During the same time, the bison herds were eliminated, along with a great majority of the Native Americans who called the Great Plains their home. Ranchers and railroads, soldiers and prospectors helped push back the last frontier as they either crossed or settled these lands.
By the early 1930s, the midsection of America was in trouble. Drought turned the plowed topsoil of the former grasslands to a powder, creating a Dust Bowl that basically destroyed farming and ranching hopes. Economic failures of the Great Depression created waves of migrants who were forced to leave the area. Emergency measures were taken, allowing the federal government to purchase and restore damaged lands and to resettle destitute families. Twenty years later and a hundred years after the Homestead Act, the National Grasslands were born, and an outstanding conservation success story began.
In 1960, seventeen areas on the Great Plains, located from North Dakota to mid-Texas, were established as National Grasslands. Grass is the key to maintaining the productivity of these areas. Without it the soil blows away, and rainfall on the barren ground can’t absorb the water. Replanted to provide soil and water conservation, the intermingled public and private lands complement each other, conserving natural resources of grass, water and wildlife habitat.
Private farmlands within the National Grassland boundaries add diversity to the prairie habitat. Wildlife, including many declining, threatened or endangered species, thrives in these reborn areas, and water developments also provide benefits to livestock operations. Fishing, birding, hiking, hunting, mountain biking, photography and sightseeing are some of the recreational uses provided on National Grasslands.
Several of these areas are in the High Plains Public Radio broadcast area, including the Cimarron National Grassland, which borders the Santa Fe Trail in the southwest corner of Kansas, and is home to deer, prairie chickens, and a recently released elk herd that marks the first wild release since native elk inhabited the land more than a hundred years ago.
To the west lies the Comanche Grassland, in the southeast corner of Colorado. The Comanche has approximately 275 different species of birds, and one of the longest dinosaur track-ways in the world.
The Rita Blanca Grassland covers over 90,000 acres in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, and sports a wide variety of wildlife and plant life. Further south in the Texas Panhandle, the McClellan Creek Grassland is located near Pampa, and includes the Lake McClellan Recreation
Area.
Near the border of Western Oklahoma lies Black Kettle National Grassland, with over 30,000 acres near Cheyenne, Oklahoma, and the remaining 500 acres near Canadian, Texas, and the Lake Marvin Recreation Area.
Thanks to the USDA Forest Service and Joe Hartman, District Ranger at the Cimarron National Grassland, for providing information for this story.
For High Plains Public Radio, I’m Lynn Boitano in Edmond, Oklahoma.
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High Plains History is a production of High Plains Public Radio.
