One Of The Largest Preserves In The Country With Over 4000 Acres Of Land And Trails Inhabited By Popular Bison Herd And Elk
A newer author, Jackson Burnett, wrote the timeless line, "The prairie skies can always make you see more than what you believe." Unfortunately for modern Americans, the tall grass prairie is no where near it's original grandeur - once covering 170 million acres, now it's about 4% that. Luckily, though, there are parks dedicated to the tall grasses and that beautiful sky that makes you see the unbelievable. One of these parks is Prairie Park in southwest Missouri, about 45 minutes from Joplin. "This is a very special place," says Dana Hoisington, naturalist at Prairie Park.
His data to support the statement is it is one of the largest preserves in the country - about 4000 acres and has an extremely popular bison herd and elk. They also have 6 trails, about 15 miles in length, and most of them "interconnect and you can make it from one end of the park to the other 3-4 miles away," explains Hoisington. They also host school groups and it is a very popular astronomy spot. "We have a couple that comes every year in August to view the Preseid Meteor Shower," explains Hoisington.
The park itself was founded in 1980, but it's association with humans is much more ancient. Native Americans have been around the area for thousands of years, but the tribe most associated with the area is the Osage from about the 1500s onwards. "The Osage were more sedentary then other plains tribes," explains Hoisington, "they had log houses and gardens." Another interesting fact is that they were a physically tall tribe. "When the average European was around 5'5", the Osage were commonly 6'2"-6'4"," says Hoisington, "perhaps because of this they were pretty warlike and wouldn't back down from a fight."
As was the case with almost every confrontation between the Native peoples and the Europeans, though, the Osage were pushed onto reservations, mainly in Oklahoma. Though the Osage were more sedentary, they still followed a somewhat hunter/gatherer lifestyle - drifting some with the buffalo and what the earth provides for food and shelter. Once the Europeans arrived, the prairie of the midwest was plowed for farms because it is very easy to do so. Luckily for the modern age, the land that Prairie Park is on has a lot of sandstone just beneath the topsoil, meaning it was extremely hard to till. Therefore, large parts of the land has been untouched, except for "some that was used for hay." Interesting fact - during World War 1, Barton County, where Prairie Park is located, was one of the primary exporters of hay to feed the mules in Europe.
The wildlife of the Prairie is varied and includes, of course, the previously mentioned Bison and Elk, but also badgers, armadillo, coyotes, owls, snakes, and many birds. Of particular note is the regal fritillary butterfly, a species that is unique to the prairies of the United States. To the untrained eye, this beautiful butterfly resembles a monarch, but the hindwings are dark and have strongly contrasting white spots. The reason why this is unique to the prairie is “it only feeds on the prairie violet,” explains Hoisington. Hoisington and other rangers frequently survey the prairie for regal fritillary and other animals such as frogs, toads, and bees. Lately, the emphasis has been on bees, as “they have been in the news due to they are dying in large numbers,” Hoisington says.
No mention of a place like Prairie Park can be complete without a bit of time devoted to the lady who made places like this possible. Katharine Ordway was born in 1899 and was an heir to a huge mining operation in Minnesota. She fell in love with the prairie and in her 60s started purchasing and conserving vast lands of prairie – eventually totaling about 31,000 acres. Prairie Park was part of these purchases and, thanks to her, people are able to access untouched prairie for generations to come.
School groups, tourists, locals, and people just passing through make up the 30,000 people that visit every year. All of them leave with the feeling of vastness that places like the prairie can bring. The landscape so central to the United States, literally and figuratively, has a permanent place that people like Hoisington are working to educate others about and preserve. Because everyone deserves a chance to experience, what is so eloquently stated by Laura Ingalls Wilder in Little House, “All around them there was nothing but grassy prairie spreading to the edge of the sky.”
Andrew Malo
A graduate of Northeastern Illinois University in Education, Andrew has taught for the past decade in Chicago, New Mexico, and Japan. He enjoys tinkering with trucks and motorcycles, woodworking, reading and computer programming.
Make Sure To Stay At:
Osage Prairie RV Park, with historic sites, fun festivals, and excellent amenities that make this Nevada Missouri campground a fantastic place to enjoy one's next camping vacation.