Flint Hills

Coordinates: 37°17′00″N 96°40′31″W / 37.28333°N 96.67528°W / 37.28333; -96.67528
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Flint Hills
Map of the Flint Hills ecoregion
LocationManhattan, Kansas (largest), Great Plains, United States
Coordinates37°17′00″N 96°40′31″W / 37.28333°N 96.67528°W / 37.28333; -96.67528
Length157 mi (253 km)
Width93 mi (150 km)
Area9,936 sq mi (25,730 km2)
Elevation1,680 ft (512 m)
WebsiteFlint Hills Website

The Flint Hills, historically known as Bluestem Pastures or Blue Stem Hills,[1] are a region of hills and prairies that lie mostly in eastern Kansas. It is named for the abundant residual flint eroded from the bedrock that lies near or at the surface. It consists of a band of hills extending from Marshall and Washington Counties in the north to Cowley County, Kansas and Kay and Osage Counties in Oklahoma in the south, to Geary and Shawnee Counties west to east.[2] Oklahomans generally refer to the same geologic formation as the Osage Hills or "the Osage."

The Flint Hills Ecoregion is designated as a distinct region because it has the densest coverage of intact

controlled burns
conducted by ranchers every spring to renew the prairie grasses for cattle to graze.

The Flint Hills Discovery Center, a science and history museum focusing on the Flint Hills, opened in Manhattan, Kansas, in April 2012.

Description

Konza Prairie Preserve, a tallgrass prairie in the Flint Hills
A walking trail in the Konza Prairie shows the height of the grasses in the fall.

Explorer

Flint Hills Scenic Byway
, which passes through the region.

Geology

The rocks exposed in the Flint Hills were laid down about 250 million years ago during the

Permian Period. During this time, much of the Midwest, including Kansas and Oklahoma, was covered with shallow seas. As a result, much of the Flint Hills is composed of limestone and shale, with plentiful fossils of prehistoric sea creatures. The most notable layer of chert-bearing limestone is the Florence Limestone Member, which is approximately 45-foot thick (14 m). Numerous roadcuts of the Florence Member are prominent along Interstate 70 in Riley County, Kansas. Unlike the Pennsylvanian limestones to the east, however, many of the limestones in the Flint Hills contain several bands of chert or flint. Because chert is much less soluble than the limestone surrounding it, the weathering of the limestone has left behind a clay
soil with abundant chert gravel. Most of the hilltops in the region are capped with this chert gravel.

The highest point in the Flint Hills is Butler County High Point, with an elevation of 1680 ft (512 m).[3]

Environment

Due to shallow outcroppings of limestone and chert that lay just underneath the soil surface, corn and wheat farming were not practical over much of the area since plowing the land wasn't feasible. For this reason, cattle ranching became the main agricultural activity in the region.

Never having been ploughed over and sparsely developed, the Flint Hills represent the last expanse of intact tallgrass prairie in the nation.[4] They present the best opportunity for sustained preservation of this unique habitat that once covered the vast Great Plains. Most of the plains, such as the Central tall grasslands to the north, have better soil than the Flint Hills and a richer plant cover, but have almost entirely been converted to farmland.[2]

Landscape of Flint Hills

Tallgrass prairie is renewed by fire and grazing, which also keeps back the growth of trees and shrubs. Prominent grass species are big bluestem (Andropogon gerardi), switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), and Indian grass (Sorghastrum nutans).

Animals native to the Flint Hills include the American bison, which once grazed the area by the millions and were almost entirely exterminated, but have now been reintroduced. The elk that once roamed the region are gone.

The

World Wildlife Fund have designated the Flint Hills as an ecoregion, distinct from other grasslands of the Great Plains.[5][6]

Four tallgrass prairie preserves are located in the Flint Hills. The largest of these, the

Konza Prairie, which is managed as a tallgrass prairie biological research station by Kansas State University and is located near Manhattan
.

In popular culture

  • William Least Heat-Moon wrote a tribute to the Flint Hills and the Kansans who live there in his book PrairyErth.
  • In mathematics, the Flint Hills series (which is named after the region) is an infinite series for which it is unknown whether or not the series converges. The convergence of the Flint Hills series is related to how irrational the number π is. [10] [11]

See also

References

  1. ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Flint Hills
  2. ^ a b Klinkenborg, Verlyn (April 2007). "Splendor of the Grass: The Prairie's Grip is Unbroken in the Flint Hills of Kansas". National Geographic. Archived from the original on February 26, 2018. Retrieved March 27, 2007.
  3. ^ "Flint Hills". Peakbagger.com. November 1, 2004. Retrieved July 24, 2014.
  4. ^ Berger, Joel; Beckmann, Jon (February 19, 2020). "Animals large and small once covered North America's prairies – and in some places, they could again". The Conversation. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
  5. ^ "Ecoregion Maps and GIS Resources". United States Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved April 10, 2008.
  6. ^ "Flint Hills tall grasslands". Terrestrial Ecoregions. World Wildlife Fund. Retrieved April 17, 2007.
  7. ^ "Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve". U.S. National Park Service. July 7, 2014. Retrieved July 24, 2014.
  8. ^ "Kansas Nature Conservation, Environment Issues". The Nature Conservancy. April 11, 2014. Archived from the original on May 1, 2010. Retrieved July 24, 2014.
  9. ^ "Kansas Nature Conservation, Environment Issues | The Nature Conservancy". Nature.org. April 11, 2014. Archived from the original on February 9, 2009. Retrieved July 24, 2014.
  10. ^ Mathematics StackExchange Flint Hills series
  11. ^ "On convergence of the Flint Hills series" by Max A. Alekseyev Alekseyev, Max A. (2011), On convergence of the Flint Hills series,
    arXiv:1104.5100

External links

Maps
Photos