"Nothing to be seen… but immense prairies…,

"Nothing to be seen… but immense prairies…,. .

the grass is so very high that a man is lost amongst it, but paths are every where…, though nothing passes that way excepting buffaloes… and … some herds of deer…" , P.F. de Charlevoix, 1761

, Where were these immense prairies? Kansas? Nebraska? No, they were right here in southern Wisconsin. Similar in appearance to the demonstration before you, these prairies covered over 2,100,000 acres in the southern and western parts of the state into the 1800,s [sic]., Prairie conditions allowed only certain grasses, wildflowers and a few shrubs to prosper. Early settlers thought that land that did not grow trees had little agricultural value. Trial plots showed them that prairie soils would yield bumper crops of nearly everything they planted. With very few trees to cut and with the introduction of the steel moldboard plow which could cut through the tough prairie sod, the prairies were quickly converted to cropland. Today, less than one percent of the original tallgrass prairie remains., [Map] , Shaded areas indicate original prairie areas., If you would like to see example of prairies travel to the Muralt Bluff Prairie, a remnant of the original prairie, located west of Albany, or the University of Wisconsin's Curtis Prairie, the oldest prairie restoration project in the world, located on the south side of Madison.