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Konza Prairie Biological Station

Photos of Konza Prairie before it was Konza Prairie

These photos are from 1938 to sometime in the 1960s. This was after the Deweys sold the ranch in 1930 and it changed hands three different times over these years. The house and barn depicted in the photos were built of locally quarried limestone in 1911-1912 and served to house the ranch’s cowhands and their horses. These photos were provided by Ms. Helen Burtis, whose father was one of the ranch managers.

  • A view of what is now Konza Prairie Headquarters from somewhere near the current visitor cottages.
  • This view is from the current ag fields northeast of headquarters.
  • The "front" of the bunkhouse (now the Hulbert Center).
  • The back of the bunkhouse as the patio was being constructed.
  • The back of the bunkhouse after the patio was completed and with a clothesline in the foreground.
  • North view of the barn.
  • South view of the barn.
  • Orville Burtis, a ranch manager, driving the “feed truck”.
  • This is a photo of “Tarzan” (the paint drinking from the water trough) and some of the other working horses from the early 1950s.
  • This is the back of one of the three "cattle on pasture" photos. It says “6/30 – 38, Palomas steers, Dewey Ranch”. The photo was taken on 30 June 1938 of steers from a ranch called “Palomas”. It is thought that this might be what is now known as the Paloma ranch near Eagle Pass in far southern Texas.
  • This time being fed from a truck.