It may be difficult to imagine that less than two hundred years ago the land surrounding you was entirely virgin soil, unbroken by the plow or by the encroachment of white settlement. It was then the home of the Osage who were known as good warriors and hunters, and were the dominant tribe in this region before the arrival of the white man. However, the Osage, like other native peoples, were displaced as a result of expanding white settlement, by force or the threat of force and were relocated to northeastern Oklahoma.

In the late 1830’s Moses Carver may have stood where you now stand, surveying his new homestead. Thirty years later young George may have gone scampering playfully through the high prairie grasses.

The National Park Service, in cooperation with the Newton County 4-H Council, is gradually returning about 140 acres to native tallgrass prairie. This project enables both the 4-H Council and the park to benefit from the educational opportunities it provides. It may once again appear much like the land Moses Carver and other settlers found early in the 19th century.