1866. The alluvial bottomlands were fertile and soon were under cultivation.

Because the prairies and forests were soon destroyed or altered by cow, ax, plow and fire, knowledge of the region's ecology under the conditions that prevailed in the early nineteenth century and the centuries before must be gained largely from circumstantial evidence. Although there were no ecologists among the first settlers in Kansas, occasional glimpses of the region's ecology are afforded by the writings of early residents who mentioned native plant and animal life from time to time. However, such mention was usually casual and fragmentary.

A brief early description of forest in northeastern Kansas, which is casual and incomplete, and perhaps misleading, since it differs from later accounts, was included in Major W. S. Long's report of the exploring expedition that passed through country now included in Johnson, Douglas, Shawnee, Wabaunsee, Riley, Pottawatomie, Jackson, Jefferson and Leavenworth counties in 1819. "The catalogue of the forest trees in this region is not very copious. The cottonwood and the plane tree [sycamore] everywhere form conspicuous features of the forests. With these are intermixed the tall and graceful acacia, the honey locust, and the bonduc, or coffee-tree, and carya [hickory] and fraxinus [ash] ..." (Taft, 1950:442).

A description of the country in northern Douglas County and adjacent Leavenworth County, while it was still in virtually undisturbed condition, was written by Mr. George S. Parks (1854). Travelling up the Kansas River from the Missouri state line he described the vegetation and physiography with respect to specific landmarks that can be easily located at the present time. His descriptions of the areas he saw that were nearest the Reservation, are quoted below, in part.

[Travelling west from near the mouth of Stranger Creek 10 miles ESE Reservation.] "... bluff with open woods and high rolling prairie in background. On the south side of the river ... grass and scattering timber forming a green lawn back with high prairie. In this neighborhood the shore is rocky. We passed a bald bluff on the north, with a rich bottom on the south side, and a high open lawn in the rear. A little farther on the elevated prairies strike the river, giving a charming variety of scenery—while on the north are extended bottoms of rich timbered lands.

"In this vicinity we saw many Indians along the banks; we also passed a grape thicket, in the bottom, spread over several thousand acres—while just above, on our right, rose a rocky bluff, covered with open woods. A little above this Sugar Creek empties into the Kansas, from the right; and a little farther up, there is a low bluff—a short distance beyond, there being another fine grape thicket, and rich walnut bottom. On the right side of the river ... rises a beautiful undulating eminence ... open woods and a fine prairie about a mile back.

"On the left, a short distance above, the Wakarusa flows in—a considerable stream—with good timber for some way back.

"On both sides of the river, above the Wakarusa, there are excellent bottom lands; ... farther up on the south bank, the high prairie comes down to the water's edge.... away as far as the eye could reach in a southwest direction, the prairies were high and rolling, like the waves of old ocean—southward, beautiful groves dot the prairie and the dark line of timber that stretches along the Wakarusa Valley—with the great Prairie-mound ... fixed there as a landmark of perpetual beauty—the meandering river with its dark skirting forests of timber on the north ... Proceeding north, high rich bottoms extend for many miles and we saw vast thickets of grape-vines, pea-vines etc. and paw-paws. The timber was principally oak, walnut, ash, hickory, mulberry, hackberry, linden, cottonwood and coffee-bean.

[Between the Reservation and the mouth of the Delaware River, 10 miles west.] "A few miles below the mouth of the Grasshopper [Delaware] on the north the prairie undulates gradually back from the river as far as the eye can reach ... between the Grasshopper and Mud Creek there is a prairie bottom where pioneers are making claims."

In 1855 Mrs. Sara T. D. Robinson, wife of Dr. Charles Robinson who was the first governor of Kansas, described in her diary the environs of Lawrence (1899). In part, the areas described by her overlap those described by Parks, and both writers impart similar impressions. Mrs. Robinson's writing was concerned chiefly with the social and political affairs of the territory and the occasional comments on the "scenery" in her voluble accounts must be regarded as impressions rather than purposeful and accurate descriptions, as certain inconsistencies are apparent. Excerpts from several of her more significant descriptive passages are quoted below. [Between Lawrence and Kansas City, April 17, 1855.] "... prairie stretching in all directions, noble forests marking the line of the rivers and creeks, ... tall oaks and walnuts grouped in admirable arrangement ... there were deep ravines ... skirted with graceful trees, while the water in their pebbly beds is limpid and clear." [North of Wakarusa Crossing.] "... stumps in every direction in the woods ..." [At Lawrence, April 18, 1855.] "The town reaches to the river, whose further shore is skirted with a line of beautiful timber, while beyond all rise the Delaware lands, which in the distance have all the appearance of cultivated fields and orchards.... A line of timber between us and Blue Mound marks the course of the Wakarusa, while beyond the eye rests upon a country diversified in surface, sloping hills, finely rolling prairies, and timbered creeks ... to the northwest there is the most delightful mingling together of hill, valley, prairie, woodland, and river ... fine grove about a mile west of town, one of Nature's grand old forests."

[On trip to visit a neighbor four miles away from Lawrence.] "There were high, conical hills, bearing on their tops forest trees, with dense, thick foliage; at the next moment a little shady nook, with a silvery rivulet running over its pebbly bed...."

[On trip west toward Topeka.] "Timber was more abundant, not only marking the line of the creeks, but crowning the summit of many an elevation."

[At Lawrence.] "Lawrence and its surroundings, of river flowing beneath the dim forests two miles deep on the north bank...."

Parks' and Robinson's accounts seem to show that in general bottomlands and stream courses were wooded, and uplands were mainly prairie, but that local deviations from this pattern were numerous, with trees and groves isolated or partly isolated in a variety of situations. This condition suggests that prairies were then encroaching into formerly wooded areas. A climatic shift toward hotter and drier conditions, or a change in native practices, with more frequent burning, might have brought about the trend.

Further information concerning the distribution and composition of the forest is afforded by a series of letters from the settlers at Lawrence, Kansas, that were printed in various Boston newspapers and in the Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, in 1854, 1855, and 1856. In nine such letters which discuss, among other things, the availability of timber, several kinds of trees are listed. Oak (species not mentioned), black walnut, and cottonwood are each listed in seven of the nine letters, while elm, hickory and "white walnut" are each listed in two, and ash, hackberry, sycamore, basswood, willow and locust are each mentioned only once. Copies of these letters are in the files of Dr. James C. Malin, to whom we are much indebted for the privilege of examining them, and for his critical reading of parts of