For the past year, I have been writing about my prairie observations and my inferences from those observations. I have shared my appreciation for the wide open spaces, the expansive sky, the ever-changing weather, the geologic structure that makes the prairie possible, the complex interactions among the plants and animals, and the special adaptations that allow plants and animals to live successfully in the prairie. I have also shared the beauty and the science of the prairie. And of course, with the articles being photo-essays, I have shared some the beautiful and interesting scenes that are commonplace on the prairie.
I once had a conversation with a person from Tennessee who couldn't imagine liking the prairie. On trips through the middle of the country, he had just endured the endless miles of prairie so he could get from one forest to another or one mountain to another. I found that there are many people who feel this way. I realized then that perhaps the prairies are an acquired taste. You have to learn how to really see them and appreciate them. But even though there are those who don’t appreciate the prairies, there are many who do. There have been many prairie observers who have written about or painted what they saw when they passed through or lived and coped with the prairie's requirements. Here are some examples.
….the view was bounded by the gradual and low elevations…coarse but
somewhat luxuriant vegetation…the eye became fatigued with the sameness
of the landscape…the land was somewhat like the oceans, with the same
waving and regular surface, the same absence of foreign objects.
Beyond the river, the eye wandered over a beautiful champaign country, of
flowery plains and sloping uplands…. At one time we passed through a
luxuriant bottom or meadow bordered by thickets, where the tall grass was
pressed down into numerous
deer beds,
where those animals had couched
the preceding night….The prairie is on fire beyond the hill…a
profusion of tall flowering plants and long flaunting grasses…there is
something inexpressibly lonely in the solitude of a prairie…we saw a
variety of wild animals, deer, white and black wolves, buffaloes, and wild
horses.
The largest and most useful animal that roams over the prairies is the
buffalo. It provides food, clothing, and shelter…this gigantic monarch
of the prairies.
…as the wagon rolled over the prairie, the sky was a summer white, and
the tall grasses were endlessly waving in the wind with a rhythm of blow,
wave, ripple, dip.
Once upon a time, there was no state of Oklahoma, no Indian
Territory…. There was always the land, this place…. The grassland meadows
and the old-growth timber were the temples and cathedrals. The mountains,
hills, valleys, and hidden hollows near clear creeks were the universities
and schools. The best entertainment came from the prairie light shows—spectacular
concerts of thunder, lightning, and wind.
I’m sure you can think of many other descriptions of the prairie in
literature. And I’m sure you can think of a number of depictions of the
prairie in artwork—Paintings by Remington, Russell, and Blue Eagle for
example. Every time I am out on the prairie, taking photographs, examining
wildflowers, watching insects or birds, marveling at the Bison, I am
amazed at the beauty and complexity of this ecosystem. I am also
fascinated with the idea that I am looking at a scene that might be the
same one described by Washington Irving in 1832.
Here we provide some links to other places worth visiting.
Here is the latitude and longitude of the Visitor’s Center that you can give to visitors for entry into their GPS navigation device.
Some printed 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.
All back issues are available electronically via the links shown below. All newsletters prior to December 2007 are available in Portable Document Format (PDF), which means that you will need Adobe Reader installed on your computer to read these files. All newsletters from December 2007 onwards are in HTML format that is easily read using your web-browser.
2013—January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December—2013
2012—January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December—2012
2011—January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December—2011
2010—January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December—2010
2009—January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December—2009
2008—January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December—2008
2007—January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December—2007
2006—January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December—2006
2005—January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December—2005
2004—January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December—2004
2003—January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December—2003
2002—January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December—2002
2001—January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December—2001
2000—January
February
March
April
May
June
July
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September
October
November
December—2000
1999—January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December—1999
1998—January
February
March
April
May
June
July
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September
October
November
December—1998
1997—January
February
March
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October
November
December—1997
1996—January
February
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April
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December—1996
1995—January
February
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October
November
December—1995
This persistent index of selected topics should make finding articles of interest easier. The list will grow as I move further into the past and it will grow as I add interesting topics from each new newsletter. Iris McPherson lent me the paper copies of the newsletter from the very early years of the docent program; I ran them through a scanner equipped with a document feeder, saving them as PDF files, then added them to Back Issues section above. Let me know of any dead links that you discover. Also, please lend me any paper copies of the newsletter that are missing so that I can scan and add them to the list of back issues.
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.