Road Trip: Driving the Scenic Flint Hills Byway

The Flint Hills Scenic Byway offers incredible views of the native grasses and flowers. It’s one of the last remaining tallgrass prairie landscapes left in America. Much of the land along the Flint Hills Byway hasn’t changed in thousands of years ago when the Kaw, Osage and other native tribes lived here. In addition, the Flint Hills Byway has captured a part of the famous Santa Fe Trail, connecting many prairie towns along the way.

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1. The Scenic Byway in the Flint Hills
2. Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve
3. Kaw Nation and Sante Fe Trail
4. Who are the Kaw

The Flint Hills National Scenic Byway
Nature at its Best

Today, the Flint Hills area is home to the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Kaw Nation Heritage Park, and Kaw Mission State Historic Site and Museum. Miles and miles of rolling asphalt-covered roads framed by wooden fence posts and barbed wire. The landscape is dotted with black cows grazing on the tall grasses. Except for the yearly burns, nothing much has changed to the landscape. It is easy to imagine the Kaw plains Indians hunting the wild buffalo that once roamed freely in this area.

The byway stretches more than 47 miles across the Flint Hills between Council Grove and Cassoday. And Council Grove is just a 40-minute drive down K-77 from my front door in Manhattan. So it’s perfect for a day trip to explore the area with the kids, hubby or all alone. Once there, it will take about 50-minutes to drive from end to end.

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

There is beauty all around us. Even in Kansas’s prairie. Although, it’s a beautiful year-round venue for the largest tallgrass prairie left in the United States. I definitely prefer the drive in the spring, summer or fall. Take a drive to the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.

Prairie grasses once covered 170 million acres of North America. Within a generation, the vast majority was developed and plowed under. Today, less than 4% of the population remains, mostly here in the Kansas Flint Hills. The preserve protects a nationally significant remnant of the once vast tallgrass prairie and its cultural resources. Here, the tallgrass prairie takes its last stand.

Kaw Nation Heritage Park and
Kaw Mission State Historic Site and Museum

The interior of the Kaw Mission contains exhibits telling the story of the Kaw Nation, Santa Fe Trail, and early settlement of Council Grove. An eight-minute introductory video, The Original Kansans provides an overview of the history of the Kaw Mission and the Kanza Indians.

Exhibits include Kaw leathercraft, beadwork, textiles, and a Kaw photo gallery. Additional artifacts include Santa Fe Trail-related items and early day furniture, weapons, tools, and domestic paraphernalia. In addition to the gift shop, there is a stone building you might find interesting.

For generations, the Kaw lived in tepees and bark-and-mat lodges, However, this was unacceptable to the US government. And in 1861 they built 138 stone homes for the Kaw reservation residents. As a result, the Indians responded by using them as stables.

Who are the Kaw
And Where are they now?

The Kaw (also called Kanza) Nation was a part of a much larger Mississippi Valley culture migrated to the great plains between the 16th and 18th centuries. The Kanza people are a federally recognized Native American tribe headquartered in Kaw City and Newkirk, Oklahoma. And the tribe currently consists of 3,376 enrolled members living in Kansas, Texas, Missouri, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

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