Kansas City Civil War Reenactment Stand of Colors

		Jerry Smith Park

		Jerry Smith Park is a well-kept secret near 139th and Holmes. The former farm has 320 acres of woodlands and wildflowers; it contains the only remaining remnant prairie in the Metro area. A wood-chipped trail leads visitors through 40 acres of natural prairie growth that contains the largest population of eared false foxglove in Missouri. Nearby Saeger Woods and Smith Lake are also open to the public for hiking or fishing. Kansas City Parks & Recreation owns the property; Kansas City Power and Light Company employees help maintain the land.

		Located in south Kansas City, the park is known as a great place to watch spring woodcocks. The park also contains remnants of native prairie, including a plant known as auriculate false foxglove, which is on the state's endangered species list.

		Native prairie is rare anywhere in Missouri. Of this rich, diverse community that once covered at least a third of our state, less than one percent remains today. It seems unlikely that a fragment of this original landscape could survive the intensive land use pressures and human disturbance of a large city, but tucked away just barely within Kansas City's southern boundary, a little niche of prairie, although invaded by trees, remains intact.

		The prairie is on the 360-acre Jerry Smith Park. It was purchased by the city in 1976. Local civic leader and philanthropist Jerry Smith donated one quarter of the land and another portion of the purchase price came from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. About one-third of the land contains fragments of restorable prairie.

		The Smith Park is next to Saeger Woods Conservation Area, which is owned by the Missouri Department of Conservation. Saeger Woods is a 20-acre tract, which despite its name, also contains a tiny prairie remnant.

		The General Land Office Survey notes from 1826 describe a section line just east of the Smith farm as a "smoothe rich prarie fit for cultivation the remainder of the line broken and stony . . ."

		This brief entry reveals much about the fate of our prairies. The word "smoothe," for example, is underlined, emphasizing that the absence of rocks at the surface made the land eminently arable. In other words, it was a good target for the plow.

		Almost all Missouri's "smoothe" prairies underlain by deep soils became cropland. However, "broken and stony" land was difficult to plow and sometimes survived. It is no coincidence that the best prairie remnants on the Jerry Smith Park appear on thin-soiled rocky slopes.

		Presented by the Downtown Kansas City Missouri Rotary Club
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