The Flint Hills tour

I stayed in El Dorado, Kansas, last night (Saturday).  Probably could have stayed in Emporia and entered the Flint Hills National Scenic Byway (Kansas 177) at Cassody, but it was a pleasant drive up.  The southern terrain is rather flat. 

Cassody, but the way, is the Prairie Chicken capitol of the world, for whatever that is worth.  The Byway follows undulating plateaus and mesas that have been formed by millions of years of erosion of the limestone that was left from an inland sea.  The erosion of the softer parts of limestone has created the valleys and shelves, which eventually became covered with prairie (French for meadow).  The valleys are lush with trees and for the wider ones farm crops such as corn, hay, and soybeans.

At one time the tall grass prairie stretched from Kansas to Illinois, from Oklahoma to Manitoba.  Now, the Flint Hills contain the last remnants. Less than four percent of the 140 million acres exists.  The tops of the rolling plateaus did not allow for plowing, hence it stayed available for grazing.  The Flint Hills are considered the lushest grazing lands in the world.  Cattle are trucked in from hundreds of miles to fatten up.  It is estimated that during grazing season (April through July) that cattle can gain 1.8 pounds per day. (I have felt that way around the holidays!)  Of course before cattle, the great plains were the home of massive herds of buffalo.

I stopped by a scenic overlook and was impressed with the quietude.  I think that’s why I was intrigued by the area…vast expanses of grasslands, rock and quiet.  Quiet is hard to find these days!

 As I noted from yesterday, Kansas is hot.  Today was no exception…I was hoping a cool Canadian air mass might have floated in, but that won’t start for a few weeks yet. It was in the low 90s at 9 a.m.

Along the byway there are three transmitters broadcasting at 1680 AM on the dial.  It was helpful.

I stopped in Cottonwood Falls.  There, the courthouse for Chase County is the oldest courthouse in service and one of the oldest in the country.  Like almost everything around here, the older buildings are built of limestone.  Active quarries still provide limestone for many uses.  I met a nice couple from Nebraska taking in the Byway in much the way I was. It being Sunday, most of the quaint stores on "Broadway" were closed.

I then made my way to the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.  It contains nearly 11,000 acres, protecting a nationally significant example of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem. The Nature Conservancy owns the land; the National Park Service manages it.  It is free to the public and is still under development.  I’m proud to be a member of The Nature Conservancy, which is dedicated to protecting lands around the world, while allowing access to enjoy (much different than the Sierra Club!)

The large home, barn and out buildings were part of a huge private farm/ranch from the late 1800s.  A park service ranger is at the visitor’s office in the home and you can do a self tour and watch a video.  There are “school bus” tours out into the grasslands…one was already out and the next one was not scheduled for 3 hours…the do run them more often in cooler weather.

       A limestone school house built in 1882, now on Tallgrass National Prairie Preserve property.

I decided to walk the one plus mile trail.  It was a hard call.  It was now 98 degrees, but there was a slight breeze.  It was an opportunity to see the great mixture of grasses and wildflowers.  By the walk’s end I had totally soaked a T-shirt.  Luckily I’ve been doing a lot of yard work and golf in hot humid weather this spring and summer, so I really didn’t feel too drained…just wet!  An interesting thing was that I parked next to a car from my same county in Indiana, out of a dozen or so in the lot!  I think those folks were on the bus tour as it was gone when I left.

 On the video I saw, someone was quoted as saying it was hard to capture this land on canvas or by word (that would also include camera).  Hopefully these help capture it a little

I took a short drive to Council Grove and it was past lunch time.  I saw a restaurant on the main drag called the Hays House.  Several cars were there, so I went in.  I had a great Sunday buffet lunch.  As I was eating I read in some of my literature that this was the longest continuously operating restaurant west of the Mississippi (1857). (How do people know this?)  Covered wagons passed by this building on the Santa Fe Trail. It also said how wonderful it’s fried chicken was, which I had from the buffet, and their great pies, which I had as well (custard!).  It was good to cool off, rest and have a great meal.
See a YouTube review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgnCfmNym7k

A great lunch at a local historic place...picture covered wagons going by this building in the 1850s and 1860s.

From there I drove to Manhattan, Kansas, home of Kansas State University.  It’s an attractive, compact campus, again with most of the buildings made of local limestone.  It was 104 in Manhattan.  Welcome to Kansas!  It was then that I noticed I had my University of Missouri T-shirt on…still damp from my walk, but no one at the gas station across from the university seemed to notice and I was not mugged. 

One feature of Manhattan I noticed was the huge Tuttle Creek Reservoir dam just to the north of town.  This reservoir is the largest of many that the Army Corps of Engineers built in north central Kansas for flood control, not only for local towns, but for the water it sent down the Kansas River toward Kansas City.  There were two huge floods in KC in 1951 and 1953.  I recall hearing in the 50s and 60s about the construction of these dams as I grew up.

The rest of the trip was uneventful as I made my way to the north part of Kansas along US 36 at Marysville where I stayed.  I recall this highway as our family drove (in 1961 I think) to Denver from KC (before I-70 was completed). It’s a straight shot from St. Joseph, Mo., to Denver, and is the route of the famous Pony Express.  This was station number 11 of more than 180 along the way!

As I mentioned before…this was a route I had hoped to take many years ago.  I’m glad I did…it was quite interesting, albeit hot.  It’s a part of the country that holds a lot of history as well unique terrain!