This county lies almost wholly within one of the world's great beef cattle feeding grounds, the Bluestem pasture region of Kansas. The area, more popularly known as the Flint Hills, extends across the state from north to south in a narrow oval two counties wide, and covers four and a half million acres. Each summer a million head of cattle are fattened on its nutritious grasses.
The Bluestem region comprises the last large segment of true prairie which once stretched from the forests of the East to the Great Plains. Every spring Southwestern cattle are shipped here for fattening, often a larger number in one year than were driven to all Kansas railheads in an average season during the wild days of the Texas cattle drives, 1866-1885.
Greenwood county had a full share of this industry, ranking among the top five Kansas counties in number of cattle grazed. At times as many as 75,000 head are fed on the county's 739,000 acres.
Comments 0 comments