Prairie of Solitude

One of our last stops in Kansas was at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve outside of Strong City, Kansas. This was really the highlight of the trip for me. Wide open spaces, solitude, wildflowers, the wind in my hair, the last remnants of prairie spread before me. Romanticized vision? Sure. But, I can tell you that in this particular instance my imagination meshed well with the reality. Maybe it’s because the TPNP is a relatively new park and people don’t know about it? Maybe it’s because it was hotter than hell out? Maybe it’s because the park seems to be in the middle of nowhere? I don’t know why, but the park really felt empty. The Coach stayed down in the parking lot, sitting under a shady tree with the Evil Kitten. It was nice and cool down there, so all kitty cat asthma attacks were avoided.

Yes, I took in the park on my own. I hiked up the hill to the barn which serves as the interpretive center. You see, the park is really kind of interesting from a policy perspective. The preserve is ~11,000 acres, but most of the land is owned by the Nature Conservancy, which purchased the land in 2005. Prior to that, the land had been owned by the National Park Trust! In the legislation that established the park, it is stated that the National Park Service can own up to 180 acres, but the entire acreage must be managed cooperatively by the NPS and the private land owner. I’m really going to have to look at this management strategy a bit more – it seems like it could turn into a research project. (Wink, Wink)

Okay, now that my inner workaholic has spoken let’s get back to the awesome aspects of the park. Like I said, I walked up to the barn. You see, at one point this park used to be a ranch – a big ranch – and this was one of the largest barns in Kansas. I poked around a bit, took a few pictures of the outbuildings, and headed up the nature trail. I wandered past the tall grass, took pictures of the wildflowers, and freaked out when these weird crickets started making odd-ass sounds … seriously, they sounded like a rattlesnake. I didn’t freak too much though because: (1) I had on my steel-toed, high-topped Doc Martins and (2) I soon realized that it was an annoying cricket. {LOL} As I wandered around, I was all alone. It was so quiet that I actually relaxed for the first time in a long time. Staring out over the landscape was restful. My brain disengaged and I felt so serene. I wish I could have spent the whole afternoon just sitting there by myself.

It makes me sad to realize that most of the prairie lands in the United States are now gone. The NPS writes that: “Today, less than 4 percent of North America’s tallgrass prairie remains.” Another flyer gives a quote from 1884:

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] out to have saved a Park in Kansas, ten thousand acres abroad – 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.

And on that note, I’ll leave you to your own thoughts. We’re heading out to Fulton, MO, today to see the place where Churchill gave his Iron Curtain speech. We’re having such a good time on this vacation that we decided to extend it for another day! Poor puppies, stuck at the kennel. The evil kitten, however, seems to be enjoying his status as only-animal. {SNORT}