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Mined Land Wildlife Area
No.1
Like gold! Strip-mining for coal in the early 1900s produced small
lakes with low bordering ridges of wooded spoil banks that harbor a variety of wildlife.
Cottonwood, elm, hackberry, ash, and oak provide habitat for woodland species. These
include great homed owls, barred owls, screech-owls, bobwhite quail, wild turkeys, and
numerous species of songbirds. Squirrels, deer, and foxes are also found in the woods. The
strip pit lakes provide habitat for wood ducks, wading birds, beavers, muskrats, raccoons,
and several species of water turtles.
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Bison grazing on Mined Land Wildlife Area # 1 - photo by Mike Blair
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Of special interest is a small managed herd of bison on the northwest
portion of the area (red dot on map below). |
2.5 miles of gravel road and about 1 mile of hiking trails allow
access to this area.
| During the early Pennsylvanian age
(300 million years ago), shallow seas
oscillated over Kansas, leaving at different times both sandy and muddy deltas, as well as
"stinking swamps." The Cherokee Lowlands of southeast Kansas contain beds of
sandstone, shale, and coal which attest to that past. In the 1870's, shaft mining and
strip mining for coal began in the region, leaving hazards both below and at the surface.
Hundreds of water filled strip pits are found throughout the area. The Kansas Department
of Wildlife and Parks has purchased many of these pits and is managing them for fishing
and wildlife. Over 14,000 total acres are under KDWP management. Food plots,
tallgrass prairie, shrublands, oak-hickory woodlands, lakes, and marshes provide rich
habitat for a variety of wildlife. |
 | Boat ramps, Pit toilets
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 Primitive
camping only.
 Hiking trail (1 mile).
Click the icon to find a birding list for Crawford County.
Click the icon to locate nearby Geocaches
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Directions:
Mined Land Wildlife Area No.1 is located at the junction of U.S. 69 and U.S. 160
just north of Pittsburg.
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Ownership:
The entity responsible for management of this site is
the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks.
Contact them at (620) 431-0380 if you have
specific questions abut use or management of this area.
You may download the KDWP brochure on the Mined Land Wildlife Areas from
their web site, or write
the area office at:
Mined Land Wildlife Area
507 E. 560th Ave.
Pittsburg, KS 66762
420 acres
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Click here for a brochure! |
©2007
Kansas Nature-Based Tourism Alliance
Re-publication of site content in any form other than for personal use
requires written permission.
This web site is underwritten by the Kansas
Department of Wildlife and Parks through the Chickadee Checkoff Program. If you are
a Kansas resident, please assist with this and other wildlife viewing and conservation
programs by contributing to the Chickadee Checkoff on your state tax form. |
Questions or comments about Natural Kansas may be directed to Jim Mason
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