Join us – Saturday, June 3rd, 2023!

The 10th Annual Mitchell Farm & Prairie Celebration will celebrate springtime and paying off the mortgage on the recent expansion of the Mount Mitchell Heritage Prairie Park. The purchased acreage expanded the historic tallgrass prairie Park from 45 to 164 acres.

The event will be held on Saturday, June 3rd from 10 am till noon at the Park and the privately owned Mitchell Farmstead located at 29213 Mount Mitchell Road, Wamego. The farmstead’s log cabin was a station on the Underground Railroad from 1857 to 1861. Both the Park and Farmstead are recognized sites of the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom Program commemorating the Underground Railroad.

Last July, the ruts and swales of the Topeka Fort Riley Road, the farmstead, and the Park were listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Mount Mitchell Heritage Prairie Historic District.

Saturday’s event will feature tours of the historic log cabin Underground Railroad station and docent-led wildflower walks at the Park located at 29377 Mitchell Prairie Lane, Wamego. The prairie is expected to be in full bloom after recent rains.

A box lunch will be served at 12:30 at the Beecher Bible & Rifle Church in Wabaunsee. Following lunch at 1:30, Courtney Masterson, Executive Director and Ecologist of Native Lands Restoration Collaborative will speak about prairie restoration efforts in Eastern Kansas.

For more information visit mountmitchellprairie.org

Mount Mitchell is located 3 & ½ miles south of Wamego or 5.5 miles north of I-70 on K-99
The Mitchell Farmstead is located at 29213 Mount Mitchell Road, Wamego
Wildflower walks will start at the east end of Mitchell Prairie Lane off Highway 99
The Beecher Bible & Rifle Church is located at Elm & Chapel in Wabaunsee, off K 18

The Wamego Match Day was a great success. We raised just under our goal of $25,000.  Thank you to all who contributed! For those who still wish to contribute to Phase Two of our Park development plan our focus has moved to the Emporia Community Foundation Match Day on November 14^th. The money we raise will be used for the Park improvements discussed below.

This year we again have a “double match.” An anonymous donor wishes to match all contributions in Memory of Dr. Tom Eddy, professor of biology at Emporia State University and recipient of the 2021 Flint Hills Discovery Center Friend of the Flint Hills Award. Tom was a beloved educator who sang the praises of tallgrass prairie and the Flint Hills for over 50 years including in our Mount Mitchell brochure.

With your help we have transformed a nationally recognized historic site into an educational outdoor museum and natural recreation area enjoyed by visitors from near and far year-round. Our 99-acre landscape restoration project is demonstrating how to convert marginal crop ground into re-created prairie. The Park is being utilized by educators from local school districts and homeschoolers.

The Park and the Mitchell Farmstead are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places as an historic district. The National Park Service has recognized the Park and Farmstead as official Network to Freedom Sites commemorating the Underground Railroad. The Park is also a major feature along the Native Stone Scenic Byway, and it is a Star Attraction of the Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area. Recently it was honored to be included in the U.S. Civil Rights Trail as an “auxiliary site” to the Brown v Board of Education National Historic Site. It is also a candidate for inclusion in the Kansas African American History Trail.

Our vision is to become a National Commemorative Site or National Monument dedicated to those who sought their freedom on the Underground Railroad and those who helped them. Our long-range plan calls for acquiring the Mitchell Farmstead and converting the house into a  museum, the stone barn into an Educational Center, and the tenant house will be used for a resident Park Manager.

Emporia Match Day is an opportunity to fund Phase Two of our Education Expansion Project. Your donations will be used toward completing the following improvements:

2022-23

• A new Park entrance off the all-weather Mount Mitchell Road which will lead to a new parking area closer to the historic trail ruts and tall grass
• Expansion of our trail system by two and a half miles
• Park Entrance signage and gate
• Perimiter fencing
• Bringing water, power and internet (for security) into the Park

On the horizon

• We will build an accessible trail that leads to the remnants of the historic Topeka Fort Riley Road for those with mobility issues
• An additional interpretive kiosk in the new parking area
• Creation of a “Kansas Prairie Poetry Trail” along the expanded trail system

Checks made out to the Emporia Community Foundation dated November 14, 2022, can now be sent to PO Box 136, Wamego, KS 66547. The attached donation form should accompany your check. Online contributions can be made from 12:00 am through 11:59 pm on Match Day 11/14/2022 at https://www.emporiamatchday.com

On behalf of the Board of the Prairie Guards, I want to thank everyone who has helped us achieve our successes. We hope you continue your support.
The best is yet to come.

Michael Stubbs, Christy Crenshaw, Bruce Waugh, Michelle Crisler,
John Hund, Kathryn Mitchell Buster, Christian Bishop, and Brian Peterson

The Prairie Guards have again received generous challenge grants from the Miller/Hammond and HHM Charitable Foundations! Their gifts totaling $50,000 will retire our mortgage and the match we raise will be used as matching funds for additional grants that will allow us to bring water and power into the Park, double the number of trails, build a new access road from Mount Mitchell Road to a new parking area, and build an ADA compliant trail to the ruts and swales of the Topeka Fort Riley Road, once used by freedom-seekers on the Underground Railroad. These improvements will also create the setting for a future Visitor’s Interpretive Center. Gifts to the Mount Mitchell Prairie Guards will be doubled between now and the end of November! This includes funds generated from our participation in the Wamego Match Day and the Emporia Community Foundation Match Day Emporia Community Foundation Match Day on November 15th.

So far, we have received $15,000 toward this match. Please help us reach the finish line and get the land paid off so that we can continue to develop this wonderful community asset.

ADDITIONAL GOOD NEWS!

If all goes well, the Kansas Historic Sites Board of Review will soon approve the Mitchell Farmstead and the Park for listing on the National Register of Historic Places as the Mount Mitchell Heritage Prairie Historic District.

Please help by adding your donation!

Dear Prairie Guards and Friends of Mount Mitchell.

I have good news; it’s time to celebrate!

Thanks to the generosity of our many donors, we reached a milestone on Monday June 3^rd when we became the new owners of the former Mitchell meadow and farmland next to the Park. We fulfilled our contract with the sellers by taking out a $250,000 loan.

We will continue to fundraise to pay off the loan so that we own it free and clear, but now we will be able to begin the first phase of the expansion of our educational mission by making the historic features of the Park accessible to more people of all ages and physical abilities.

Plans for the new access road and parking area have commenced and we will begin applying for grants to fund these improvements. Now that we own the property more funding opportunities are available to us.

On Friday June 7^th the Prairie Guards participated in the first Match Day organized by the Wamego Community Foundation. Out of 36 participants we were 6^th in total contributions with a total of $10,550. That qualified us for a match of $2,000.

Another aspect of this good news is that the Wamego, Manhattan, and Fort Riley communities are now more aware of Mount Mitchell. Our “Donate Now” sign along highway 99 and our Match Day participation has raised our profile among community members.

This year’s Mitchell Farm and Prairie Celebration was a muted success with the cancelation of our guest speaker and the threat of rain. However, those who did attend enjoyed a lovely day. A colorful display of Missouri primrose, verbena, and spiderwort greeted wildflower walk participants. Thank you to our docents, Diane Barker, Sue Smith, Hallie Hatfield, Rob Meseke, and Marci Spaw. As always a huge thank you to Morris and Michelle Crisler for graciously hosting this annual event at their historic home.

We are hoping to have a fall wildflower walk this October when big bluestem and Indian grass reach their majestic glory, and the fall asters and sunflowers are in bloom.

If you can, get out to the Park now and see the vibrant display of summer wildflowers. You can now walk into the newly acquired hay meadow on a mowed extension of the ruts of the Topeka Fort Riley Road.

Thank you all for your help in creating this magical place. We hope that you will continue that support as we enter this new phase of the Park’s development. And of course we still have that mortgage to pay off.

All Best,

Michael Stubbs, for the Mount Mitchell Prairie Guards Board, Christy Crenshaw, Bruce Waugh, John Hund, and Kathryn Mitchell Buster