Nature
2
“Prairie,” the French word for meadow, was used by French explorers to describe the grasslands of the Mississippi Valley. Native grasses and wildflowers once stretched over 160,000,000 acres from Ohio to the Rocky Mountains, but today fewer than 4,000,000 acres, or 2.5%, of native North American prairies remain. Seventy per cent of the harvested crops in the historic prairie are cultivated grasses such as wheat, rice, and corn, with an annual market value of $150,000,000. Only small remnants of Ohio’s prairies survive in old, unmowed cemeteries, railroad rights-of-way, roadsides, and fencerows.
Hear stories like this as you drive
ExploreHere reads historical markers out loud as you pass them: over 325,000 stories across the US. No account needed.
4.7 · 800+ ratings · Free
FIND IT
Ohio · United States
