The soil here is a deep, dark clay that swells when wet and cracks open when dry, sometimes to a depth of several feet — a vertisol, weathered out of the soft Cretaceous marl and chalk underneath. It grew a tallgrass prairie of little bluestem and Indiangrass that ran in a belt from San Antonio to the Red River, and because the soil was extraordinarily fertile, essentially all of it was plowed. Well under one percent of the original prairie survives, which makes it one of the most reduced ecosystems in North America.
Getting there
31.1000, -97.3400
Locations are approximate and may be inaccurate, on private land, or otherwise inaccessible. Check before you travel.
Hear it from the road
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