Hayden Prairie State Preserve

Hayden Prairie State Preserve is a 240-acre remnant of tallgrass prairie in northern Iowa near Chester and Lime Springs, protected as both an Iowa state preserve and a National Natural Landmark. Named for botanist Ada Hayden, it reflects her work documenting Iowa’s last surviving prairie fragments after settlement and agriculture erased most of the state’s original grasslands. Hayden identified this site in 1940, and Iowa bought it in 1945; after her death, it was renamed in her honor. As the largest surviving tallgrass prairie parcel in Iowa outside the Loess Hills, it preserves a rare older landscape and supports rich plant, bird, and butterfly life.

Iowa · United States