Home to some of our planets only surviving tallgrass prairies on. Nestled in the rolling hills of south-central Kansas, Flint Hills National Golf Club features greens designed by renowned golf course architect Tom Fazio. Cattle ranching remains the dominant agricultural activity in the Flint Hills, with a legacy of cattle ranching extending back for over 150 years in the region. The Flint Hills of Kansas are one of the most distinctive geological regions of the world. The calcium in the limestone, in fact, erodes into the soil, making the native prairie plants extra nutritious for grazing animals. However, the same rocks which made crop cultivation difficult helped to preserve the native characteristics of the Flint Hills and made the area ideal for cattle grazing. These rare bottomland prairie areas are covered by a layer of river-deposited sediments that have developed thick soils that are especially valuable for cultivation. The thin, rocky soils and steep slopes of the Flint Hills limited crop cultivation to river and stream bottoms, such as along Fox Creek just east of the historic ranch headquarters area. Extension programs present educational information related to agriculture and natural resources, family and consumer sciences, 4-H youth development, and community development. The Flint Hills were formed by the erosion of Permian-age limestones and shales. The Flint Hills Extension District is a branch of K-State Research and Extension. The Flint Hills region is characterized by thin soils, limestone outcrops, vegetation-covered shale intervals between the limestones, and deeply cut valleys, exposing the geology beneath the soil. Flint Hills Despite differences of opinion about the exact boundaries, most geologists agree that the Flint Hills extend from Marshall County in the north to Cowley County in the south (across the state line in Oklahoma, they are known as the Osage Hills). These rolling hillsides and rocky soil saved the Flint Hills from wide-scale plowing and helped to preserve more native tallgrass prairie here than anywhere else in North America.Ĭowboy herding cattle (top) and cattle grazing on green grassy hillside (bottom). The softer shale in between are slowly worn away, making thin, gravelly soil. The tougher limestones and flint form prominent benches on the hillsides and cap the hilltops. The limestone, with concentrations of flint, resists erosion more than the softer layers of shale in between. The unique, stairstep landscape of the Flint Hills formed through a geological process called differential erosion. The native peoples of the region, the Pawnee, Osage, Wichita, and Kansa, collected the exposed flint to make a wide variety of tools and weapons. As the limestone erodes, angular fragments of flint accumulate at the surface, giving the Flint Hills their name. Many of the limestones contain concentrations of chert (also called flint)-a hard, dense microcrystalline quartz. The region consists mainly of alternating layers of limestone and shale. The Flint Hills cross east central Kansas from the near the Nebraska border extending south into the Osage Hills of Oklahoma. Cross section of limestone, shale and flint layering in the Kansas Flint Hills.

Flint hills kansas