C A T H E R   F O U N D A T I O N
Enter the 1880's in Historic Red Cloud, Nebraska...  Willa Cather's Window to the World

Prairie News & Events

Spring 2007

Less than a year has passed since the Cather Foundation acquired the Willa Cather Memorial Prairie and already noticeable changes are taking place.

“We’re in the process of restoring the prairie to its native state” said Jim Fitzgibbon, member of the Cather Foundation Board of Governors who lives in Red Cloud and leads the project to return the prairie to its pre-1900 conditions.

In Cather’s day, the mixed-grass prairie of southern Nebraska consisted of plants and grasses like purple prairie clover, purple coneflower, big bluestem, and side-oats gramma. Insects and animals like grasshopper sparrows and prairie chicken wandered the plains. Trees were nearly absent. Today, overgrazing, farming, and the encroachment of foreign species of vegetation (not to mention humans) have made this natural setting hard to come by.

Laboring almost entirely without assistance, Fitzgibbon removed approximately one thousand non-native trees from the east side of the prairie. Non-native trees, like Chinese Elm and Eastern Red Cedar, can inhibit the growth of indigenous plants such as the enormous cottonwood trees that Cather adored so much and described in her fiction.

Of the prairie’s many springs, the largest is now fenced off and has been flowing since fall—its stream reaches almost half a mile. Running east and west across the prairie is a new cross-fence that will make restoration easier. At least one additional cross-fence will be installed later. The committee that manages the prairie—members Merle Illian, Duane Lienneman, David Smith, Joe Springer, Betty Kort, and Fitzgibbon—have decided to reduce grazing time for the upcoming season from seven to six months in order to restrict the areas cattle access. (At roughly 608 acres, the Cather Memorial Prairie is too small to support bison, the original grazers of the region, but it can easily support cattle.)

With the abundant improvements made thus far, it might seem volunteer opportunities have vanished—however, the contrary is true. While the Opera House can boast over a hundred volunteers, the number of people currently willing or able to assist with prairie restoration is minimal. More volunteers are needed to clear out the thousands of remaining alien plants. Also, as funds become available, more fences need to be installed to protect further springs from compaction of the ground by cows.

Helping to restore the Cather Memorial Prairie can be an exhilarating way to study the positive impact of native prairies in America’s art, history, and culture and to ensure that at least some of that influence is conserved for future generations.

In June, the Cather Foundation, with the support of the Nebraska Arts Council, will welcome writers and aspiring writers to the weeklong Willa Cather Memorial Prairie Writers’ Workshop. The workshop, led by Lorraine Duggin of Omaha, will culminate with a public reading and reception celebrating the participants’ works. Duggin, who earned a Ph.D. in English/Creative Writing from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has been writing poetry, fiction, and non-fiction for most of her life. She has won numerous awards, including an Individual Artist’s Fellowship from the Nebraska Arts Council, a Prairie Schooner First Prize for short story, and an Academy of American Poets’ First Prize for Poetry, among others.