The Bluestem Pasture Region of Kansas
You are in the heart of one of the great grazing lands of the world. Thousands of buffalo, antelope, and elk once roamed here. After the Civil War, and the wild days of the Texas cattle drives, it became famous as a feeding ground for beef cattle. Today, over 300,000 head are shipped in each spring from Southwestern states - more than the yearly average to all Kansas in trail-driving days. Every summer a million head, counting local herds, are fattened on its nutritious grasses.
In these pastures are four and a half million acres. They extend from north to south across Kansas in a narrow oval, two counties wide. They comprise the last large segment of true prairie which once stretched from the forests from the East to the Great Plains. Popularly, they are known as the Flint Hills. They are better named after the two predominate grasses, Big and Little Bluestem - grasses so rich that in few other regions can so many cattle be concentrated.
Marker is on Interstate 35 at milepost 96, on the left when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
