Snyder Ranch will be the main attraction at Saturday’s 10th annual Widflower Tour, which is hosted by the Cowley County Conservation District.
The tour begins at 8 a.m in the parking lot of Winfield High School, where those participating will board a bus. A fee of $5 will cover a meal and transportation.
The privately owned Snyder Ranch in eastern Cowley County has a 70-acre watershed lake on 9,000 acres. Otter Creek also runs through the property.
Wildflowers grow in the pastures where herds of yearling cattle and cow-calf pairs are allowed to graze. The ranch features undisturbed tallgrass prairie, with some small areas where former crop ground has been returned to native grass and plants.
An old road through the ranch leads to Cambridge.??
Along the way, you will see house foundations and walls where homesteaders settled decades ago. The stone ranch house at the headquarters was built around 1850. It was built into the side of the hill, and has stone walls more than one foot thick.
The hill and stone naturally keep the house cool in the summer. The kitchen has a side room built entirely of stone where food was stored. Tornadoes have altered the original house and barns, but renovations have been made to restore it.
The horse pasture behind the barn is where an abundance of wildflowers will be found??with easy walking to view them. A wide variety of wildflowers including Echinacea, Butterfly milkweed, dotted gayfeather, and native grasses such as Big Bluestem, Indiangrass and Sideoats Grama will be flagged for participants to photograph and enjoy.
Tour guides will be available for plant identification, native grassland interpretations and natural history.??Discussion of the tallgrass prairie functions and values will be featured, as well as resources for the preservation of the diminishing eco-type.
Lunch will be served near the main house and the group will return to the high school around 1 p.m.
To join the Conservation District on the Cowley County Wildflower Tour, please RSVP by Wednesday to (620) 221-1850, ext 3.
The Conservation District, along with Natural Resources Conservation Service, Southwestern College, Kansas Native Plant Society, Cowley County Farm Bureau, and K-State Research and Extension, invites everyone to enjoy a day in the tallgrass prairie.
