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Pretty flowers can be seen throughout the area. Credit: Cimarron National Grassland
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| Point of Rocks. Credit: Cimarron National Grassland |
Travelers to the extreme southwest corner of Kansas will
find the Cimarron National Grassland, one of only 20 natural grasslands in the
U.S. A place that if you close your eyes
for a few minutes can take you back in time almost 200 years to the gentle call
of the Cimarron River, the quiet solitude of middle spring and the creaks and
groans of the wagon trains as they bumped along the Santa Fe Trail.
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| The Middle Spring was a reliable water source. Credit: Larry & Carolyn and the Santa Fe Trail Research site. |
With more than 100,000 acres, the Cimarron Natural Grassland is
the largest area of public land in Kansas and home to the longest
publicly-owned section of the Santa Fe Trail. Visitors will find Santa Fe Trail
ruts still visible today, as well as Point of Rocks and Middle Spring. Point of Rocks is a large outcropping of rock
that could be seen from miles around and marked the way for trail weary
travelers to Middle Spring, one of only three reliable water sources along a 50-mile stretch of the trail.
Following its Santa Fe Trail days, the area was used
extensively for ranching and grain production.
However, the Dust Bowl in the 1930s heavily damaged the area with Morton County, which
is home to most of the Grasslands. It was named the most devastated county in
the nation. The Federal government began
buying the land from bankrupt farmers and implemented aggressive conservation
efforts that restored the Grasslands to their natural beauty.
Today, the Grasslands are home to three distinct ecosystems -
the shortgrass prairie, sand-sage prairie and wooded riparian along the riverbed. Visitors will find deer, antelope and other
wildlife on the grasslands and opportunities to enjoy bird watching, scenic
driving, picnicking, camping and fishing.
