Enjoying Prairie Day at Wah-Kon-Tah Prairie

Members of St. Clair County Cattleman's Association prepare burgers for lunch at Prairie Day. (Photos by Ken White/Special to the Daily Mail)

This past Saturday, Prairie Day at Wah-Kon-Tah Prairie, was held near El Dorado Springs. The event drew hundreds of interested people including Richard Anderson, of Joplin, who said, "I am glad I came up here today because I learned a lot about Missouri prairies. I was impressed with history of the area and the role it has played in preserving wildlife and nature. In visiting with Vann Bighorse from the Osage Nation, he filled me in on the past, present and future of prairies in Missouri from the Osage Indian's perspective. It was a day well spent for me. While on the Wagon Tour, I found that the prairie is nice just to look across the horizon and observe the diversity of plants as well as being aware of the wildlife around including deer, turkey, quail, prairie chickens and the many songbirds."

The day started with a blessing of the prairie in the Osage language by Vann Bighorse, Director of the Wah-Zha-Zhi Cultural Center in Oklahoma. Later, visitors took a wildflower walk and a wagon tour of the prairie. Bighorse gave a presentation about the history of the Osage Nation and discussed the tribe's historic ties to the Upper Osage Grasslands. In addition to the tour there were booths of venders providing information including subjects on Archery, Atlatls (spear throwing), native insects and snakes, pollinators, The quail unlimited, St. Louis Zoo, Nature Conservancy and others. The food was provided by the St. Claire Cattleman's Association.

Tall grass is a diverse ecosystem of native grasses, wildflowers, upland wildlife and insects. Prairie Day gave visitors a view of how the land looked before the plow struck it. Wah-Kon-Tah Prairie covers 3,000 acres with more than half of the land virgin prairie. It is divided by Missouri 82 Highway.

Matt Hill, wildlife management biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation led the wagon tour said, "The rest of the area is being restored or has been restored. He pointed out that Missouri now has less than one percent of native tall grass prairie left."

The event was co-hosted by the Nature Conservancy which own much of the land and in partnership is managed by the Missouri Department of Conservation.

Matt Hill, wildlife management biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation, took visitors on a wagon tour of the Wah-Kon-Tah prairie. (Photos by Ken White/Special to the Daily Mail)

Hall told visitors attending the event the role the prairie plays today, which is preserving iconic grassland birds including prairie chicken and quail, conserving plant diversity, helping wildlife habitat and providing a place to learn how conservative grazing may be used to help improve wildlife habitat.

Vann Bighorse said, "I was happy to be here to see the old homeland the way it was. It was educational, its rewarding and its for future generations. It's the same thing we plan to do with the land we've purchased in Oklahoma."

As visitors left the area each received a plant to take home.

As Anderson said, "It was a day well spent."