| The Blackjacks | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Cabin |
| Coordinates | 36°44′09″N96°22′52″W / 36.735794°N 96.381028°W |
| Year(s) built | 1932 |
| Owner | John Joseph Mathews |
| Technical details | |
| Material | sandstone |
| Floor count | 1 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | John Joseph Mathews |
The Blackjacks is the historic home of John Joseph Mathews built in 1932, now part of Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.
During the summer of 1932, John Joseph Mathews designed a two-room home to be built out of native sandstone. [1] The center of the design was a fireplace. On July 24, 1932, Mathews moved into the home. Stanley Vestal and his wife stayed as his guests on the first night. [2] He initially called it "the Shack" before changing the name to "The Blackjacks" in 1936. [1] The house is in the Osage Hills in Osage County. He spent most of his writing career from here among the blackjack trees. [3] The home was largely abandoned after Mathews death in 1979 and he was buried on the property. In 2014, The Nature Conservancy purchased the property from the family. [4]
The Blackjacks is located on the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. [5] Tours of the home are held seasonally. [6]
Foraker is a town in Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. It was named for Ohio Senator Joseph B. Foraker. The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is southeast of town. The official population peaked at 415 in 1910 and has declined steadily since 1930. The population was only 18 at the 2010 census, a 21.7 percent decline from 23 in 2000.
Pawhuska is a city in and the county seat of Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 2,984. It was named after the 19th-century Osage chief, Paw-Hiu-Skah, which means "White Hair" in English. The Osage tribal government, which opened offices in Pawhuska in 1872 when its reservation was established in Indian Territory, continues to be based in Pawhuska.
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located in the Flint Hills region of Kansas, north of Strong City. The preserve protects a nationally significant example of the once vast tallgrass prairie ecosystem. Of the 400,000 square miles (1,000,000 km2) of tallgrass prairie that once covered the North American continent, less than 5% remains, primarily in the Flint Hills. Since 2009, the preserve has been home to the Tallgrass Prairie bison herd.
The tallgrass prairie is an ecosystem native to central North America. Historically, natural and anthropogenic fire, as well as grazing by large mammals provided periodic disturbances to these ecosystems, limiting the encroachment of trees, recycling soil nutrients, and facilitating seed dispersal and germination. Prior to widespread use of the steel plow, which enabled large scale conversion to agricultural land use, tallgrass prairies extended throughout the American Midwest and smaller portions of southern central Canada, from the transitional ecotones out of eastern North American forests, west to a climatic threshold based on precipitation and soils, to the southern reaches of the Flint Hills in Oklahoma, to a transition into forest in Manitoba.
The Flint Hills, historically known as Bluestem Pastures or Blue Stem Hills, are a region of hills and prairies that lie mostly in eastern Kansas. It is named for the abundant residual flint eroded from the bedrock that lies near or at the surface. It consists of a band of hills extending from Marshall and Washington Counties in the north to Cowley County, Kansas and Kay and Osage Counties in Oklahoma in the south, to Geary and Shawnee Counties west to east. Oklahomans generally refer to the same geologic formation as the Osage Hills or "the Osage."
The Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie (MNTP) is a tallgrass prairie reserve and is preserved as United States National Grassland operated by the United States Forest Service. The first national tallgrass prairie ever designated in the U.S. and the largest conservation site in the Chicago Wilderness region, it is located on the site of the former Joliet Army Ammunition Plant between the towns of Elwood, Manhattan and Wilmington in northeastern Illinois. Since 2015, it has hosted a conservation herd of American bison to study their interaction with prairie restoration and conservation.
The Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, in Osage County, Oklahoma near Foraker, Oklahoma, is the largest protected tract of tallgrass prairie in the world. Managed by The Nature Conservancy, the preserve contains 39,650 acres (160 km2) owned by the Conservancy and another 6,000 acres (24 km2) leased in what was the original tallgrass region of the Great Plains that stretched from Texas to Manitoba.
John Joseph Mathews became one of the Osage Nation's most important spokespeople and writers of the mid-20th century, and served on the Osage Tribal Council from 1934 to 1942. Mathews was born into an influential Osage family, the son of William Shirley Mathews an Osage Nation tribal councilor. He studied at the University of Oklahoma, Oxford University, and the University of Geneva and served as a pilot during World War I.
The Osage Hills is a hilly area in Oklahoma, commonly known as The Osage. The name refers to the broad rolling hills and rolling tallgrass prairie and Cross Timbers encompassing Osage County and surrounding areas, including portions of Mayes, Tulsa, Washington and Kay Counties. The Osage is the southern extension of the Flint Hills of Kansas.
The Manitoba Tall Grass Prairie Preserve is located in southeastern Manitoba near Gardenton and Vita, this is about 50 kilometres (31 mi) south of Steinbach, Manitoba. It is one of the last remaining stands of tallgrass prairie in Manitoba and is part of the Tallgrass Aspen Parkland conservation area in Manitoba and Minnesota. Several groups and organizations help in land preservation in the Manitoba Tall Grass Prairie such as the Nature Conservancy of Canada, Nature Manitoba, Environment Canada, Manitoba Conservation and the Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation.
William Sherley "Old Bill" Williams was a noted mountain man and frontiersman, known as Lone Elk to the Native Americans. Fluent in several languages, Williams served as an interpreter for the government and led several expeditions to the West. He married into the Osage Nation, having two children who both married John Allen Mathews.
The Black Kettle National Grassland, in Roger Mills County, Oklahoma, and Hemphill County, Texas, contains 31,286 acres (12,661 ha) of which 30,710 acres (12,430 ha) are in Oklahoma.
Sundown is a 1934 novel by the Osage writer John Joseph Mathews. Set in the Osage Nation and Osage County, Oklahoma, the novel follows the life of a "mixed blood" Osage boy named Challenge Windzer as he navigates the conflicts between Osage traditionalism and assimilationism during the early 20th century.
The J.T. Nickel Family Nature and Wildlife Preserve, located in Cherokee County, Oklahoma is privately owned and managed by the Oklahoma Nature Conservancy. The preserve contains 17,000 acres (6,900 ha) of forest and grassland. Spring-fed creeks meander amid a rugged topography of steep slopes and narrow valleys harboring a mosaic of oak-hickory forest, lofty pine woodland, and a diverse mix of savanna, shrubland, and prairie. Elk have been reintroduced at the Preserve
Tallgrass most frequently refers to the native North American grasslands Tallgrass prairie.
The Nachusa Grasslands is a 3,800 acres (1,500 ha) restored tallgrass prairie near Franklin Grove in Lee County and Ogle County, Illinois. It is managed by The Nature Conservancy staff and volunteers.
Kankakee Sands is a 10,000-acre (4,000 ha) restored tallgrass prairie in Kankakee County, Illinois and Newton County, Indiana. It is managed by The Nature Conservancy staff and volunteers. The Efroymson Restoration at Kankakee Sands is 8,400 acres (3,400 ha) of prairies and wetlands connecting Willow Slough Fish and Wildlife Area, Beaver Lake Nature Preserve, Conrad Savanna Nature Preserve and Conrad Station Savanna. This creates over 20,000 acres (8,100 ha) of dry, mesic and wet sand prairies, sand blows, sedge meadows, wetlands, and black oak savannas.
William Shirley Mathews was an Osage politician who served in several positions of Osage Nation government. He served as the Osage Nation treasurer between 1882 and 1886, chief justice between 1890 and 1892, and prosecuting attorney between 1894 and 1896, as well as on the tribal council from 1910 and 1912. He was also the father of John Joseph Mathews.
John Allen Mathews was an American frontiersman and slave owner who settled among the Osage Nation and later advocated and died for the Confederate States of America.
John Clinton Hunt was an American writer from the U.S. state of Oklahoma.