Prairie Grass Fire

Memo: The prairie grass will be burned Tuesday March 29 at 6:00 p.m. weather permitting. Location is the corner of Hotchkiss and Hyde Streets in Nauvoo, we request that you park on Partridge Street or south of Hotchkiss on Hyde, please do not park on Hotchkiss street.  To help you understand the prairie and its burning we offer the following short comment.

The tallgrass prairie once covered a fifth of the continental United States including most of Iowa and Illinois. This sea of grass (sometimes taller than a man and often nicknamed "the Lawns of God") was the predominant vegetation. Parley P. Pratt, writing of a trip to Carthage, described the landscape: "We rode seventeen miles through a beautiful plain. Our route was a most delightful one. On all sides we turned our eyes, we beheld a boundless field of grass and flowers, with here and there a small grove of timber: the landscape was level, or gently rolling; the surface smooth as a garden." Though grass was the predominant plant of the prairie, the green was punctuated with an endless succession of brilliant wildflowers. The tremendous herds of buffalo were supported by the abundant plant growth. As the plant roots decomposed year after year, a rich layer of deep black soil formed beneath the prairie. Some of the richest farm lands in the world formed beneath native prairies. There are areas between here and Carthage where the topsoil is over thirty feet deep. However actual cultivation of prairie land was difficult because of the dense root growth and was not really done on a large scale until John Deere perfected his plow. Because of the success of the plow, native prairie is presently one of the most threatened ecosystems on earth.

This prairie restoration began in 1992 and is sited on ground which once was prairie. While not yet mature and only an acre in size, the planting should give you some idea of the majesty of the landscape greeting the early settlers of this area.

Many factors influenced the formation of prairies. A common element and one that receives a lot of attention is fire. The almost annual burning of the grass killed most woody plants and thus kept the forest from growing into the prairie. The fire also kills exotic species allowing the native plants to flourish. Prairies often burned naturally in the spring when thunderstorms and their associated lightening would accidentally spark a fire. Native Americans also used fire finding that the new growth of grass after a burn would attract the buffalo. Our little fire will give you just a taste of what would happen when an area dozens of miles across would burst into flame. In fact, one of the greatest threats to life on the frontier was to be caught in a wildfire. In a full scale prairie fire, flames can shoot over forty feet into the air, fire cyclones can form, and the fire can move faster than the speed of the wind.  The actual burn will only take a few minutes for the one acre plot.

Those wishing to understand a little more of the Prairie would enjoy the book Where the Sky Began, Land of the Tallgrass Prairie by John Madson. Written by a scientist but addressed to the casual reader, you will truly gain a vision of what a wonderful thing the tallgrass prairie was.