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October 2009

In This Edition

Docent Day at the Bison Corrals

—Bob Hamilton

Docents interested in watching the bison working this year should plan to meet at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve headquarters area Saturday, November 7, at 1:00 p.m. Ann will meet the group and they can follow her in their own vehicles to the corrals. Each docent is allowed to invite one guest to the bison working.

When guests are viewing the bison working from the catwalk viewing area, please keep in mind that you should duck down when the cowboys are trying to move the bison from the alley into the sweep tub. The animals tend to want to turn back if they see a human, so please try to be attentive to what is happening and duck down to get out of sight as much as possible during the movement of bison into the sweep tub.

For those of you working the gift shop, November 4 through 9, please remember that the bison working is closed to the public.

Fall 2009 Bison Working Schedule

Docent Recognition Luncheon and Fall Field Day

—Dennis Bires

All Tallgrass Docents are cordially invited to the annual Docent Recognition Luncheon at the Ecological Research Station at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve on Saturday, November 21, at 12:15 p.m. This informal catered luncheon is our opportunity to honor the young Docents who have served their first four shifts at the Visitor’s Center by presentation of service pins. Those passing other shift milestones will be recognized as well. For all of us, it is a great chance to catch up with fellow volunteers and meet others.

Immediately following the Luncheon, at about 1:30 p.m., Preserve Director Bob Hamilton will lead our Fall Field Day. This will be a non-strenuous walk onto the prairie to observe native flora and fauna at this wonderful time of year. The tall grasses will be at their peak height after a delightfully rainy summer.

Docents are welcome to bring a guest to the Luncheon and Fall Field Day. It is a fine means of introducing someone to the Preserve.

Please RSVP reservations only to Dennis Bires at dennis-bires@lycos.com or 918-341-3908 by Friday, November 13.

Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Twentieth Anniversary Celebration

—Dennis Bires

Over a hundred attendees were treated to a diverse array of informative programs on September 21 at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve to celebrate the Twentieth Anniversary of the founding of the Preserve. Perfect early fall weather made the day’s events all the more enjoyable.

Following informal bunkhouse porch introductions and a concise description of the history of the Preserve’s development by Director Bob Hamilton, visitors fanned out to numerous interest areas. Veteran Docent Jenk Jones offered an account of the evolution of the Tallgrass Docent Program. The Preserve staff gave up-close-and-personal explanations of the prescribed burn equipment and vehicles. Docent Doris Mayfield walked visitors through the exhibits in the Visitors Center. Oklahoma Chapter Director Mike Fuhr gave a clinic on outdoor photography. Docents Iris McPherson and Marilyn Keefer showed the ranch bunkhouse to interested attendees. Docents Van Vives and Dennis Bires led flora tours of the Study Trail and parts of the Prairie Earth Trail. And Bob Hamilton provided driving tours of the bison herd with details of fire and grazing ecology.

The new statewide Volunteers in the Professions group organized by Nancy Hatfield and Deborah Batston of the Oklahoma Chapter staff assembled for a picnic lunch outside the Foreman’s House, then joined the day’s proceedings. Meanwhile Docents staffing the Visitor’s Center processed a continuous stream of purchases with barely a moment’s rest.

One of the highlights of the day for many of the Docents in attendance both to help out and to enjoy the fun was not listed on the Anniversary Celebration Schedule and came as a delightful surprise: Daryl and Mary Coley drove up from Tulsa to participate in the day’s events. Mary designed and directed the Tallgrass Docent Program for most of a decade beginning in the early 1990s. She and Daryl make frequent visits to the Preserve, but many of us had not seen them for years. For those veteran Docents who missed the event, you should know that Mary hasn’t changed a bit. She is still as vibrant, funny, and young as ever.

Many thanks to the great number of Docents and Preserve Staff who helped out with the Twentieth Anniversary Celebration, not only with specific tours and talks, but with additional staffing in the Visitors Center, helpful directions, and parking.

We are Tallgrass

—Jenk Jones

In November 1970 a plane crash wiped out the Marshall University football team. It was devastating not only in West Virginia, the university’s home, but across the sporting world.

However, the tragedy tapped into a strong, perhaps unexpected, sense of spirit. Not only did the university ultimately resume football, but the slogan We are Marshall! became a rallying cry, a wellspring of deep pride. It has been copied by others. The University of Tulsa is a member of the same conference as Marshall, and TU has adopted We are Tulsa! for its athletic teams. The league does likewise, with men and women athletes confidently proclaiming We are Conference USA! Their pride is evident in how they say it.

I don’t equate a tragedy with the work of Tallgrass Prairie Preserve docents. But there is a definite pride, an esprit de corps, a feeling of We are Tallgrass! among docents. They realize how important their job is, how much it means to Oklahoma, the reputation of the preserve, The Nature Conservancy itself. Else why would they, at considerable expenditure of time and quite a bit of money, make the effort to drive here time and time again. Some of our docents have driven the equivalent of circumnavigating the globe, or more. That takes dedication and conscientiousness. It also requires pride in what they do.

The docents are the public face of The Nature Conservancy at the preserve. Seldom do visitors have the opportunity to meet Bob Hamilton, Harvey Payne or the cowboys. The docents are the ones who provide information, give directions, sell T-shirts and candy bars and warn against hiking the long trail on August afternoons. When our visitors return home, much of the impression they carry about the prairie comes from the interaction they had with docents.

Many of our veteran docents have done triple-digit tours of duty. They have had a variety of experiences with visitors, some moving, some humorous. They have their own time to study the land, the animals, the birds, the plants, to appreciate this meeting of the Eastern and Western halves of America. There is always the element of surprise here, as no one knows who next will walk in the door, or what suddenly might appear on the road or trail ahead of you.

Here some of those grizzled veterans give their impressions and stories.

Bill Rinehart, docent since 1996, provides an excellent overview of a docent’s experiences and purpose:

He says, Through meetings, special events, volunteer activities, I have become acquainted with so many interesting people I otherwise would never have known: fellow docents, Conservancy staff, college professors and students, scientists from all walks of life, cowboys who work the ranch, and of course our visitors, many who have shared the most extraordinary experiences.

I consider the docent program to be the public and community relations arm of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. We are the only group that meets on a day-to-day basis with the general public. Docents are the volunteer educators who share with our visitors the goals and timetables of the preserve as well as provide the historical information about the preserve, Pawhuska and Osage County, which incidentally is of great interest to our visitors.

Noting the importance of everything from impressions docents make on visitors to their often-muddy work in keeping roadsides clean, Rinehart adds, The docent program offers the individual so many pleasurable experiences — the beauty of the changing seasons on the prairie, the bison herd sightings, the variety of animal life. And he says you never know who is going to enter the visitor’s center.

Several years ago an attractive young woman walked through the door, who I thought I recognized. I said to her, You know, you look a lot like Debbie Campbell. She said, I sure hope so because I am Debbie Campbell. Debbie, a popular singer and recording artist from Tulsa, had performed for school children in Pawhuska and decided to visit the preserve.

Another visitor was former FBI agent Lawrence J. Hogan, who wrote the book The Osage Indian Murders about the Reign of Terror that gripped Osage County in the oil-boom days after World War I. That case is considered by many historians to have been the first major investigation for the fledgling law enforcement agency and helped boost its reputation.

Bob Kurland, a former basketball All-American for then-Oklahoma A&M College led the Aggies to two national championships in the mid-1940s. Rinehart had seen Kurland play Kansas at that time and reminisced with the ex-Phillips Petroleum executive about that game when Kurland came to the prairie, as he does every year.

One day Bill and another docent were visited by a king from the New Hebrides Islands. He said from the top of the hill in his homeland he could see his entire kingdom. He marveled at the expanse of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve because from here you can see forever.

Van Vives (1996) says in March 2006 he received a series of e-mails from a young Ph.D. candidate from Switzerland named Achilles Schnitzer who said he was coming to the United States and would visit the preserve in April along with a friend, Reto Lininger. In Van’s words:

I was amazed at how much he read and studied about prairie country. He already knew more about the Flint Hills than I knew. On a pre-arranged day the two arrived at the visitor’s center having already hiked the three-mile trail. To my surprise he (Schnitzer) had a cane for the visually impaired. They did not say anything about his sight, but it became obvious that he was blind. In the sunlight he could see shapes, but indoors he had to put his hand on his friend’s shoulder to be led around. All day nothing was said by me or them about this. I felt that Achilles was an amazing person who had a defect, but who did not in any way miss the wonders of nature and the prairie. I felt that he appreciated that I treated him as a normal visitor.

I spent time giving them my usual information about The Nature Conservancy and the prairie preserve. Since they had already been on the regular hiking trail, I took them on a different trail. I pointed out wildflowers and Reto would take Achilles’ hand and put it on the flower for him to feel. I still have no idea how much of the flower he could see, if anything. He was impressed by every one he touched. I took them to a vista overlooking a valley. There were three large groups of bison in the valley forming a magnificent view. The two young men spent a long time taking it in and quietly speaking to each other in German. There was no doubt that they enjoyed the experience.

Van was alerted to another interesting story when fellow docent Iris McPherson showed him an entry among visitors’ comments in the sign-in book that said, Gerry’s ashes were spread on the prairie. The signer’s name was Judith Alford from Port Townsend, Wash.

Van played internet detective and tracked down Judy Alford. It was her sister, Gerry Hyatt Bergstrom, who had died at 61 of cancer. Gerry was a trained operatic soprano, pipe organist, music and voice teacher and organizer of musical groups and events. She also loved wildflowers.

Gerry’s request for her funeral had been to spread her ashes in the Sea of Cortez among the dolphins and in the Sol Duc River when the salmon were spawning. The remainder could be disposed of as Judy wished.

So Judy and another sister, Janet, headed for Oklahoma. It turned out the girls (and another deceased sister) had been born in Tulsa and went to Will Rogers High School and the University of Tulsa. Judy knew Gerry had had a great love of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve and often went there when back in Tulsa on visits. They picked up a close friend (and Tallgrass docent) Judy Barto in Broken Arrow and drove to the preserve, where they scattered Gerry’s ashes among the beautiful orange/red blooms of butterfly milkweed.

David and Betty Turner (1995) have learned you can’t outguess Oklahoma weather. David showed up for a docent shift one March Tuesday morning after eight inches of snow had fallen over the weekend. He and the other docent present were questioning the wisdom of having come. We were remiss for having done so as we soon had two vans full of Japanese tourists and were busy the rest of the day with additional visitors.

One man from Germany told David that he had picked out seven sites to visit in the United States. They were Chicago’s Field Museum, the St. Louis Arch, the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, the Cowboy Hall of Fame, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and the Golden Gate Bridge.

David recalls one time when he was supposed to give a docent training talk on oil history in Osage County. But Mary Coley, the state Conservancy’s docent coordinator, told him she needed him at the visitor’s center to meet a bus that was expected; the docents scheduled for that day couldn’t make it. I arrived about 12:30 and unlocked the center. I already had a crowd on the porch who immediately followed me in and began asking questions and buying things. I had no chance to count the money or do any preliminary preparation. Soon the bus arrived and to my relief one of the persons on it had been a docent. I asked her to handle the register for me and had all the passengers come inside. I stood on a chair and gave my presentation to them and all the other guests at the same time. After answering many questions, David says the bus left but I still had a full visitors center. The stream of guests was constant until 5:30. I never did make it to Pawhuska to give my presentation.

Dave Dolcater (1995) has served in many capacities, from starting the money-generating Adopt-a-Bison program to trash pickup (including finding an XXX-rated video catalog, birth control pills and a stainless steel cowbell) in addition to normal docent duties.

One experience was vivid when he was on trash patrol near the T-junction southwest of headquarters. A large (bison) bull appeared in the tall vegetation just above the road ditch. The bull and I were on a collision course, so I stopped, quickly thought about my options — none of which were very good — and decided to put as much distance between the bull and me as possible. I immediately reversed course and started walking back toward the T-intersection trying to listen for any commotion behind me, and kept walking, and kept walking. After 120 yards or so I decided it was time to see what was happening. The bull was exactly where I had last seen him; obviously he had been watching me all that time. After half a minute the bull turned and crossed the road and continued south on the course he was on before I rudely interrupted him. I was most thankful for the way things turned out, because had the bull chosen to do so he could have mulched me into the turf in short order!

Dave has his mind-picture memories. One was of a group of bison materializing out of thick fog and passing on both sides of his vehicle only to disappear as quickly as they had appeared. Did I really see that, or was that just a dream? Another was of two cows walking across the prairie, their frisky calves running in circles around the mommas. Or the time coyotes gave a sundown serenade to a group of Boy Scouts who had come to witness roundup.

Iris McPherson (1995) figures she has logged close to 40,000 miles driving to and from the Tallgrass from her Stillwater home. She has had many memorable experiences to reward her for such diligence.

One was a woman Buddhist nun from Nebraska who showed up on a day Iris was on duty. About two years later she returned. Iris says the woman was going through some struggles in her life and remembered the prairie preserve as a place of tranquility. She was given permission to stay there for a fairly long time, during which she did menial jobs, before finally leaving.

Iris has come face-to-face with a bobcat on a hiking trail, been startled when she flushed four prairie chickens from beneath her feet and had a spooky experience when staying at the Stucco House until she realized the snorting sound outside her window was made by deer.

She and other docents were enthralled by Mary Barnard Lawrence’s tales of life on the Chapman-Barnard when it was a cattle ranch. And she had the thrill of discovering a flower species that Michael Palmer hadn’t yet included in his botanical survey of the preserve.

Nick Delgrosso (2000) speaks of those who come from all over the world to see the Tallgrass Preserve. Each visitor has a pride in the signature wildlife of their country, but they have come to see the bison and the tallgrass which harkens back to the open savannas we all came from.

He adds, I remember speaking to the head of the Indian National Park System and his head veterinarian. They were totally taken by the preserve and felt it was one of the most unique places they had ever visited. Such comments from people who are entrusted with preserving endangered Bengal tigers and Indian rhinos is remarkable.

Some biologists working on saving the saga antelope in the Ukraine had stopped to visit. They were interested in herd and grassland management. They were very impressed at how a private group like The Nature Conservancy could create such a remarkable preserve.

Nick adds, Over the years I have spoken to countless German visitors who were interested in Western heritage and who were making a pilgrimage to see that symbol of the Wild West, the American Bison.

In speaking to visitors, Nick says, I stress the interrelationships between the fauna, flora and weather which make this such a unique place. He adds, To truly appreciate the prairie you need to see it in a series of progressive visits, because each season has its own unique beauty. He recalls reading that the French voyageurs, Lewis and Clark, Washington Irving and George Catlin all appreciated the beauty of the prairie.

Marilyn Keefer (1995) had an experience similar to Nick’s regarding foreign visitors. She says a delegation from Bartlesville’s Sister City in Russia came to the preserve and was overcome with the fact that it is a charitable organization that supports it and that volunteers staff it.

She finds her reward in all the people that make the effort to visit the prairie and take the time to visit with the docents and ask questions and share their impressions of the prairie.

Like most docents, she is drawn to the many fascinations one encounters on the preserve. Her most awesome moment was leaving from docent duty in the evening and stopping to watch the bison cross the road only to disappear into the tall, tall bluestem grass.

John Boxall (1999) had a visitor one day who said he was Ted Turner. John says he replied, Yes, I recognize you. Turner asked, Do you know that I have a ranch 20 miles from here? John replied, No. He says now, I think now of all the answers that I should have given.

His answers to others obviously work. He says, In practically all cases my presentation to visitors has been well received. I have generally been thanked and I have got some satisfaction from the meeting. Of course, thanks can mean different things. John recalls, After I had taken a group of schoolchildren around a trail, I received a note from one of them which said, Thank you for getting us out of school.

On his obligatory apprentice day in the gift shop, It rained and there were no visitors. My experience of money transactions came from purchases that I myself made.

Doris Mayfield (1996) started the museum feature of the visitors center. She was drawn to the preserve because of my interest in nature and the goals of The Nature Conservancy. The nature displays she dotes upon give a hands-on experience to visitors of all ages on what might be found on the prairie. My hope is that when they leave it is with the knowledge that the prairie is more than tallgrass and bison but a whole ecosystem. Even the smallest visitors will hopefully remember hunting for the various animals in the mural (on the visitor’s center wall).

Doris was confronted with an interesting question when she was shown a decapitated snake. It seems it had been sunning itself on one of the window ledges of the headquarters building. They said it was a cottonmouth (water moccasin) so they had killed it.

I thought it was strange it should have been so far from the creek. When I returned to Tulsa I asked Rusty Grimpe, who was a curator at the zoo and had worked with snakes, to identify it. He said it was a black rat snake, which is not poisonous. I reported this to (docent coordinator) Mary Coley and asked if any creature should be killed on a preserve. She wrote an article for the Docent News in which she said killing a snake or other creature should only be done as a last resort in an emergency. Bob Hamilton (then science director) also told his staff not to kill any animal if it could be avoided.

Dennis Bires (1998) was opportunistic in making a contribution to Doris’ bone collecting. One day he was informed of a dead bobcat, probably struck by a vehicle. He took the severed head to Doris, who turned it over to nature’s smallest scavengers. After a few weeks the bugs had done their duty and — voila! — a shiny bobcat skull joined the collection of horns, hip bones, feet, armadillo armor and other oddities Doris lovingly presides over.

Sue Wheeler started volunteering at the time of the bison release in 1993. She opened the gift shop, which evolved from a small arts and crafts show that took place during the release. She did everything from paint part of the current visitor’s center to choosing the books sold there.

Working as a docent, I remember being surprised by several different visitors who mentioned they were on their way across the country on Highway (Interstate) 40 — and had heard about our prairie — so they just made a slight detour to see us. Since I-40 runs east-west across the center of the state and the preserve is almost in Kansas, that’s quite a detour.

Sue adds, One Sunday afternoon I showed two couples around. One was from Pawhuska but the other couple was from Oregon. The Oklahoma man mentioned to me that the Oregon couple had won the Oregon Lottery. I told him (the Oregonian) I hoped they had been able to enjoy their riches. He said most of the time they had, but there had been some worrisome times, too. I remember copying their name and address from the visitors log and giving it to Marty Marino, the Conservancy fundraiser in the Tulsa office.

As you see, docents’ experiences are varied and fascinating. But beyond that is the serious side of being the information source for the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve as well as representatives of The Nature Conservancy.

More than a century ago William Quayle wrote, I think the prairies will die without grass finding a voice.

Ladies and gentlemen, the docent program provides that voice for the prairie — a voice that is informative, friendly, persuasive and effective. This prairie won’t die, because its story will be told.

Long Ago

—Andy Surritte

I first came to this ranch in the late 60’s. It was a wild wide open country. I went to the main house and saw all the old cowboys setting around waiting for lunch. The cook yelled and they all made a dash for the table. I sat beside Clyde Lowery and never saw a man eat so fast. As soon as he gulped his lunch down he said lets go boys. Everyone got up and left. In the later years Clyde and I became good friends as well as most of the cowboys working there. Cowboys were strange breed. They worked hard and played hard. If they found an outfit that was good to work for they would stay, if not they would move on. The main changes were in the spring and fall. The ranches were either good to summer or good to winter. Thousands of cows roamed the ranch then. Later years found steers from the south that would spend summer there before going on north to feedlots. At times you could see as many as twenty semis go through town on their way to load at Blackland Stockyards. I was lucky enough to be there and witness this part of history. I knew all the cowboys well and since have seen most of them gone. I think I am a better person for these memories.

Haiku on the Prairie

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

Nineteen eighty nine,
Tall-grass prairie almost gone:
Bison roam again.

Send your prairie haiku to tgp.haiku@gmail.com.

Visitor Counts

—Iris McPherson

The total number of visitors signing in during August was 688. There were 34 states (643) represented with the highest counts after Oklahoma (385) being Texas (36), Kansas (25) and Arkansas (22). There were 13 foreign countries with a total of 45 people. England had the most visitors with 13 and Germany was next with 11. Just a little history concerning number of visitors in August, we had 310 in 2006,407 in 2007, 436 in 2008, and now 688 in 2009! We still haven’t had visitors from Wyoming, North Dakota, but there were 2 groups from the District of Columbia.

Please remind the visitors to sign the guest register.

Docent Coverage of Season Days

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

Docent Coverage of Season Days

 

Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Visitor’s Center Latitude & Longitude

Here is the latitude and longitude of the Visitor’s Center that you can give to visitors for entry into their GPS navigation device.

Kiosk Maintenance

The manufacturer’s instructions for cleaning the touch-screen recommend use of a soft dry cloth only. This proved inadequate for smeared fingerprints. Soft-paper kitchen towels work well, slightly damp with a small drop of soft handsoap. Application of a dry kichen towel removes any residual moisture.

This link points to the complete Kiosk Maintenance Manual.

Back Issues

Back issues of the Docent Newsletter, to February 2009, can be found in the two green and one blue-black zip-binders, stored in the Perspex rack by the file cabinet in the office of the Visitor’s Center.

Newsletter Publication

Deadline for submission of articles for inclusion in the newsletter is the 10th of each month. Publication date is on the 15th. All docents, Nature Conservancy staff, university scientists, philosophers, and historians are welcome to submit articles and pictures about the various preserves in Oklahoma, but of course the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in particular.