Rachel Snyder Prairie

The Rachel Snyder Prairie, a 144-acre native and restored tallgrass prairie southeast of Mayetta in northeast Kansas (20 minutes north of Topeka). This beautiful prairie has about 85 acres of tallgrass prairie. Fifteen of those acres are unplowed, intact prairie.

Originally homesteaded in 1857, this prairie was regularly grazed until 1998 and invaded by lespedeza, broom sedge, ragweed, and hedge trees. As a grassland on glaciated terrain, it has been subject to erosion on steep slopes. There were no recorded prescribed burns until 1998.

When the homestead came under the ownership of Rachel Snyder, a former editor of Flower and Garden Magazine in Kansas City in 1974, she restored the 1868 limestone house, planted gardens, and restored two small prairie patches. In 1984, she deeded the property to Grasslands Heritage Foundation to insure its protection and continued restoration. The limestone house was sold to her friends at her request, and GHF took over full-time maintenance of the prairie in 1994.