OCTOBER 3 - 5, 2024 Prorated match on giftsup to $5,000 per organization per donor IN-PERSON EVENT OCTOBER 3RD | 7 AM - 7 PMIRON CLAD, 427 LINCOLN AVE STOP BY TO MINGLE AND MAKE YOURMATCH DAY DONATION ONLINE GIVING OCTOBER 3RD - 5TH12 AM - 11:59...
The Mount Mitchell Prairie Guards received $1,000 in grant funding from Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area. The award will help reprint the popular Park’s brochure, which is distributed locally and at Kansas Travel Information Centers across the state. The...
Dear Prairie Guards and Friends of the Mount Mitchell Heritage Prairie Park, Greetings from the Tallgrass Prairie!
I want to report that our 20th Anniversary Celebration and dedication of the new Park entrance on June 21st was a great success. 100 people, including Mitchell family members, dignitaries, volunteers, donors, and local residents braved the heat and wind to celebrate the Prairie Guards’ accomplishments of the last 20 years.
Wildflower walks, tours of the Mitchell log cabin and a ribbon cutting were features of the day. In the weeks before the event a new Park entrance sign was installed at Mount Mitchell Road, as was additional interpretive and directional signage within the Park.
Local media coverage of the event was extensive. This was a milestone, and we want to thank everyone who has contributed time, money and resources over the years. You should be proud of the Park you have created.
It’s fundraising season again and I wanted to let you know that the Mount Mitchell Prairie Guards will be participating in both the Alma Community Foundation’s Match Day on August 26th and the Wamego Community Foundation Match Day on October 2nd.
We will not be participating in the Emporia Community Foundation’s Match Day this year. We are an all-volunteer organization and due to the time and travel required to participate it wasn’t feasible this year. We hope that those who contributed in the past to the ECF’s Match Day will participate in the Alma or Wamego Match Day events.
Needed funds raised this year will support the Park’s yearly operating expenses, trail improvements, and the continued development of visitor amenities and educational resources.
Here are the ways to donate during the Second Annual Alma Match Day where we could secure $5,000 in matching funds. All donations are fully tax deductible.
Alma Area Foundation Match Day August 26, 2025
Ways to give to the Mount Mitchell Prairie Guards
Your donation will support the maintenance and development of the Mount Mitchell Heritage Prairie Park and will receive a 50% match on your gift.
Mail a check TODAY to the Alma Area Foundation at P.O. Box 192, Alma, KS 66401
Click image to download
Check must accompany the donation form on this page. Just click on the form to download. Must be postmarked on or before August 26, 2025.
Donate by Donor Advised Fund: Fill out the Match Day Donation Form with your donation preference. Bring in, mail, or email the completed match day donation form to the Alma Area Foundation.
A Gift of Grain donation: Must be arranged prior to Match Day. A gift of grain can be utilized for Match Day giving, but planning ahead is important for the grain producer, grain elevator, and the community foundation.
Donate from an investment account: Must be arranged through your professional advisor prior to Match Day. Donors can use an IRA or other assets such as a 401(k), Keogh, or 403 (b) to make Alma Area Foundation Match Day donations. Your personal tax advisor can help you make this transition prior to August 26, 2025.
Donate by Stock: Must be completed at least one week prior to Match Day. Call the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation office for transfer instructions for your brokerage firm.
Give at the Live Event: at the Alma Community Center from 4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 26, 2025. Come visit with Prairie Guards’ volunteers and board members.
Give Online at:www.ALMAMATCHDAY.com Gifts can be made online from 12:00 a.m. Tuesday, August 26 until 11:59 p.m. that evening.
Contact Marla or Sally at the GMCF office at 785-587-8995 with any questions you may have.
The attached 2025 “Alma Match Day Donation Form” must be submitted for all types of donations.
Thank you for your support of the Mount Mitchell Prairie Guards and our work at Mount Mitchell
For the Board of the Mount Mitchell Prairie Guards:John Hund, Christy Crenshaw, Bruce Waugh, Kathryn Mitchell Buster, Dr. Brian Peterson, Christian Bishop, Michelle Crisler, and Susan Adams Michael Stubbs, President
The Mount Mitchell Prairie Guards wish to invite you to a celebration on June 21st, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the formation of our group and the completion of our 2019 Education Expansion Project.
With your help, the Project has accomplished the following:
Expanded the Park from 45 to 164 acres by completing the purchase of 125 acres of the former Mitchell farm adjoining the Park on the north.
The construction of a new main entrance and trailhead at 29000 Mount Mitchell Road.
The construction of an interpretive kiosk that tells the many fascinating stories associated with the site and its prairie.
The installation of visitor amenities, including a drinking fountain for people and pets, electricity for events, restroom facilities, an ADA trail to the ruts of the Topeka/Fort Riley Road, trail signage, and historical and prairie ecosystem interpretive signage.
Guided wildflower walks and tours of the Mitchell log cabin across the road from the Park will be given from 9 am until noon. The cabin was a station on the westernmost branch of the Underground Railroad. Escaping slaves were given shelter there on their journey to freedom in Canada.
20th Anniversary Mitchell Farm and Prairie Celebration
Click to download PDF with more info!
At 11 am, descendants of William Izott Mitchell, who envisioned the Park in 1953 and donated the original acreage, will be present at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in a tent located at the bus turnaround in the new parking area. Golf carts will be available to ferry visitors from their cars to the tent.
The Board of the Prairie Guards wish to thank all of the individuals, foundations, and supporters whose contributions have made the Park the success it is today. Special thanks to our “Acre-Makers” and the family foundations who made the purchase of additional acreage and infrastructure development possible.
Major contributions from foundations include the Miller Hammond Charitable Fund, HHM Charitable Fund, Sunderland Foundation, Dwane and Velma Wallace Foundation, Carsey Living Trust, Lewis H. Humphreys Charitable Trust, Samuel George Terbovich Fund, Brian & Judith Litle Charitable Trust, Michael & Ceil Pulitzer Trust, Cohen Charitable Trust, Ward & Brenda Morgan, Francis Family Foundation, Alma Area Foundation, Hughes Charitable Fund, Kansas Grazing Lands Coalition, and the Wamego Historical Society. Signage listing Acre-Makers and Major Contributors will be installed near the new kiosk, but not in time for the June 21st celebration.
Sincerely, Michael Stubbs for the board of the Prairie Guards, Christy Crenshaw, Bruce Waugh, Michelle Crisler, John Hund, Kathryn Mitchell Buster, Christian Bishop, Brian Peterson, and Susan Adams.
“In his early boyhood, one of life’s greatest adventures for George was to return to the land of his people. Grandfather Fielding was several times Mayor of Manhattan, a pillar in the community; Father Fielding was a proud graduate of the wheat fields, the local schools and the State College. They were Kansas. By blood and choice, so was young “Dodge.”
Dodge Fielding on the Right
It was 1926 when he made his boldest expedition. He was passing his second summer at the Big Four Ranch near Wamego, a quiet earnest boy of ten. Miss Maude Mitchell, his cousin, packed a lunch for the pirates—Junior Bright, age nine, was his companion—and together they trudged across the road and up the steep hill, which smiles over the countryside. As an afterthought, Miss Mitchell tucked a ten-cent bag of clover seed into their parcel.
They spent a long day on top of their mountain, searching for arrowheads, playing Captain Kidd, munching sweet drumsticks from the lunch box, watching the wind in the golden sea below. Dodge planted the clover with tender care; Junior sunned himself on a rock and made up yarns about the cotton clouds. Before darkness fell, they returned to the farmhouse, happy in the accomplishment of their perilous mission.
As the years passed, Dodge grew away from the soil, but he never forgot it. Eastern schools claimed him. He was graduated from Princeton with Highest Honors in 1939. The University gave him the White Cup, symbol for performance in the ROTC; they knew a soldier when they saw one.
In battle, percentages too often run out. He volunteered for the National Guard in 1940, and during his three years in the Pacific he fought as a forward observer, survey officer, and reconnaissance officer—the riskiest assignments in Field Artillery. At Munda he was personally commended by Lt. General Harmon, Supreme Commander of the invasion; in New Guinea he was awarded the Bronze Star; later he was recommended for the Legion of Merit. But no soldier can land with the first wave forever; his chapter was closed when a Jap grenade exploded during the last major campaign of the war.
Twenty-one years is a lifetime to many men, but to clover it is a fleeting second of time. The seeds this youngster planted multiplied with two decades of passing seasons. On top of the hill there now stretches a soft rich blanket, a blaze of color which can be seen from miles around. The American Legion men of Alma were there on Memorial Day; so was “Aunt Maude,” Hal Weaver and other friends.
The surviving members of his family—Connecticut, Michigan, New York, California, and five other states—have chosen this flowering hilltop as the site most suitable as a living memorial. On a large rock in the center of the pink patch was placed a bronze tablet. It says:—
Captain George T. Fielding III. 192nd F.A. Bn., 43rd Div., U.S. A. Killed in Action Near Manila. P.I. April 30, 1945. Aged 28 years.
Then simply and quietly, “In memory of Dodge—Doer of Good Deeds.”
Because the memory of Dodge and our thousands of Dodge’s will live as long and spread as heartily as the Kansas clover.”
MEMORIAL TO CAPTAIN FIELDING
Alma Signal Enterprise June 5, 1947
The members of Ed. Palenske Post No. 32, of Alma, had charge of the Memorial Day services at the Wabaunsee Cemetery.
After the Wabaunsee services the thirty-two members of the Post present went to the Mitchell farm in Wabaunsee township, where a stone with bronze tablet had been erected to the memory of Captain George T. Fielding III, who was killed in action at Luzon. The monument was dedicated by the Legion to all service men who lost their lives in the war, and to Captain Fielding.
The following story was written by Temple Fielding, a brother of Captain Fielding, but was received too late for publication on Memorial Day:
The Wamego Community Foundation Match Day is just over two weeks away on October 3rd. Funds raised will support the Park’s yearly operating expenses and continued development of its educational resources.
Our efforts are now focused on communicating to visitors the many important stories associated with the Park. Contributions are needed for the design and fabrication of interpretive, commemorative, directional, and informational signage in the Park.
Subjects covered on the interpretive panels in the kiosk will include geology, tallgrass Prairie, Mount Mitchell’s 10,500-year-old cultural history, Native American tribes, Kansas Territory, “Bleeding Kansas”, the Beecher Bible and Rifle Colony, the Underground Railroad, and European and African American settlement in the neighborhood.
Donors’ past support has helped us create this wonderful prairie Park that is enjoyed by folks from all over the world. We are extremely grateful to them. If you are able, please help us finish this work by downloading this form and making a check out to the Wamego Community Foundation designating the Mount Mitchell Prairie Guards as the recipient. Online contributions may be made between October 3rd and October 5th at wamegomatchday.com.
The board of the Mount Mitchell Prairie Guards: Christy Crenshaw, Bruce Waugh, Michelle Crisler, John Hund, Kathryn Mitchell Buster, Christian Bishop, Michael Stubbs, and Brian Peterson
Wamego Match Day How It Works
On the enclosed form Choose Your Organization: Select which nonprofits you want to support. 100% of your donation goes directly to their fund at Wamego Community Foundation.
Prorated Match: Donations are eligible for a prorated match based on the total amount raised and the available matching pool. For example, if an organization raises 7.5% of the total donations, they will receive 7.5% of the matching funds.
Donation Limits
Donations of up to $5,000 per donor, per organization, are eligible for the prorated match.
Using the Funds
Nonprofits can use their match funds for immediate needs, endowments, or other expenses.
Tax-Deductible Donations
All donations are tax-deductible, with receipts provided by email or mail.
How to Donate
By Check: Write one check for all donations payable to Wamego Community Foundation. Complete a donation form to designate your chosen nonprofits. Mail the check to MMPG’s Box 136 Wamego KS, 66547 or Iron Clad, 427 Lincon, Wamego, KS 66547.
In-Person: Join us on October 3 at Iron Clad, 427 Lincoln Ave, Wamego from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. for the live event. Happy hour starts at 4:00 PM, drinks and light appetizers will be provided.
Online: Donate anytime from October 3 to October 5 through the wamegomatchday.com website.
The Mount Mitchell Prairie Guards received $1,000 in grant funding from Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area. The award will help reprint the popular Park’s brochure, which is distributed locally and at Kansas Travel Information Centers across the state.
The Mount Mitchell Prairie Guards manage the 164-acre Mount Mitchell Heritage Prairie Park south of Wamego in Wabaunsee County. The Guards recently completed construction of a new entrance to the Park at 29000 Mount Mitchell Road. Improvements include an accessible trail to the ruts of the Topeka Fort Riley Road used by the Underground Railroad helping enslaved people escape to freedom in Canada.
Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area (FFNHA) is a federally funded nonprofit organization and affiliate of the National Park Service dedicated to building awareness of the struggle for freedom along the Missouri-Kansas border. Established by Congress in 2006, its nationally significant themes are the settlement of the frontier, the Missouri-Kansas Border War and Civil War, and the enduring struggle for freedom. These diverse, interwoven, and nationally important stories grew from a unique physical and cultural landscape. FFNHA inspires respect for multiple perspectives and empowers residents to preserve and share these stories. We achieve our goals through interpretation, preservation, conservation, and education for all residents and visitors.
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