Trials in an Old Swamp

Before settlers began to farm the Dayton area in the early 1800s, this flood plain was covered by tall-grass prairie. In June 1904, Wilbur Wright described a large meadow of about 100 acres, skirted on the west and north by trees, where the ground was an old swamp filled with grassy hummocks some six inches high, making tracklaying slow work. In the fields to the left of the flying field lies 109 acres of Huffman Prairie, the largest natural prairie remnant found in Ohio, where The Nature Conservancy works with the Air Force to remove non-native plants and reseed tall-grass prairie species.

Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio · United States