Mount Mitchell Prairie Guards, Inc.

Goal: $25,000.00

Specific Need

The Mount Mitchell Heritage Prairie Park is located in northern Wabaunsee County on Highway 99, three miles south of Wamego. The Park features 70 acres of Flint Hills tallgrass prairie and 94 acres of prairie recreated from former crop ground. Ruts and swales from the historic Topeka Fort Riley Road pass through the property. This route was used by the Underground Railroad during the late 1850s. The Park is an official National Park Service Network to Freedom Site commemorating the westernmost route of the UGRR in Kansas.

In June of 2019 the Prairie Guards expanded the Mount Mitchell Heritage Prairie's educational and recreational potential by purchasing 125 acres of the historic Mitchell farm, reuniting the Mitchell Farmstead with its native prairie. This acquisition tripled the Park’s size, adding 25 acres of native prairie, and 100 acres under prairie restoration.  

Our immediate need is to complete Phase Two of our Education Epansion Project which began in 2019. Park improvements in this phase include a new access road from the all-weather Mount Mitchell Road, a new parking area, and an interpretive pavillion. The access road and parking area are currently funded and under construction. 2023 Match Day contributions will help us complete the interpretive pavillion and install utilities in the Park. We are also raising money to build an ADA trail to the ruts of the Topeka/Fort Riley Road.

 

Mission

Preserving the Cultural Heritage of the Flint Hills

The mission of the Mount Mitchell Prairie Guards is to develop, manage, and promote the historic Mount Mitchell Heritage Prairie Park to educators, local residents and travelers; to restore and maintain the Park’s tallgrass prairie to its 1856 condition; and to further develop the Park’s infrastructure, including trails, signage, education exhibits and programs; and to provide a setting for public enjoyment and quality experiences.

Once part of abolitionist and Underground Railroad Stationmaster Captain William Mitchell’s farm, the Park is dedicated to him and the Beecher Bible and Rifle Colony. It serves as a unique outdoor classroom where visitors can experience an ungrazed tallgrass prairie and learn about the site’s unique role as a Native American sacred place, and of the vital part it played as a pathway to the West used by mountain men, explorers, military expeditions, settlers, and freedom-seekers. 

Profile

The Mount Mitchell Prairie Guards

The Mount Mitchell Prairie Guards are a non-profit organization that registered with the IRS in 2009. Our membership is comprised of local residents, and friends and supporters from throughout the country.

The Prairie Guards began as an ad hoc committee in 2001 when it was learned that the state historical society planned to return Mount Mitchell to the Mitchell family. The state had been unable to fulfill the terms of the gift. After fifty years of ownership they had not developed the public Park stipulated by the property’s donor William Izott Mitchell.

The Prairie Guards worked with local legislators and got the property returned to local control in 2006. Through their efforts the property is now known as the Mount Mitchell Heritage Prairie Park.

Today the Prairie Guards:

• Manage the Park's 70-acres of tallgrass prairie and 94 acres of prairie recreation (former cropground) located in Wabaunsee County, Kansas, south of Wamego.
• Have built the Park’s infrastructure, including an access road, parking area, fencing, and two miles of walking trails.
• Erected directional and interpretive signage and an information kiosk.
• Manage an educational website at mountmitchellprairie.org
• Have coordinated over two and a half thousand hours of volunteer labor restoring the Park’s native tallgrass prairie.
• Provided local educators with a resource for fulfilling the requirements of the Kansas Teaching Standards for History and Government, Economics and Geography.
• Are founding partners of the Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area.
• Applied for and received official designation by the National Park Service as an authenticated Network to Freedom Underground Railroad site commemorating the Underground Railroad.
• Successfully lobbied the Native Stone Scenic Byway committee to extend the byway to include Mount Mitchell.
• Applied for and received Kansas Department of Transportation Tourist Attraction Status to erect brown attraction signs on Highway 99 directing travelers to the park.
• Have fulfilled the terms of Will Mitchell’s gift of Mount Mitchell to the people of Kansas by creating the Park he envisioned to honor his father and the Beecher Bible and Rifle Colony.
• Formed working relationships with the Kansas State Historical Society, Wabaunsee County Historical Society, Wamego Historical Society, Wabaunsee Township Board, Wabaunsee County Commissioners, Westar Energy Green Team, Pottawatomie County Economic Development Council, Wabaunsee County Economic Development Committee, Flint Hills Regional Council, Flint Hills Discovery Center, The Native Stone Scenic Byway Committee, The National Park Service, The Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, The Citizens Band Potawatomi Nation, Wamego Chamber of Commerce, Symphony in the Flint Hills, Kansas Explorers Club, Oregon/California Trails Association, Konza Prairie, and Unified School Districts 320, 329 and 330.
• The Park is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Mount Mitchell Heritage Prairie Historic District.