On August 26th, 2024 residents of Wichita, Kansas woke up to an elk running around the east side of town. It was spotted about 6:30 a.m. at 37th and Rock among the hustle and bustle of people starting the work week. Between sips of their caffeine source of choice, a few lucky people caught a rare glimpse of historic Kansas. Two hundred years ago the golf course up the road or the majestic State Highway 96 didn’t exist. People in the area stayed along the Arkansas River or Chisholm Creek a few miles to the west not hotels next to a Korean restaurant. We have no idea if a herd of elk wandered through on August 26th, 1824 of course but it’s not unimaginable. They lived in the transition zone between the tall grasses of the eastern prairie and the mixed grass of the central plains.
An example of Big Bluestem. This plant was eight to nine feet tall. Photo taken by auther
The tallgrass prairie covered over 167 million acres and stretched from Texas through Kansas into Canada and east into Wisconsin and Illinois. It was named for the tall grasses that dominated the landscape. Species like big blue stem, Indian grass, and switch grass reached for the skies. Big Bluestem grew up to 10 feet tall while the others were slightly shorter topping out around five feet. They provided habitat for animals big and small. Reverend Mr. Boynton from Cincinnati, Ohio toured Kansas in 1855.
The reverend described the animals he saw during an address to his church. The land was full of “countless numbers of buffalo, elk, moose, deer, and other animals” that find subsistence on the prairie.[1] Another observer around Fort Riley (near Manhattan) said that “We have also considerable game, such as deer, elk, buffalo, antelope, turkeys, zuffles [not sure what these are], grouse, ducks, partridges, etc etc with any amount of wolves and panthers, while the rivers abound with fish of the finest quality.”[2] Today, it’s hard to see many of these animals on the landscape. Thankfully, it is not impossible.
We will never see the grand herds of animals nor the sea of grasses reaching taller than the tallest human but we can see glimpses of it. In 1986, Fort Riley re-introduced elk to the Kansas tallgrass prairie. The herd steadily grew. In the last few years, they started spilling out onto the surrounding area. People spot elk on the Konza Prairie and within Manhattan city limits. Elk at the Sedgwick County Zoo were large, mysterious mountain animals to me as a kid and I never thought (probably naively) elk would escape Fort Riley. Elk, black bears, and mountain lions returning do present some challenges but watching these animals come back is thrilling. The Wichita elk wasn’t just a random animal wandering through the city. It was a time portal to the historic tallgrass prairie and our connection to it.
Sources
[1] A Tour in Kansas, The Kansas Herald of Freedom, 1/6/1855.
[2] Plaindealer’s Correspondent, The Kansas Herald of Freedom, 4/21/1855.