldest west of the Mississippi River.
On this field trip, one of the impressive features for me was seeing all the limestone-walled structures. Such rock lies close to the surface in the Flint Hills, and it must have been quarried nearby. At the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve headquarters, a massive barn with a six-foot tall stone corral outside it is made of limestone, as are the house and several outbuildings.
The upper floor of the barn houses displays. I went all alone to the first floor of the barn, and soaked up the atmosphere, imagining every stall filled with the animals of a working ranch--mostly horses, no doubt, but perhaps a milk cow and a bull, or mules, or oxen. I hope someday animals come back to this barn. Everything in there seemed sturdy, spacious, and efficient, but its silence was a little sad.
Today's newspaper tells of plans to construct a new visitor's center at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. Building will begin next year. Someday I want to go back while the wildflowers are at their peak, in June. I'm not sure if I want to wait till the new building is done, and at that time of year I won't be traveling in a bus with students. But it's OK to store this trip in its own niche in my memory bank, with no other trips to compete with it. It was that good.
He proceeded to try to line up three vans. Then the second company finally returned the call, and he discovered that it seemed feasible to go on a leased bus. I learned about this on the last school day before we left, and thanked God. If we had gone just a bit further, it would actually have cost exactly the same as paying mileage for three vans. As it was, it cost about $20.00 extra--not bad for the convenience and the novelty of the experience.
Our park tour took place on the very last day of the 2010 season. We boarded yet another bus at the park headquarters and headed into the rolling Flint Hills inside the park. At the highest point on the looping trail into the grasslands, we got out and looked at about 150,000 acres of tallgrass prairie, the park ranger told us. We saw the bison only at a great distance. They were apparently taking shelter from the stiff wind, but a Greater Prairie Chicken flew up near the path. That was a rare sight.
At one point on the trip, the guide pointed out that on the one side of the path, the grass had been burned in the early spring. It had grown back lushly, and was clearly more robust-looking than the unburned grass on the other side. Regular burning is an important part of prairie grass management. It allows forbs (wildflowers, for example) to germinate by removing the "roof" of vegetation over the soil surface, allowing light and water to reach it.
In the afternoon we toured sights of interest in Council Grove, about 20 miles north of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. This town was a staging area for travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. On the east side of the river that runs through town, wagons would gather and wait till they had a sufficiently large group to travel safely on together. Sometimes they had to wait until the river was shallow enough to ford safely.
This town was also the site of a council between the Osage Indians and representatives of the U. S. government. At that meeting, the Indians of this tribe promised that they would grant travelers on the Santa Fe Trail safe passage through their territory. They kept their word. Other tribes farther west were not always peaceable, but no one had any cause to fear the Osage.
I couldn't help thinking about how the Osage surely came to regret their good-faith promise. No doubt they depended on the buffalo for sustaining their way of life, and it wasn't long before the U. S. government systematically killed off the buffalo to force the Indians into submission, and then relocated the Indians to reservations.
Council Grove also boasted three of the four trees designated in Kansas as historic trees. Two of them were oaks, now both dead, with their massive stumps preserved. At least one of them had begun to grow some time in the 1600's. One of the them was the tree under which the treaty was ratified, and another was a post office tree, where messages were stowed by travelers going east or west on the Santa Fe Trail. The third tree was the Custer Elm, which grew on land once owned by General George Custer, infamous Indian fighter and owner of the horse, Comanche, the only U. S.-side survivor of the Little Bighorn Battle.
Lunch was in a restaurant that has been in continuous operation longer than any other restaurant west of the Mississippi River.
If we had gone south to Cottonwood Falls, we would have seen a courthouse with the same designation--oldest west of the Mississippi River.
On this field trip, one of the impressive features for me was seeing all the limestone-walled structures. Such rock lies close to the surface in the Flint Hills, and it must have been quarried nearby. At the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve headquarters, a massive barn with a six-foot tall stone corral outside it is made of limestone, as are the house and several outbuildings.
The upper floor of the barn houses displays. I went all alone to the first floor of the barn, and soaked up the atmosphere, imagining every stall filled with the animals of a working ranch--mostly horses, no doubt, but perhaps a milk cow and a bull, or mules, or oxen. I hope someday animals come back to this barn. Everything in there seemed sturdy, spacious, and efficient, but its silence was a little sad.
Today's newspaper tells of plans to construct a new visitor's center at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. Building will begin next year. Someday I want to go back while the wildflowers are at their peak, in June. I'm not sure if I want to wait till the new building is done, and at that time of year I won't be traveling in a bus with students. But it's OK to store this trip in its own niche in my memory bank, with no other trips to compete with it. It was that good.
posted by Mrs. I at
7:02 PM
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