The Flint Hills Range Sites

Abstract

The precise boundaries, areal extent, and specific Iocation of the well-known Kansas Flint Hills physiographic unit have not been expressly defined tol everyone's satisfaction. Kollmorgen and Simonett's comprehensive study (6) disclosed a wide divergence of opinion regarding this familiar landscape. The Flint Hills apparently imply different things to different people. To the geologist they are an area where certain bedrock, notably cherty limestones, outcrop. To the botanist and range scierltist the Flint Hills comprise an area of natural vegetation whose substrate only incidentally contains flint or chert rock. To the zoologist they are a natural habitat for wild animals and a barrier to their migration. To the native they constitute an unusually irregular bluestem mantled landscape whose steep rocky slopes and accordant summits create a panoramic beauty that constantly changes with the season and the hour (Fig. 1 ) . ThP area and soil composition of the Flint Hills depends on the interpretation that is made. If one limits the Flint Hills to the immediate outcrop areas of Florence, Schroyer and Three-mile cherty limestone the Flint Hills occupies about 0.8 million acres (Fig. 2). If, instead, adjacent shallow soils on massive limestone and steeply sloping lands are included as well, the area approximates 2.5 million acres. If, in addition, included areas of deep, nearly level, clayey soils of the associated broad ridges are embraced, the area totals approximately 4 million acres of the total of 7 million acres contained in the 13 counties extending across the state from Marshall to Cowley counties, in which the :Flint Hills have been said to exist. Acreages of range lands and lands too steep or rocky to cultivate are compared for each of the 13 counties in Table 1. About dOSo of the range land has been classed unsuitable for cultivation, as indicated by Classes V through VIII. Conversely, some 409s of the land now in range is suited to cultivation. The kinds, acreages, and distribution of the soils occurring in the Flint Hills, then depend on a deSnition of what constitutes the Flint Hills.