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Just outside Gardner, Kan., at the site of a KCPL substation, is historical Lanesfield School, the site of the pre-Civil War Battle of Bull Creek and a campsite on the Santa Fe Trail. The natural prairie provided food for the oxen as they carried the wagons west. KCPL's goal is to restore the site to its pre-settlement condition.
KCPL formed the Prairie Partnership to restore the lands surrounding the Lanesfield site. The partnership includes Johnson County Museums, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, and Shawnee Mission Northwest High School, KCPL's educational partnership school in Kansas. Lumber from recycled utility poles was used to build a picnic shelter and viewing platform at the site. Visitors can explore the area's history and vegetation by taking the self-guided tour of the nature trail created by KCPL and students from Shawnee Mission Northwest. Prairie grasses were initially planted under the transmission lines around the substation in 1984. In 1993, 20 acres of native grasses were planted around the shelter, viewing platform and a former crop field. Students from Shawnee Mission Northwest continue to work on site restoration, with Earth Day plantings of native wildflowers. The Boy Scouts also have gotten involved, with a local Eagle Scout planting white oak trees to create a prairie savanna near Bull Creek.
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