Mount Mitchell Heritage Prairie

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Through the efforts of the Mount Mitchell Prairie Guards, a 45-acre hilltop prairie, memorial public park has been created that ties Wabaunsee County to one of the most dramatic and critical chapters of American history, the prelude to the Civil War known as “Bleeding Kansas.”

The park is dedicated to Captain William Mitchell and the Connecticut Kansas Colony. This famous company of New England emigrants came to Kansas in April of 1856 to assure the territory’s entry into the Union as a free sate. They became known as the “Beecher Bible and Rifle Colony” because of the notoriety of their departure from the East armed with Sharps rifles and Bibles.

Two miles of walking trails allow visitors to experience this tallgrass prairie remnant of remarkable biological diversity with its stunning views of the Kaw River valley.

A military road called the “nearest and best route between Fort Riley and the Eastern part of Kansas” descended from the Flint Hills uplands into the river valley on the east flank of Mount Mitchell. John Fremont used this route in his 1843 expedition to the west. Visitors to the park can walk in the swales of this trail in the northeast corner of the property. Between 1857 and 1860 fugitive slaves and locals helping them used this road on their journey to freedom in Canada. The National Park Service has recognized this section of the "Topeka/Fort Riley Road" as an authenticated site in its Network To Freedom Freedom program, which commemorates the Underground Railroad.

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