Wah' Kon-Tah Prairie

Wah’Kon-Tah Prairie is the largest protected prairie complex in the Osage Plains. It is a designated special focus area, where the Conservancy is working diligently to restore native grasslands. This beautiful and open expanse of prairie is often dotted with wildflowers and other rare plants and animals.

Why You Should Visit
Named in honor of the Osage people who formerly resided in this region, Wah' Kon-Tah means "great spirit". Here, male greater prairie chickens perform mating rituals on age-old dancing grounds called leks. Regal fritillary butterflies sip nectar from prairie flowers. The rare prairie mole cricket trumpets his courtship call in the spring twilight. Upland plovers, Henslow's sparrows and scissor-tailed flycatchers grace the airways. Deer, coyotes, fox, and the eastern cottontail forage among the asters, goldenrods, gentians, coneflowers, big bluestem and little bluestem.

Location
St. Clair and Cedar Counties, northeast of El Dorado Springs

Hours
Daylight

Size
4,058 acres including the Missouri Department of Conservation's 520-acre Foust tract.

Conditions
The preserve is a tallgrass prairie, with 3'-4' tall grasses from late summer through fall. Gently rolling hills make for a moderate hike. Summer is often very hot, with little shade.

How to Prepare for Your Visit
Some or all parts of the preserve may be temporarily closed due to restoration efforts. Please call the Wah' Kon-Tah office at (417) 876-2340 before your visit. Check the local weather forecast and dress accordingly. Long pants and sleeves, hiking boots, hat and drinking water are recommended. During warm weather light color and light-weight clothing is suggested. Repellent, binoculars and field guide(s) are also worth bringing.

Preserve Visitation Guidelines

What to See: Animals
Wah' Kon-Tah provides breeding ground for the upland plover, Henslow's sparrow and the scissor-tailed flycatcher. This is the age-old dancing ground of the prairie chicken. Regal fritillary butterflies abound, and the endangered prairie mole cricket trumpets his courtship call in the spring twilight.

What to See: Plants
More than 300 native plants occur at Wah' Kon-Tah, including the federally-threatened Mead's milkweed.

Why the Conservancy Selected This Site
The Nature Conservancy and its key partner, the Missouri Department of Conservation, are committed to recovering and maintaining viable occurrences of all of the natural communities and their component plants and animals at Wah' Kon-Tah, as well as the natural processes upon which they are dependent. Wah' Kon-Tah is one of the last functional prairie landscapes in the Osage Plains.

What the Conservancy Has Done/Is Doing
©The Nature Conservancy In the 1970's, The Conservancy purchased the first two tracts (640 acres), with funds provided by Ms. Katharine Ordway, land conservationist and heir to the 3M fortune. An acquisition in 1998 of 872 acres connected two prairie conservation areas, expanding Wah' Kon-Tah to 2,331 acres. This acquisition provided the critical mass necessary to begin large-scale recovery of tallgrass prairie.

In late 2001, a transaction that included the acquisition of a 1266-acre tract and the protection of 660 acres through a conservation easement, expanded the native grassland recovery effort at Wah' Kon-Tah. Subsequent transactions resulted in the current acerage under protection.

Currently, The Nature Conservancy and Missouri Department of Conservation are working in partnership to meet aggressive habitat restoration needs, including exotic species control, fire management, woody vegetation reduction, prairie restoration and a nature seed co-op.

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Slide Show: Native plants on Wah' Kon-Tah Prairie