Abstract

Introduction: The Kansas portion of the Chisholm Trail, located just west of the Flint Hills, ran roughly 140 miles from Caldwell, at the Kansas-Oklahoma line, to Abilene. During the peak of the Chisholm Trail, from 1867 to 1871, at least two million head of cattle were driven from Texas to Abilene. Millions of hooves over the short life of the trail surely took a toll on the prairie; however, the influx of settlers eager to plow it to raise crops had a far greater and more permanent impact.

Keywords:

• cattle trail,
• Flint Hills,
• tallgrass prairie,
• short grass prairie,
• Kansas,
• conservation,
• threats to the prairie