Diamond Grove Prairie EarthCache

This cache has been archived.

Geocaching HQ Admin: It has now been over 30 days since Geocaching HQ submitted the disabled log below and, unfortunately, the cache owner has not posted an Owner maintenance log and re-enabled this geocache. As a result, we are now archiving this cache page.

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Hidden : 3/24/2008
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size: not chosen (not chosen)

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Geocache Description:

You will be walking through native grasses and wildflowers with out any trails.

This prairie was part of the eastern edge of the Great Plains. The Great Plains stretched 800 miles from the Rocky Mountains and 3000 miles north and south from Canada to Mexico. At one time this was the greatest grassland on the Earth. It is now one of the most endangered ecosystems on the Earth. This is part of the 1% of untouched native prairie that remains.

What is a prairie? How is it formed? The area that the Great Plains covered at one time was a vast shallow inland sea. How can that be since we are so far from an Ocean? Over millions of years the Earth uplifted the land forming the Rocky Mountains and causing the water to run off to a lower level of land. At the same time sediment from the Rocky Mountains flowed into the shallow sea. The wild deposited silt, clay and sand. These deposits were added to the marine life that had died and fell to the bottom. After the Rocky Mountains formed, they trapped the moist air from the Pacific. This caused less rain to fall. The up lifting of the land and the lessening of rain fall caused the shallow sea to dry up.

What we ended up with was a huge area of great soil that was very deep and rich with nutrients. It was one big garden spot. The grasses were the first large group of plants to grow(Big and Little Bluestem were the most abundant). The roots of the grasses grew very deep(12 feet or more) and were very dense. The lower amount of rainfall on the east side of the Rockies made a perfect place for these grasses to become the dominant form of life. The massive deep root systems helped to retain the moisture when it did rain. When roots died they added organic material to the soil . Lightning strikes were a common event and prairie fires would burl large areas. This burning would burn the seed that would be carried by the wind and other life forms and deposited on the prairie. This included seed for trees and shrubs. After a fire that would leave the grass root to grow new grass. The tops of the old grass were turned to ash that acted as a fertilizer for the new sprouts.

This cycle continued until man decided to plow the rich soil, breaking up grasses and killing their root system to raise their crops. Man did not like the wildfires and did all that he could do to keep them from burning. He found that plowing and planting help keep the fires down and this allow the forest to get a foothold in the prairie. This helps him to prosper but has also destroyed most of the prairie ecosystem.

Walk this prairie and see the grasses wave as a sea of grass. As man traveled the great expanse of grass he looked at it as a sea. Part of this was from a formation that is present in prairie areas. They are small low mounds of earth the help to give the prairie the rolling look of a sea along with the grass. These mounds are called Mimas. As you walk the prairie look at the ever changing colors of wildflower that bloom from April- September, wildflowers can change every 2 weeks.

While walking the shallow sea that dried up to let the grasses be king, find the cache point. While waking back to the small parking area, count the Mimas that you find. When walking on a prairie do not walk in a single file. If you do that it will beat the grasses down and make a trail.

To claim this earthcache tell me how many Mimas are between the cache point and the parking area. Post a photo of the prairie so we can see what it looks like at all of the visits.

While being a geocacher I am also part of the Missouri Master Naturalist Program. One of our sponsors is the Missouri Department of Conservation. This prairie is owned by them and we are blessed to have them to help save treasures such as this land. When sending your log with the number of Mimas, it would help me to record where the visitors are from if you would give me the state that you live in. the more information as to where you are from and age (or age group) it will help to show how the prairie is being viewed and how important it is.


More information and places showing nature near this site.
www.mdc.mo.gov

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

ybbx sbe ybj zbhaqf bs fbvy

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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