Native Stone Byway | Accent on Natural Landscaping

Reference my earlier posts Tallgrass Prairie, Flint Hills Tallgrass Prairie – Part 1 and Flint Hills Tallgrass Prairie – Part 2.

We started our third day in the Tallgrass Prairie by catching a tour at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve’s Visitor Center. We boarded the bus with many other eager enthusiasts and began our journey on a bumpy dirt road through the surrounding prairie. When we got to the highest point in the prairie, we all got out and enjoyed a 360 degree view. It was almost overwhelming! What a awesome sight!!

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Visitor Center Prairie Display

Fellow wildflower enthusiasts taking photos in the Flint Hills Tallgrass Prairie

Slender Venus’ Looking-Glass (Triodanis leptocarpa)

Re-introduced in 2009, bison roam Windmill Pasture at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. Photo by Susan Forbes

Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) photo by Susan Forbes

Blue Wild Indigo (Baptisia australis) surrounded by a sea of tall grasses.

The grayish black is the Flint embedded in these Limestone rocks. Large limestone rocks found throughout the Flint Hills along with the prairie grasses ranchers coveted for their cattle saved this area from development and farming

After the tour, we drove north to the Native Stone Byway. On this trek we found even more native prairie plants and some of the most beautiful stone fences made of native limestone.

Because stone was plentiful and pioneers needed to build fences to protect their land holdings, in 1867 Wabaunsee County, Kansas passed a law abolishing the open range and provided for payment of 40 cents per rod (16-1/2 ft) to landowners to build and maintain a 4-1/2 foot dry-stacked stone fence. Note the flat, open countryside. Although trees did pop up now and again, they seemed typically to grow along creeks, rivers, ponds and lakes.

We topped the day off with a visit to the Alma Creamery and enjoyed samples of some of the most delicious, creamy cheeses you can imagine. So, of course, we had to take some home with us. (My family and I have enjoyed every bite!)

Comments

Cindy says

July 26, 2019 at 10:44 am

A lot of times, new men to the area and prisoners made the stone walls. The ones who could build good walls were valued. Some walls had to be rebuilt. The workers got their room and board. Their characters were studied. Men, especially the ones who stayed on without jobs, were worrisome. Some settlers did build their own. Some of the men who stayed became settlers, established themselves and married into families.

- Donna VanBuecken says
  
  July 26, 2019 at 11:04 am
  
  Thanks for the history tidbit, Cindy.

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