Open and Boundless Prairie

On July 18, 1804, Lewis and Clark recorded in their journals that the bluffs along the river formed "a ridge of naked hills" running parallel to the river as far as they could see, three to six miles distant, and that the bottomlands were generally divided into prairies with little timber except on low points, islands, and near creeks, where cottonwood, mulberry, elm, and sycamore grew. On July 19, after an early start and a breakfast of roasted deer ribs and a little coffee, William Clark went ashore hunting an elk and, after ascending through a narrow strip of woodland, suddenly entered an open and boundless prairie whose abrupt and striking prospect drew his attention from the hunt to the variety before him. Prairies were presented as a mosaic of plants and animals that changed from spring through fall, with blooming flowers, bobolinks, pollinating insects, goldenrods, sunflowers, soldier beetles, and early bloomers such as pasque flowers protected from frost by hairy stems and leaves. Before settlement, wildfires and grazing animals such as bison controlled woody plants, and because most of a prairie grass or flower grows below the soil, it could quickly resprout after burning or grazing; today, with those natural controls gone, prairie managers must cut or burn woody intruders.

Iowa · United States