Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie OMN Field Trip June 17, 2023

The nearly 3 hour trip from Shawnee through Pawhuska and deep into the tallgrass prairie in the Flint Hills was worth the effort.

Why so many people wandering around downtown Pawhuska? Ben Johnson Days. Held on Father’s Day weekend, it honored both Ben Johnsons (more about them later). Steer roping, rodeos, a tradeshow, and dance provided ample entertainment but don’t forget the Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond. The food writer and author lives on a cozy little 433,000 acre ranch near Pawhuska. In 2016 the Drummonds opened ‘The Mercantile’ restaurant retail store downtown in a renovated one hundred year old building. In 2019 ‘The Boarding House’ bed and breakfast and ‘P-Town Pizza’ came to town. ‘Charlie’s Sweet Shop’ ice cream and candy store joined the Drummond operation in 2020. Other shops sell clothes, jewelry, crafts, and souvenirs. Many benches shaded by awnings were occupied.

Seventeen miles northeast of Pawhuska is the Joseph H. Williams Tall Grass Prairie Preserve. On the way we passed a grazing herd of bison, swung around a tarantula walking across the road, traveled under vultures circling overhead and slowly drove by a deer partially hidden in the grass.

This year’s Oklahoma Master Naturalist (OMN) students convened in the parking lot by the restored Chapman-Barnard bunkhouse to prepare for a field trip. Christina, longtime OMN member and Nature Conservancy (TNC) docent, met briefly with us before leaving on a family holiday. Jim, another TNC docent rocking on a porch swing, then took over. His wife helped run the museum.

Our group was introduced to the Joseph H. Williams Tall Grass Prairie Preserve and Chapman-Barnard Ranch which had covered 125,000 acres in the past. The preserve is under management of The Nature Conservancy which owns 39,650 acres and leases 6,000 acres.

The ranch provided rich tallgrasses for grazing cattle in lieu of feedlots. The bunkhouse was built in 1919. During its heyday, 40 cowboys worked on the ranch and spent nights in the bunkhouse or on porch. The bunkhouse design incorporated thick walls and a series of arches formed in bricks. The porch was always cool and shady. Compact rooms with antique furniture and items show how the bunkhouse then looked. In the rather small kitchen, cooks prepared and served large meals first on the wood-burning stove and later on a larger stainless steel commercial grade stove. At least 15 pies were baked each day.

The Cowboy Bens. Ben Johnson Sr. (1896-1952) cowboyed in the Osage County area. He won all kinds of records in steer roping rodeo competitions. After retiring, Ben became foreman of the Chapman-Barnard ranch.

His son, Ben Johnson Jr., (1918-1996) also worked on the ranch, but after taking a load of horses to a film set in Hollywood, the movie bug bit and he stayed to become a stuntman. Ben branched out into acting, appeared in 300 films and attained movie star status. He also operated a horse-breeding ranch in California. Ben Jr. visited Pawhuska often. On one of his visits, he was joined by John Wayne. The two of them were seen sitting on the tailgate of a pickup truck downtown. Pawhuska is proud of both their Ben Johnsons.

Our guide Jim spoke of prescribed burns the ranch did (40% spring, 20% summer and 40% fall). The endangered Mole Cricket lives here. A pipeline was scheduled to go through the area. Someone on the pipeline crew came up with the idea of putting out a dead turkey, which attracted the mole crickets. The turkey and new residents were moved away. After the pipeline was finished, another dead turkey brought the mole crickets back home. The endangered Prairie Chicken is currently under study by OK State University. To track the chickens, one researcher just tagged 20 females with collars, each collar worth $2000.

The region has been in an extended drought. Water levels in Bartlesville have fallen below 60% and the city is now in stage 3 water rationing. Outdoor watering one day a week, no carwashes, no flushing of fire hydrants. Bison numbers at the preserve have been decreased. In years past bison populations have ranged up to 2,600, but this year their numbers have been dropped to less than 1600 because of the drought and overgrazing due to less grass.

Bison are big. Their heads can weigh 70 pounds. They produce nine pounds of poop per day after processing 30 to 40 pounds of grasses! Bison hooves are pointed (unlike cattle hooves) and help aerate the soil. Bison have short little tails and can’t swat flies. After rolling around in their wallows, they carry wildflower and grass seeds all over the prairie. Do not take selfies or get near bison. The largest terrestrial land mammal in North America (800 pound females to 2,200 pound males) has a very unpredictable temperament. Despite their size, bison can run 35 to 40 miles per hour and jump 6 feet high and leap over 12 feet. Normal cattle guards do nothing to stop them so they must be doubled in length.

Fully informed, our OMN group then embarked upon The Study Trail, one of the three connected nature trail loops near the Preserve Headquarters. We hiked up the side of the sunny prairie hill following the mowed path. At the summit it was like being on the top of the world! You could stand there and look in all directions. The wind gently blew the grasses that moved as waves of water. So many varieties of milkweed on the way. Besides the green antelope horn milkweed (Asclepias viridis) not only in bloom but setting seed, there was orange Butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), tall common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) with balls of pink flowers and narrow-leaved green milkweed (Asclepias stenophylla) with smaller white flower umbels at intervals along the stalk. Probably others, but they needed to wear signs to let me they were there.

Wild petunias dotted the pathway at ground level. Stalks of purple Hoary Vervain poked up their heads above the grasses, which are lush but not yet tall. This preserve hosts the Big Four grasses: big bluestem, little bluestem, Indian grass and Switchgrass as well as dozens of other grasses. Buffalo bur (in the nightshade family) crawled along the soil with its tiny prickly watermelon-like leaves. The spiny fruits often got stuck in Bison fur. Leadplant (Amorpha canescens), a deep-rooted shrub, grew here and there along with Baptisia plants not yet in bloom. Winged Sumac formed small colonies. Sericea lespedeza, the delicate looking but aggressive legume, reared its ugly head in many places. Because this area is regularly burned, no trees were present.

Horsemints (spotted Beebalms) were showing light purple color. White prairie clover (Dalea candida) had cropped up. Silverleaf nightshades, Black-eyed Susans, white Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) and Prairie Parsley of the carrot family stood out. Patches of Indian hemp (Dogbane) may have you saying “Oh, look at those milkweeds.” Dogbanes do look much like milkweed and their flowers attract many pollinators. They have even enticed a Monarch or two to lay their eggs on their leaves. The caterpillars will probably starve.

Out on the exposed ridges grew a contingency of “Cross Timbers” woodland represented by Post oaks (Quercus stellata) and Blackjack oaks (Q. marilandica). We descended downward into shade along Sand Creek. Strips of trees that find refuge in dips, valleys and streams are called gallery forests. The Sand creek gallery forest was composed of Bur, Shumard, and Chinquapin oaks, hackberry trees, green ash and American elms. The trees sheltered a myriad of understory plants. The forest inhabitant Starry Campion (Silene stellata) and the stalked purple wild petunia (Ruellia pedunculata) grew on the shaded creek bank.

We emerged back into the sun and open prairie. It was an amazing field trip. The bison had moved into the far pasture by the time we left. The weather turned wild and furious later that night. Tulsa was hit with 100 mph winds from the Derecho that originated in Colorado and marched through the state.

Tallgrass prairie museum, common milkweed, butterfly milkweed, narrowleaf milkweed, wild petunia, Starry Campion, Tallgrass prairie and bison