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The Tallgrass Prairie played a significant role in the development of America once forested habitats of eastern United States occupied or exploited; travelers found that the vast and open grasslands provided new challenges, new opportunities, and a new way of life.
From the Eyes of our Forefathers ...
The first European explorers were 17th century Frenchmen who discovered a world of sun, wide horizons, grass, and beautiful flowers that were deeply rooted in rich organic soils. The original Tallgrass Prairie extended from western Indiana to the eastern portions of Kansas, Nebraska; North and South Dakota and south to Oklahoma and Texas. This area of rich soils would eventually become the "bread basket" of our Nation and the world.
Roaming herds of bison and elk too numerous to count were common. Abundant populations of prairie chicken, long-billed curlews, and many species of waterfowl that "blocked out the sun" were frequently mentioned in journals of early explorers.
The settlement of the Tallgrass Prairie began in the early 1840s and proceeded westward from Indiana and eastern Illinois. Challenges facing early pioneers who ventured into this remote landscape included threatening prairie fires, prolonged summer drought, damaging locust plagues of autumn, and fierce winter blizzards. To survive, pioneer families were ruggedly independent with a capacity to cooperate with neighbors in times of need.
By the 1890s, the vast Tallgrass Prairie was essentially gone. The diverse grassland communities and prairie sod were gradually converted by oxen and plow to cropland. Wet prairies and their related wetlands were also drained and converted to corn, oats, and wheat. Rural communities, whose economies were largely based on agriculture, sprang up throughout the region and supported the production, use, and transportation of these commodities.
... to the Views from a Passing Aircraft
Unlike the grassland expanses observed by our forefathers, today's prairie traveler cannot help but notice vast acres of cropland. The grasslands that provided forage for oxen, horses, and cattle of the early pioneers have been converted to corn, soybean, and grain fields. Less than one-tenth of one percent of the orginal Tallgrass Prairie remains.
Many of the meandering prairie streams that provided habitat for a host of aquatic flora and fauna have become ditches that drain wetlands or transport water over laden with man's uses of the land. Circular irrigated fields now add to the geometric forms of squared and rectangular fields and the complex matrix of roads and trails. All of this is most apparent in a flight over the landscape which was yesterday's vista of grassland wilderness. Fish and wildlife dependent upon prairie habitats for survival have decreased significantly. Legislative assemblies, county commissioners, and township boards may govern the land that was once subject only to the laws of Nature.
