Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve
The rolling grasses and soft morning mist of Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, one of the rarest landscapes remaining in North America. The preserve protects a small surviving piece of the vast tallgrass prairie that once stretched across millions of acres from Texas north into Canada. Today, less than four percent of that original prairie ecosystem still exists.
The Flint Hills became one of the last refuges of the tallgrass prairie because the rocky limestone beneath the soil made large-scale farming difficult. While most of the prairie across the Midwest was plowed under for agriculture, these hills remained largely intact, preserving a glimpse of what early travelers and settlers once encountered as they moved westward across America.
Recognizing the rarity and importance of this disappearing landscape, Congress established Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in 1996 as part of the National Park system. Today, the preserve protects this unique ecosystem as well as a vanishing piece of the natural and cultural history of the American heartland.
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