Welcome to Prairie County

Welcome to Prairie County. Enduring Rangelands, Witness to Heartbreak and Triumph. Surrounding you is northern mixed-grass prairie stretching further than the eye can see in all directions. This is a place where exceptionally clean air mixes freely with the lilting serenades of sparrows and western meadowlarks. Where people and animals, under the canopy of a giant sky, prevail over harsh, untamable conditions. To those who have built their lives here, these sweeping landscapes, despite their rigor. present a timeless permanence of beauty and unyielding power. , These rangelands have changed very little in the course of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years. Yet this area has seen and participated in a rich and transformational history with impacts far beyond what its remoteness might suggest. Here is the confluence of two rivers well-known to the aboriginals who followed the bison, their chief food source. Downstream and across the Yellowstone River sits a campsite used by the Corps of Discovery enlisted to explore, catalog and help open the region to development. And, next to the Powder River, military troops regularly camped during the government's conquest to subdue the natives and make settlement easier for others. Here, too, is another of many locations in the West where riverboat traffic gave way to railroads and where irrigation greatly broadened the way people are able to survive on vast, dry landscapes. , Today, with the help of a program called Undaunted Stewardship, ranchers here preserve historic sites and take actions designed to maintain the landscape's body and soul. Welcome to a glimpse of the area's ghosts, its life and its future. Enjoy your visit!