Oklahoma Prairie Country

   Welcome to my Home Page! You will find interesting facts and information on this site pertaining to nature, conservation, tall grass prairies, prairie wild flowers, and the American bison. There will also be information about the pioneers of the west, cowboys, desperadoes, Native Americans, ranchers, and early oil barons. Most of these topics will pertain particularly to the state of Oklahoma, and especially to northeast Oklahoma. You will soon notice that much of what is presented on this web site is influenced by The Tallgrass Prairie.

   The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, which is owned and managed by the The Nature Conservancy, is located in northeastern Oklahoma, near Pawhuska. It consists of about thirty-nine thousand acres of rolling hills at the southern end of the Flint Hills. From atop one of the hills one can view a spectacular panorama of colorful wild flowers and tall bluestem grass and wild rye waving in the breezes. Two thousand American bison grazing on the lush grasses transports one to a time many years ago when the prairies were teaming with bison and the Native Americans of the Osage tribe, mounted on horseback, rode across the hills and valleys.

   When this great country began there was an estimated 142 million acres of tallgrass prairie extending from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Now less than 10% remains, and most of that is scattered in small land holdings. We are fortunate to have the largest contiguous managed acreage of tallgrass prairie here in Oklahoma. The Nature Conservancy, which owns it, is dedicated to restoring it to its original prairie ecosystem. The public is invited to visit The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, with its 2000 bison (buffalo), and learn about the conservation efforts being introduced by the Conservancy and the many research projects being conducted by our Oklahoma universities. You can learn more by visiting the other pages on this web site.

   This spring and the first part of summer has been very wet. We received twice the amount of rainfall that we usually get. This is very different from the last few years when drought conditions existed from the beginning to end of the summer months. The prairie grasses have reacted accordingly, with the Big Blue Stem, in areas where there are no grazing animals, already reaching 8 ft. tall. Last year the grass was barely 3 ft. tall by the fall months. Other plants, such as Giant Ragweed, are 12-14 ft. tall. The hiking trails, which have mowed paths, are like hallways with green walls.

   An interesting reaction of nature to this unusual amount of rainfall is that a plant, not seen before on this prairie, has been seen and identified. It is Quillwort, Isoetes, which is a semi-aquatic plant. The leaves are quill-like in that they are hollow. There is an underground rhizome, which contain male and female sporangia. Some botanists consider it to be the last remnant of the fossil tree Lepidodendron.