WICHITA WILDLIFE REFUGE

There are over 22,400 acres of wildlife habitat open for hiking, observing wildlife, photography and other recreational uses. Picnicking is available at four locations, three hiking trails are established, and over 40 miles of paved roads will help you access the Public Use portion of the Refuge. Camping at Doris Campground includes primitive to electric hookup sites. A modern shower facility and clean restrooms are provided there. By reservation, your group can rent private picnic areas, group campsites, and youth camping areas.

The prairie community hums with life. The Refuge provides habitat for large native grazing animals and Texas Longhorn cattle. Bison, elk, deer, coyotes, red-tailed hawks, prairie dogs, turkey, bunch grasses, postoaks and blackjacks - these are just to name a few. More than 50 mammals, 240 birds, 64 reptiles and amphibians, 36 fish, and 806 plant species thrive on the vitally important Refuge.

PICNIC AREAS: Mt. Scott, Lost Lake, Boulder, and Sunset

From an estimated 60 million bison, no more than a thousand could be found on the Great Plains in 1900. The slaughter was not limited to bison alone. The Wichita's original subspecies of elk was hunted out in 1881. The giant bronze turkey no longer gobbled along the creek bottoms. With such alarming losses, new conservation ideas were needed to preserve America's wildlife heritage.

One idea was land protection. President William McKinley set aside these mountains as a Forest Reserve in 1901. Then Theodore Roosevelt renamed it a Game Preserve in 1905. It is the oldest managed wildlife preserve in the United States.

Another idea was to restock the animals. Fifteen bison were donated from the New York Zoological Society and arrived at the Preserve via the Cache railhead in October 1907. Merriam's elk was already extinct, but Rocky Mountain elk from Jackson Hole, Wyoming were later established here. After turkeys were transplanted from Missouri and Texas, the land once again resounded with gobbles, bugles and bellows.