Green Wildlife Area

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Trails

The area contains several diverse ecosystems. Post Creek, running through the western boundary, is an example of an eastern Kansas stream and its associated riparian vegetation. Eastern deciduous oak-hickory woodlands are found on the northern end, while examples of native tall grass prairie containing native warm season grasses and forbs can be found on the eastern edge. Principal management techniques include prescribed burning and selective cutting of invasive woody vegetation.

This area is very rich in history. The town of Uniontown was established in this area, and was once the largest city in Kansas before Kansas was even a territory. Uniontown was an important stop for settlers traveling the Oregon-California and Leavenworth to Pikes Peak trails. Several trails converged here because of a natural rock ford in the Kansas River. Prior to European settlement the Pottawatomie Indians lived in this area, and in 1848 a Pottawatomie Indian trading post was erected here. Cholera outbreaks in the area killed the Pottawatomie Indians by the hundreds and many settlers. The town was abandoned and burned in 1849 due to the threat of cholera. However, in 1850, Uniontown was rebuilt because of its importance as a trading post and also because a ferry had begun operation at the Kansas River crossing. In 1854, when Kansas became a territory, new towns sprang up in the area which outcompeted Uniontown for trade. Uniontown was abandoned by 1855, and in 1859, the remains of the town were burned. Today all that remains of Uniontown is a small country cemetery where mass graves of cholera victims are buried along with those who settled in this area.

The Green Family settled and began farming the land where the wildife area is today. They farmed here from the 1870's until the 1960's. At the entrance of the wildlife area a small cemetery has several early cholera victims buried there. Ruts from the Oregan trail are still visible along the Oregan Trace nature trail.

Special Features:

Two hiking trails, the Post Creek Ridge Trail and Oregon Trace Trail, are excellent trails for hiking and wildlife viewing. Interpretive markers have been placed along the trails pointing out the historical and natural aspects of the area. Interpretive trail guides can be obtained at the entrance.

County/Counties:

Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism

Public Lands Manager: Justin Hamilton
Phone: 785-887-6882

Area News - Updated: 01/16/2008

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General Information

Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism

Public Lands Manager: Justin Hamilton
Phone: 785-887-6882

County/Counties:

Green WA (PDF 229.71 kB)
Green WA Nature Trail (PDF 132.79 kB)

Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism

Public Lands Manager: Justin Hamilton
Phone: 785-887-6882


Special Regulations
  • By request of the family, the area is managed as a non-consumptive use area.
  • Hunting, trapping, and fishing are prohibited.
  • Camping, off-road vehicle use, horse riding, and target shooting are prohibited.
  • Please take your trash with you.

Here is a complete list of Public Land Regulations or you can download the regulation summary.

History

The Green family donated 83 acres to the Department in July 1984.

Green Trails
Post Creek Ridge Trail
  • Trail Season: Year-around
  • Length of Trail: 1 mile(s)
  • Trail Activities: Walking
  • Location of Start: N39 05.019' W095 56.310'
  • Click for more information
    xmlns:xhtml='http://ez.no/namespaces/ezpublish3/xhtml/' ><paragraph>Trail consists of mowed grass and rocky terrain. Strenuous hilly trail. Self guided. Pick up trail guide at entrance.</paragraph></s xmlns:xhtml='http://ez.no/namespaces/ezpublish3/xhtml/' >

    Trail consists of mowed grass and rocky terrain. Strenuous hilly trail. Self guided. Pick up trail guide at entrance.


Oregon Trace Trail
  • Trail Season: Year-around
  • Length of Trail: 0.75 mile(s)
  • Trail Activities: Walking
  • Location of Start: N39 05.019' W095 56.310'
  • Click for more information

    Trail consists of mowed grass and packed earth. Mostly level and easy. Depression from Oregon Trail crossing still visible. Self guided. Pick up trail guide at entrance.


Wildlife Viewing

Quaint and colorful! An oak-hickory-bluestem mix at the southern edge of the Glaciated Region is the quiet, natural setting for the Green Memorial Wildlife Area. Restored bluestem prairie, oak-hickory hillsides, and a bubbly brook are the intermingling habitats at this site. 

The pink quartzite rocks you will see here and there were transported from South Dakota by glaciers during the Kansan Ice Age. Shingle oak, red oak, redbud, pawpaw, and western buckeye make up the woodlands. Spring through fall, Wildflowers such as ox-eye daisy, coneflowers, compass plant, penstemon, black sampson, and black-eyed Susan are seen in the prairie plots. Wildlife food is provided by Wild gooseberry, elderberry, black raspberry, highbush blackberry, Wild strawberry, and riverbank and raccoon grape.

Look for five-lined skinks, racers, and ornate box turtles. Cricket frogs frequently call on spring and summer nights. The nests of eastern woodrats can be found in rock crevices. Signs of coyotes, raccoons, red foxes, and white-tailed deer are abundant. Great horned owls, downy and red-bellied woodpeckers, cardinals, blue jays, vireos, and warblers are found in the woods. Upland sandpipers, eastern meadowlarks, scissor-tailed flycatchers, eastern kingbirds, red-tailed hawks, American kestrels, and northern harriers can be seen in the grasslands.

This property has a rich cultural history.  It was the site of Uniontown, one of the early Kansas settlements (1848 - 1859).  Old stone fences, historic gravestones and abandoned farm implements speak of the past inhabitants.