The Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, in Osage County, Oklahoma near Pawhuska, Oklahoma, is the largest protected tract of tallgrass prairie in the world. Managed by The Nature Conservancy, the preserve contains owned by the Conservancy and another leased in what was the original tallgrass region of the Great Plains that stretched from Texas to Manitoba.

Description

The preserve is located at the south end of the Flint Hills, also known as the Osage Hills. The rocky, rolling prairie stretches from northern Kansas into Oklahoma. Exposed limestone formations make cultivation difficult, and thus the Flint Hills have survived much as they were when they were a hunting ground for area tribes such as the Wichita, Osage, and Kaw. The region is called “The Osage” by Oklahomans, referring to the name of the Native American nation occupying this territory and to the county named for them. Pilots call The Osage the “Black Hole” when flying over it at night because it is so lightly populated.

thumb|left|200px|In March [[bison graze the new green grass in areas of the preserve that were burned the previous fall.]]

The preserve is bisected by the well-timbered Salt Creek and its tributaries. The eastern portion of the preserve is in the Cross Timbers, a north-south running belt of tangled oak forests that were a major impediment to early travelers heading west.

The tallgrass prairie owes its existence to fire, whether caused by lightning or manmade. Without fire, the prairie quickly becomes brushland. The Native Americans were aware of this and burned the prairie regularly to nurture new growth of succulent grasses and to kill invasive trees and shrubs. The Nature Conservancy has continued this practice with a process called “patch burning,” in which about one-third of the prairie is burned each year. This process has proven beneficial not only in providing grazing for bison and cattle, but also for the habitat of the threatened greater prairie-chickens, which also inhabit the preserve in small numbers.

Bison are the most prominent attraction of the preserve. Bison are rounded up each fall and the excess numbers sold. Cattle are grazed on . The preserve supports 755 plant species, many unique to the tallgrass prairie, and more than 300 bird species. Forest trees include several species of oak, cottonwoods, ash, red cedar, elm, sycamore, and others.

The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is on what used to be the Osage Indian Reservation. When forced to agree to household allotments of communal land, the Osage retained sub-surface mineral rights on all their former lands. Members of the nation have had what are known as Osage headrights to a portion of this communal resource and are paid a portion of leasing revenues for mineral production. In the early 20th century, the discovery of petroleum on their land made the Osage the richest people per capita in the world in the 1920s and 1930s, but they were subject to harassment, manipulation, fraud and murder in what was known as a 'Reign of Terror' as whites tried to gain control of family members' headrights. While oil production has declined, there are still more than 100 producing oil wells on the preserve, among which the bison graze. The foreman of the Chapman-Barnard ranch, Ben Johnson Sr. was a rodeo champion. His son, also a rodeo champion, was Ben Johnson Jr., an actor who appeared in more than 300 movies and won an Oscar for his role in The Last Picture Show.

See also

  • Conservation of American bison
  • List of protected grasslands of North America

References

  • Tallgrass Prairie Preserve
  • Tallgrass Prairie Preserve page including photos and videos on TravelOK.com - Oklahoma's Official tourism website
  • Restoration Row, New York Times article by Timothy Egan, May 28, 2008
  • Voices of Oklahoma interview with Harvey Payne and Jenk Jones First person interview conducted on July 15, 2014 with Harvey Payne and Jenk Jones talking about the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.