Flint Hills
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The Flint Hills, historically known as Bluestem Pastures, are a band of hills in eastern Kansas stretching into north-central Oklahoma, extending from Marshall County in the north, to Chautauqua County, Kansas and into Osage County, Oklahoma in the south. They were named by explorer Zebulon Pike in 1806 for the cobbles of flint-like chert that glinted through the tall prairie grasses. Mainly sparsely populated, the Flint Hills contain most of the remaining tallgrass prairie in the world and has some of the largest cattle ranches in Kansas and Oklahoma. Tall Grass Prairie Reserve, near Pawhuska, Oklahoma, has one of the largest populations of buffalo in Oklahoma. The WWF designated the Flint Hills as an ecoregion, distinct from other grasslands of the Great Plains.
The Flint Hills were created approximately 250 million years ago during the Permian Period. During this time much of the Midwest, including Kansas and Oklahoma, were covered with shallow seas. As a result, much of the Flint Hills are 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. It is approximately 45 feet thick; numerous roadcuts of the Florence Member are prominent along Interstate 70 in Riley County. Many of the honey-colored limestones have been used for building blocks. The non-chert-bearing limetones are best for this, since the chert is extremely hard to cut, but yet it can fracture quite easily. Beginning in the mid-1800s homesteaders displaced the American Indians and vast herds of grazing buffalo with large cattle ranches. The largest town in the Flint Hills region is Manhattan, Kansas. The Flint Hills Scenic Byway passes through the Flint Hills in Kansas.
William Least Heat-Moon wrote an eloquent paean to the Flint Hills and the Kansans who live there in his book PrairyErth.
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