Big Basin Prairie Preserve

Big Basin Prairie Preserve is a protected grassland in the Red Hills of southern Kansas near Ashland, distinguished by the Big Basin and Little Basin sinkholes and the permanent waters of St. Jacob’s Well. Long valued as a landmark on the southern plains, it served cattle drives and sheltered Northern Cheyenne during the eighteen seventy-eight Exodus. Around nineteen hundred, geologist Willard D. Johnson recorded its unusual closed basins and exposed groundwater, and later study confirmed the well’s remarkable depth and permanence. Preservation began in nineteen seventy-two through Mrs. C.G. “Janie” Stein’s efforts, leading to state acquisition, National Natural Landmark status, public access, and bison habitat protection.

Kansas · United States