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The Flint Hills, historically known as Bluestem Pastures or Blue Stem Hills, are a region of
hills A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit, and is usually applied to peaks which are above elevation compared to the relative landmass, though not as prominent as mountains. Hills fall und ...
and
prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...
s that lie mostly in eastern
Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...
. It is named for the abundant residual
flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...
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. 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
tallgrass prairie The tallgrass prairie is an ecosystem native to central North America. Historically, natural and Historical ecology#Anthropogenic fire, anthropogenic fire, as well as grazing by large mammals (primarily bison) provided periodic disturbances to th ...
in North America. Due to its rocky soil, the early settlers were unable to plow the area, resulting in the prevalence of cattle ranches as opposed to the crop land more typical of the
Great Plains The Great Plains is a broad expanse of plain, flatland in North America. The region stretches east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. They are the western part of the Interior Plains, which include th ...
. These ranches rely on annual 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 Manhattan is a city in and the county seat of Riley County, Kansas, United States, although the city extends into Pottawatomie County, Kansas, Pottawatomie County. It is located in northeastern Kansas at the junction of the Kansas River and Big ...
, in April 2012.


Description

Explorer Zebulon Pike first coined the name the Flint Hills in 1806 when he entered into his journal, "passed very ruff
flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...
hills". The underlying bedrock of the hills is a flinty limestone. The largest town in the area is Manhattan, Kansas, and the hills can be accessed from the 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 The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...
, including Kansas and Oklahoma, was covered with shallow seas. As a result, much of the Flint Hills is composed of
limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
and
shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...
, with plentiful fossils of prehistoric sea creatures. The most notable layer of
chert Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a prec ...
-bearing limestone is the Florence Limestone Member, which is approximately . Numerous roadcuts of the Florence Member are prominent along Interstate 70 in
Riley County, Kansas Riley County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kansas. Its county seat and largest city is Manhattan. As of the 2020 census, the population was 71,959. The county was named after Bennet Riley, the 7th governor of California, and ...
. 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 Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...
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).


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. 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. 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)''. The expansion of shrubs and trees, referred to as woody plant encroachment, is a prominent regime shift and risk to the existing tallgrass prairie. Animals native to the Flint Hills include the
American bison The American bison (''Bison bison''; : ''bison''), commonly known as the American buffalo, or simply buffalo (not to be confused with Bubalina, true buffalo), is a species of bison that is endemic species, endemic (or native) to North America. ...
, 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
United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on De ...
and the World Wildlife Fund have designated the Flint Hills as an
ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) is an ecological and geographic area that exists on multiple different levels, defined by type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and c ...
, distinct from other grasslands of the
Great Plains The Great Plains is a broad expanse of plain, flatland in North America. The region stretches east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. They are the western part of the Interior Plains, which include th ...
. Four tallgrass prairie preserves are located in the Flint Hills. The largest of these, the
Tallgrass Prairie Preserve The Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, in Osage County, Oklahoma near Foraker, Oklahoma, is the largest protected tract of tallgrass prairie in the world. Managed by The Nature Conservancy, the preserve contains owned by the Conser ...
, in the Osage Hills near
Pawhuska, Oklahoma Pawhuska ( Osage: 𐓄𐓘𐓢𐓶𐓮𐓤𐓘, ''hpahúska'', lit.: ''White Hair''; Chiwere: ''Paháhga'') is a city in and the county seat of Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 2,98 ...
boasts a large population of bison and is an important refuge for other wildlife such as the greater prairie chicken ''(Tympanuchus cupido)''. The other preserves in Kansas, are the
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located in the Flint Hills region of Kansas, north of Strong City, Kansas, Strong City. The preserve protects a nationally significant example of the once vast tallgrass ...
in northern Chase County near Strong City, the Flint Hills Tallgrass Prairie Preserve east of Cassoday, "the Prairie Chicken Capital of the World", and the Konza Prairie, which is managed as a tallgrass prairie biological research station by Kansas State University and is located near
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
.


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 is."On convergence of the Flint Hills series" by Max A. Alekseyev


See also

* Jacobs Creek flood * List of ecoregions in the United States (WWF) * List of protected grasslands of North America * Unbound Gravel - annual gravel cycling event in Flint Hills


References


External links


Flint Hills Regional Council



Flint Hills publications at KGI Online Library
State Library of Kansas ;Maps
Flint Hills Map (pdf)
- Kansas Geological Survey (University of Kansas)
Flint Hills Map (pdf)
- Flint Hills Discovery Center ;Photos

{{Authority control Grasslands of the North American Great Plains Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands in the United States Geology of Kansas Landforms of Kansas Ecoregions of Kansas Geographic regions of Oklahoma Hills of Kansas Grasslands of Oklahoma