South of Black Jack Park are 18 acres of virgin prairie, purchased in 1967 by Douglas County from Russell Hays for a permanent prairie preserve and historic site. Evidence of the Santa Fe Trail is plainly visible there. The original site of a Daughters of the American Revolution memorial to the Santa Fe Trail, 1822-1872, marked with the State of Kansas in 1906, was near the pioneer town of Black Jack one-half mile east.