June 18, 2025 • 15 mins
Michael Stubbs, president of Mount Mitchell Prairie Guards, shares the inspiring 20-year journey of preserving a historically and ecologically significant 165-acre park. From rescuing the land from potential development to creating accessible trails where visitors can experience wagon ruts from the 1840s and diverse prairie ecosystems, this volunteer-led effort showcases grassroots conservation at its finest.
• Original 30-acre site commemorated the Beecher Bible and Rifle Colony and contained historic trail ruts, Underground Railroad connections, and Native American sacred sites
• Prairie Guards formed in 2005 when the state planned to return the undeveloped parkland to private ownership
• Volunteers purchased adjacent properties, eventually expanding to 165 acres when development threatened in 2019
• New improvements include an access road, ADA-compliant trails, water, power, and a specially designed parking area for all visitors
• The site serves as an educational resource for schools, libraries, and athletes while preserving one of Kansas' most diverse tallgrass prairie remnants
• Mount Mitchell Prairie Guards operates entirely with volunteers and no paid staff
• The name "Prairie Guards" connects to the original militia formed by Connecticut abolitionists who settled the area in 1856
• The original Mitchell farmstead, once an Underground Railroad station, will be open for tours during the 20th anniversary celebration
For more information about visiting Mount Mitchell Prairie, located at the junction of K-18 and Highway 99 (approximately 15 miles from Manhattan or 3 miles south of the Wamego bridge), join us for the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Philanthropy Today is brought to you by the Greater
Manhattan Community Foundation.
In this episode we feature arecently broadcast segment of
the GMCF Community Hour, asheard on NewsRadio KMAN.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
As a memorial to the Beecher Bible and Rifle Colony
and one of its leaders, captainWilliam Mitchell, and the state
had it for 50 years.
It got never got developed intoa park.
They did put a monument on topof the hill, which was part of
the gifts stipulations, and oh,in about 2002 we learned a bunch
(00:37):
of local historians learnedthat the state was going to give
it back to the family and thata park would not be developed.
So we formed the prairie guardsin 2005, and that's here we are
, 2025, and we worked to get ittransferred to local control.
(00:57):
And then we bought 15 acres offof our neighbor, junior and
gene Graymeier, which gave us anaccess road, and so we had a
30-acre or 45-acre park withwalking trails.
And the significance of the siteis not only its association
with the Beecher Colony, butit's also there are ruts from
(01:23):
the old trail from the 1840sthat Fremont used when he was
exploring the Oregon Trail andthen later it was used by the
Underground Railroad.
And there's also a NativeAmerican sacred site in the park
and we have one of the mostdiverse tall grass prairie
(01:49):
remnants in the state.
So, plus, it's where the lastglacier stopped, so it's quite
an educational site because youhave the geology, you have the
flora and the fauna, you havethe history, you have the
Underground Railroad and we'renow 165 acres.
We've grown over the years andthat's what we're celebrating on
(02:10):
Saturday the 125 acres the restof the Mitchell Farm that the
30 acres had been cut out of wasput on the market in 2019.
And some speculators thoughtthey might build some ranchettes
(02:31):
.
So, we took a deep breath and wethought, oh my God, we can't
let this happen.
So we committed to purchasingit and the sellers, the stofers,
were very accommodating andthey gave us two years to raise
the money.
And we did for a down paymentfor the mortgage and frontier
(02:51):
farm service helped us with themortgage and eventually we paid
it off.
And so now we have built a newaccess road into the park, We've
got water and power, We've gota new information kiosk, We've
got an ADA trail surface, thatso anybody can go up to these
(03:14):
ruts and swales of that old roadand we're now three and a half
miles of trails.
And we've designed our newparking area so that if people
because we learned from our oldparking lot area a lot of,
especially older people theyjust drive up in their car, they
read the sign and then driveoff again.
(03:34):
Well, this new parking area isdesigned so that you can
actually sit in your car andhear the monarchs.
I Hear the monarchs, Hear thedick sissels, see the monarchs
and see the prairie grasseswaving above your head, because
it's a bit you know the areasrecessed down into the ground a
(03:54):
bit.
So you know we're very pleasedwith it and that's what we're
celebrating on Saturday and we'dlike everybody.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
If you don't come on Saturday, fine, but just come
check the park out one of thethings you did not mention in
all that, michael, and that's alot of information, a lot more
than I can could recall, butit's a spectacular view yes, yes
, you know, and I think that'swhy the Native Americans it was
so special to them.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
When you're on the top, you can see the Kansas
River coming at you over, youknow, northwest of the park,
towards Manhattan and SaintGeorge, and then, when you look
to the northeast, you can see itreceding and it's, it's a very
spiritual place, I think, and,as you say, it's just got that
(04:47):
drop-dead gorgeous view,especially now with all the rain
we've had.
Everything's so green.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
What do you have there on the site that may give
some sort of a visualinterpretation of the history of
the area?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Well, in our old entrance on the south side we
have a kiosk that the Westar orEvergy Green Team built for us
and there's interpretive signagethere.
And then in our new parkingarea we're going to have six
panels.
Unfortunately, I haven'tfinished three of them yet.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
I've been a little busy, you've got some work to do
this week, don't you?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
We explain the geology of the site.
We explain the flora and faunaof the site you know the tall
grass prairie ecosystem and thenwe explain the human habitation
of the site, because just fivemiles to the southeast of us
there is an are you ready forthis?
A 9 000 year old nativeamerican uh habitation site, and
(05:53):
so human beings have been inthe area since the last glacier
left and we are bringing allthat history to light.
You know we we're not big onholding events ourselves.
Our organization is allvolunteer.
We don't have any paidemployees.
So we've created this park foreverybody else to use.
(06:15):
The Wamego Library uses it,homeschoolers use it, the school
district uses it.
The Wamego football team has atraining day where they call it
the buddy hike or something, andthey have to carry each other
up to the top of the hill.
That's a workout and at thesame time they learn about the
(06:36):
struggles of freedom seekers onthe Underground Railroad.
So it's a community asset, plusa lot of people.
We do allow dogs and peoplecome to walk their dogs.
As I say, it's accommodatingolder people or people with
mobility issues so they canenjoy the park.
(06:58):
We get Fort Riley peopletraining and running and running
.
We just had the owner of TossieLandscape Service help us remove
elm trees as part of hisservice.
He's going to be running amarathon on Tuesday in Salt Lake
City and part of the entrancerequirement was that he do
(07:20):
public service in a park thathas trails park that has trails
and we had this terrible elminfestation when the farm ground
was converted to CRP or prairie10 years ago.
There was a flush of Siberianelm seed and so we've been
fighting Siberian elm seedlingsever since, and it was starting
(07:41):
to look like a forest, not aprairie, and so Kansas Wildlife
and Parks gave us a grant to getin there and cut all those
trees down, and we spent 50hours.
There were like over 500 elmsand with the guidance of Derek
we had four high school kids andout there cutting them and
(08:04):
spraying the stumps, so itreally looks nice now.
I was so worried that thatwouldn't get done before
Saturday, but it did.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
How did you come up with the name Prairie Guards?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Oh, good question, Dave, because you know Facebook
doesn't like that.
They think we're a militantorganization or something, so we
had to tweak that a bit.
Well, the militia, when thiscompany of pre-state advocates
abolitionists came to Kansas in1856 from Connecticut, their
(08:40):
primary motivation was to settleand vote to make Kansas a free
state, and a lot of them camefrom Yale University, new Haven
and Hartford and they wereconnected with all the
leadership of the anti-slaverymovement in New England.
(09:04):
And on their way to settle atWoburn they stopped in Lawrence
and made a mutual pledge ofassistance with Lawrence, that
if Lawrence needed help theywould come and help.
Well, it wasn't, but two weekslater Lawrence was attacked by
pro-slavery forces and it wasburned twice.
(09:29):
This was the first time, and sothey called these folks from
Waubonsie to come, and theyfounded a militia and long story
short or short story longcalled the Waubonsie Prairie
Guards, and so when it came timeto pick a name for us, we
(09:50):
thought Waubonsie was toospecific, so we made it Mount
Mitchell Prairie Guards.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Fascinating A little history there.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
That's new for me today.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Yeah, so tell us some of the details about your
ribbon cutting event that youhave Saturday.
So we want to make sure that wehave some of your supporters,
some of your friends and somethat want to just check out,
maybe, mount Mitchell for thefirst time.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Well, okay, some logistics.
Our parking area onlyaccommodates, in a normal day,
about 20 cars and we're going tobe having a big tent for
everybody that takes up a lot ofthe parking.
So we will have a people someof those football players
(10:39):
directing traffic, some of thosefootball players directing
traffic.
We will mow an area across fromthe Mitchell Farmstead and
people can either walk fromthere We've mowed trails up to
where the tent is or we'll havegators, provided by Prairieland
(11:03):
there in Wamego, that will takepeople up to the tent from their
cars there in Wamego, that willtake people up to the tent from
their cars.
And I didn't say that MitchellFarmstead is a private residence
owned by Michelle and MorrisChrysler, and it will be open
from 9 to noon for tours of theformer Underground Railroad
Station.
What had happened is, the livingroom of the present house was
(11:26):
the original log cabin and then,as time went on and the
Mitchell family grew, they justkept adding on to that cabin and
Morris and Michelle haveexposed the southern wall and
made a sun porch so you canactually see the original logs
of this 1856 log cabin.
So that's from 9 to noon.
(11:49):
And then also from 9 to noonare wildflower walks.
We have docents from KansaPrairie and from Audubon of
Kansas who will lead folks onwildflower walks and then the
ribbon cutting is 11.
And it'll be short and sweet.
Uh, you know it's gonna.
(12:10):
The forecast is gonna be windyand 90 degrees or 95, I think,
actually.
So we've been through thatbefore.
So I'll mostly I want to thankpeople.
It is is amazing Over these 20years I'm starting, I'm working
on the program now and, my God,the number of companies and
(12:32):
organizations and groups andindividuals that have helped
make this park happen.
It's as long as your arm.
So I'll be thanking people andwe'll tell a little bit about
the history and then one of ourboard members, bruce Wall, will
talk about what we think thefuture holds.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Sounds like a good time.
Congratulations on 20 years andthis ribbon cutting thing is
going to be a big deal for MountMitchell, and looking forward
to my next visit and seeing allthe new improvements.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Great.
Thank you so much, Dave.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Michael Stubbs is his name.
He's president of the MountMitchell Prairie Guards and, by
the way, michael, let's justgive a quick, quick description
of how to get to Mount Mitchell.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Oh, good, good, good.
Well, if you're coming fromManhattan, the scenic and
easiest way, the least amount oftraffic, is just cross the
bridge on 177 and turn on toK-18, east Cousinedale Road and
15 miles from Manhattan you hitthe junction of 99, and you just
(13:37):
go another half mile east as ifyou were just.
You know, it becomes gravel forthat half mile, but that's now
our new main entrance.
Or we're three miles south ofthe bridge, at Wamego, the
Kansas River Bridge, again atthe junction of 1890 and 99, and
(13:57):
you would turn east.
And thank goodness, kdot isjust this week going to switch
the signs that we had brownattraction signs that we got
from the state and they've beendirecting people to our old
entrance, and so Jeff Romine isgoing to be moving those signs
(14:20):
so that people won't be confusedabout which exit to take.
All right Sounds good, Michael.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Thank you much.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Nine miles north of I-70.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
And there's.
That way they get there too.
All right, all right, michael.
Thank you much.
We'll talk to you again in whoknows how many months.
Match day.
There we go.
All right, that's like ninemonths, all right.
Oh, that's right.
That's right, you're on theWamego match day.
Yeah, okay, sounds good.
Take care and good luck witheverything.
On Saturday Up next, richJankovich will be in to talk
(14:57):
about AUSA.
We've got the Central Kansaschapter here that does a lot of
work with our friends at FortRiley, so we'll get some
perspective on the work that'sbeing done there here.
On the GMCF Community Hour onNewsRadio KMAN
Philanthropy Today is brought to you by the Greater
Manhattan Community Foundation.
In this episode we feature arecently broadcast segment of
the GMCF Community Hour, asheard on NewsRadio KMAN.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
As a memorial to the Beecher Bible and Rifle Colony
and one of its leaders, captainWilliam Mitchell, and the state
had it for 50 years.
It got never got developed intoa park.
They did put a monument on topof the hill, which was part of
the gifts stipulations, and oh,in about 2002 we learned a bunch
(00:37):
of local historians learnedthat the state was going to give
it back to the family and thata park would not be developed.
So we formed the prairie guardsin 2005, and that's here we are
, 2025, and we worked to get ittransferred to local control.
(00:57):
And then we bought 15 acres offof our neighbor, junior and
gene Graymeier, which gave us anaccess road, and so we had a
30-acre or 45-acre park withwalking trails.
And the significance of the siteis not only its association
with the Beecher Colony, butit's also there are ruts from
(01:23):
the old trail from the 1840sthat Fremont used when he was
exploring the Oregon Trail andthen later it was used by the
Underground Railroad.
And there's also a NativeAmerican sacred site in the park
and we have one of the mostdiverse tall grass prairie
(01:49):
remnants in the state.
So, plus, it's where the lastglacier stopped, so it's quite
an educational site because youhave the geology, you have the
flora and the fauna, you havethe history, you have the
Underground Railroad and we'renow 165 acres.
We've grown over the years andthat's what we're celebrating on
(02:10):
Saturday the 125 acres the restof the Mitchell Farm that the
30 acres had been cut out of wasput on the market in 2019.
And some speculators thoughtthey might build some ranchettes
(02:31):
.
So, we took a deep breath and wethought, oh my God, we can't
let this happen.
So we committed to purchasingit and the sellers, the stofers,
were very accommodating andthey gave us two years to raise
the money.
And we did for a down paymentfor the mortgage and frontier
(02:51):
farm service helped us with themortgage and eventually we paid
it off.
And so now we have built a newaccess road into the park, We've
got water and power, We've gota new information kiosk, We've
got an ADA trail surface, thatso anybody can go up to these
(03:14):
ruts and swales of that old roadand we're now three and a half
miles of trails.
And we've designed our newparking area so that if people
because we learned from our oldparking lot area a lot of,
especially older people theyjust drive up in their car, they
read the sign and then driveoff again.
(03:34):
Well, this new parking area isdesigned so that you can
actually sit in your car andhear the monarchs.
I Hear the monarchs, Hear thedick sissels, see the monarchs
and see the prairie grasseswaving above your head, because
it's a bit you know the areasrecessed down into the ground a
(03:54):
bit.
So you know we're very pleasedwith it and that's what we're
celebrating on Saturday and we'dlike everybody.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
If you don't come on Saturday, fine, but just come
check the park out one of thethings you did not mention in
all that, michael, and that's alot of information, a lot more
than I can could recall, butit's a spectacular view yes, yes
, you know, and I think that'swhy the Native Americans it was
so special to them.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
When you're on the top, you can see the Kansas
River coming at you over, youknow, northwest of the park,
towards Manhattan and SaintGeorge, and then, when you look
to the northeast, you can see itreceding and it's, it's a very
spiritual place, I think, and,as you say, it's just got that
(04:47):
drop-dead gorgeous view,especially now with all the rain
we've had.
Everything's so green.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
What do you have there on the site that may give
some sort of a visualinterpretation of the history of
the area?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Well, in our old entrance on the south side we
have a kiosk that the Westar orEvergy Green Team built for us
and there's interpretive signagethere.
And then in our new parkingarea we're going to have six
panels.
Unfortunately, I haven'tfinished three of them yet.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
I've been a little busy, you've got some work to do
this week, don't you?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
We explain the geology of the site.
We explain the flora and faunaof the site you know the tall
grass prairie ecosystem and thenwe explain the human habitation
of the site, because just fivemiles to the southeast of us
there is an are you ready forthis?
A 9 000 year old nativeamerican uh habitation site, and
(05:53):
so human beings have been inthe area since the last glacier
left and we are bringing allthat history to light.
You know we we're not big onholding events ourselves.
Our organization is allvolunteer.
We don't have any paidemployees.
So we've created this park foreverybody else to use.
(06:15):
The Wamego Library uses it,homeschoolers use it, the school
district uses it.
The Wamego football team has atraining day where they call it
the buddy hike or something, andthey have to carry each other
up to the top of the hill.
That's a workout and at thesame time they learn about the
(06:36):
struggles of freedom seekers onthe Underground Railroad.
So it's a community asset, plusa lot of people.
We do allow dogs and peoplecome to walk their dogs.
As I say, it's accommodatingolder people or people with
mobility issues so they canenjoy the park.
(06:58):
We get Fort Riley peopletraining and running and running
.
We just had the owner of TossieLandscape Service help us remove
elm trees as part of hisservice.
He's going to be running amarathon on Tuesday in Salt Lake
City and part of the entrancerequirement was that he do
(07:20):
public service in a park thathas trails park that has trails
and we had this terrible elminfestation when the farm ground
was converted to CRP or prairie10 years ago.
There was a flush of Siberianelm seed and so we've been
fighting Siberian elm seedlingsever since, and it was starting
(07:41):
to look like a forest, not aprairie, and so Kansas Wildlife
and Parks gave us a grant to getin there and cut all those
trees down, and we spent 50hours.
There were like over 500 elmsand with the guidance of Derek
we had four high school kids andout there cutting them and
(08:04):
spraying the stumps, so itreally looks nice now.
I was so worried that thatwouldn't get done before
Saturday, but it did.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
How did you come up with the name Prairie Guards?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Oh, good question, Dave, because you know Facebook
doesn't like that.
They think we're a militantorganization or something, so we
had to tweak that a bit.
Well, the militia, when thiscompany of pre-state advocates
abolitionists came to Kansas in1856 from Connecticut, their
(08:40):
primary motivation was to settleand vote to make Kansas a free
state, and a lot of them camefrom Yale University, new Haven
and Hartford and they wereconnected with all the
leadership of the anti-slaverymovement in New England.
(09:04):
And on their way to settle atWoburn they stopped in Lawrence
and made a mutual pledge ofassistance with Lawrence, that
if Lawrence needed help theywould come and help.
Well, it wasn't, but two weekslater Lawrence was attacked by
pro-slavery forces and it wasburned twice.
(09:29):
This was the first time, and sothey called these folks from
Waubonsie to come, and theyfounded a militia and long story
short or short story longcalled the Waubonsie Prairie
Guards, and so when it came timeto pick a name for us, we
(09:50):
thought Waubonsie was toospecific, so we made it Mount
Mitchell Prairie Guards.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Fascinating A little history there.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
That's new for me today.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Yeah, so tell us some of the details about your
ribbon cutting event that youhave Saturday.
So we want to make sure that wehave some of your supporters,
some of your friends and somethat want to just check out,
maybe, mount Mitchell for thefirst time.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Well, okay, some logistics.
Our parking area onlyaccommodates, in a normal day,
about 20 cars and we're going tobe having a big tent for
everybody that takes up a lot ofthe parking.
So we will have a people someof those football players
(10:39):
directing traffic, some of thosefootball players directing
traffic.
We will mow an area across fromthe Mitchell Farmstead and
people can either walk fromthere We've mowed trails up to
where the tent is or we'll havegators, provided by Prairieland
(11:03):
there in Wamego, that will takepeople up to the tent from their
cars there in Wamego, that willtake people up to the tent from
their cars.
And I didn't say that MitchellFarmstead is a private residence
owned by Michelle and MorrisChrysler, and it will be open
from 9 to noon for tours of theformer Underground Railroad
Station.
What had happened is, the livingroom of the present house was
(11:26):
the original log cabin and then,as time went on and the
Mitchell family grew, they justkept adding on to that cabin and
Morris and Michelle haveexposed the southern wall and
made a sun porch so you canactually see the original logs
of this 1856 log cabin.
So that's from 9 to noon.
(11:49):
And then also from 9 to noonare wildflower walks.
We have docents from KansaPrairie and from Audubon of
Kansas who will lead folks onwildflower walks and then the
ribbon cutting is 11.
And it'll be short and sweet.
Uh, you know it's gonna.
(12:10):
The forecast is gonna be windyand 90 degrees or 95, I think,
actually.
So we've been through thatbefore.
So I'll mostly I want to thankpeople.
It is is amazing Over these 20years I'm starting, I'm working
on the program now and, my God,the number of companies and
(12:32):
organizations and groups andindividuals that have helped
make this park happen.
It's as long as your arm.
So I'll be thanking people andwe'll tell a little bit about
the history and then one of ourboard members, bruce Wall, will
talk about what we think thefuture holds.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Sounds like a good time.
Congratulations on 20 years andthis ribbon cutting thing is
going to be a big deal for MountMitchell, and looking forward
to my next visit and seeing allthe new improvements.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Great.
Thank you so much, Dave.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Michael Stubbs is his name.
He's president of the MountMitchell Prairie Guards and, by
the way, michael, let's justgive a quick, quick description
of how to get to Mount Mitchell.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Oh, good, good, good.
Well, if you're coming fromManhattan, the scenic and
easiest way, the least amount oftraffic, is just cross the
bridge on 177 and turn on toK-18, east Cousinedale Road and
15 miles from Manhattan you hitthe junction of 99, and you just
(13:37):
go another half mile east as ifyou were just.
You know, it becomes gravel forthat half mile, but that's now
our new main entrance.
Or we're three miles south ofthe bridge, at Wamego, the
Kansas River Bridge, again atthe junction of 1890 and 99, and
(13:57):
you would turn east.
And thank goodness, kdot isjust this week going to switch
the signs that we had brownattraction signs that we got
from the state and they've beendirecting people to our old
entrance, and so Jeff Romine isgoing to be moving those signs
(14:20):
so that people won't be confusedabout which exit to take.
All right Sounds good, Michael.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Thank you much.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Nine miles north of I-70.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
And there's.
That way they get there too.
All right, all right, michael.
Thank you much.
We'll talk to you again in whoknows how many months.
Match day.
There we go.
All right, that's like ninemonths, all right.
Oh, that's right.
That's right, you're on theWamego match day.
Yeah, okay, sounds good.
Take care and good luck witheverything.
On Saturday Up next, richJankovich will be in to talk
(14:57):
about AUSA.
We've got the Central Kansaschapter here that does a lot of
work with our friends at FortRiley, so we'll get some
perspective on the work that'sbeing done there here.
On the GMCF Community Hour onNewsRadio KMAN
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.