[STRONG CITY, KANSAS] — Out in the middle of Kansas lies the astounding Flint Hills, hundreds of thousands of acres of treeless, rolling hills with few fences and even fewer people. For generations these hills have remained the same, the soil so thick with rocks and limestone, they’ve never been plowed.

Some of those thousands of acres have been preserved in the National Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, owned by the Nature Conservancy and co-managed with the National Park Service, you can visit the original homestead house and walk its open lands. See some buffalo and feel the wind.

It is almost zen like in it’s emptiness and calm. You should go here.

Ain’t nature grand? Actually, it was nature that started this thing. Lightning threw the first punch. Then the Native American tribes saw the cleansing power of nature and started lighting their own fires. They saw the clearing out of noxious weeds, the nutrients churning back into the soil, the green grass snapping back stronger and more resilient.

Lighting fire to the prairies each spring has been going on for hundreds of years. For years, Americans grew fearful of fire. Must. Put. It. Out.

But over years, we’ve learned to love fire and its many benefits. So for the last several decades there’s been resurgence in the natural power of regenerative fire, in fields and forests. Now ranchers embrace…even celebrate… the restorative power fire can bring to the prairies.

This whole area has been undergoing protection and restoration. Hundreds of thousands of acres of grazing land has been purchased or donated to create the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. Big family ranches combined together and stitched like a quilt to form a giant patchwork of uninterrupted land. What fences there were have been pulled up, opening up this massive ecosystem. It’s like the Sahara. But green. And in Kansas.

They call this Post Rock Country. Because there were no tress, settlers would dig up the shallow limestone and use it to build everything. Houses. Barns. Even use it as fence posts, dotting the land. You’ve heard of sod houses? That was here. Easier to dig a hole in the ground and cover it with sod to brave the winters and stay cool in Summer.

The nation’s cow-calf operations happen all around these parts. Every summer, ranchers ship cattle from as far away as Texas to fatten up on the thick grasses of the tallgrass prairie. Not from corn, grass. As it should be.

Cattle will put on several pounds a day eating all that thick tallgrass, which is loaded with mineral-rich nutrients from the flinty soil. Some say this is the best beef in the world. All because of this magical stony soil.

There are bus tours that take you way out amidst the see of tallgrass. Or you can hike.

In the calving season of spring, the buffaloes can be a bit aggressive, so we chose to stand our distance.

— Last Visited March 2015 — 

More Information on the National Tallgrass Prairie Preserve

Here’s a great article on Post Rock Country and using limestone for everything, including fenceposts. If you like this sort of thing, you should plan in advance to do the Burning Up the Prairie events in early spring, here’s a post I did on it. And a great post from the Travel Kansas website. If you’re thinking of going to the Preserve, here are some details on your visit. There’s a pretty decent restaurant in nearby Strong City called Ad Astra. Pretty great for a small town. If you need a place to stay, the Clover Cliff Ranch is a fantastic B&B. I typically don’t like B&Bs, but the owner Susie is an amazing host, lived in New York City for a while and is wicked smart.