14249 560th Avenue, Story City IA 50248
A local gem, Doolittle Prairie is a 40-acre tract of pothole prairie. Located just south of Story City, it is a blaze of color from May through October as prairie wildflowers and grasses bloom. The pothole areas provide valuable habitat for wetland wildlife.
The pristine northern part of the prairie, called Plover Tract, is owned by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (actually designated as a State Preserve) and is managed by Story County Conservation (SCC). This 24-acre Plover Tract is one of the best remaining examples of pothole prairie in Iowa with six potholes and over 200 native plant species! The southern tract, Matheason Tract, is owned by SCC and was purchased with the help of the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation.
Education & Recreation
Interested in learning more about Doolittle Prairie? We host monthly "Evening Walks on the Prairie" events May through September each year, where the public can explore Doolittle Prairie on a guided walk. Watch our Events Calendar for details.
Hiking, walking, bird watching, and several other activities are possible however we do not maintain trails nor do we have picnic tables or grills available. Doolittle Prairie is a designated public hunting area; no target practice is allowed; only non-toxic shot is allowed.
History
The land now called Doolittle Prairie was claimed by the Doolittles in 1855 as their homestead. The Doolittles harvested "wild hay" from the prairie for their horses for many years. A later market developed for it as an antidote to "shipping fever", a sickness that affected cattle after long rail shipment to markets. The family also hunted on the prairie ground even after the hay market dried up, refusing to plow up the last of it as much out of sentiment as anything else.
Story County Conservation helped the State of Iowa acquire the virgin prairie remnant in 1980 and added more land to the site in 1982, to preserve its biological and geological features.
Many seeded prairie areas in Central Iowa can now trace their genetic ancestry to Doolittle Prairie. The Doolittle family still owns the south 21 acres of the prairie and leases it to Carl Kurtz as a source of native prairie seed.
Read On
The Vascular Flora of Doolittle Prairie State Preserve - A Prairie Pothole Wetland Complex - Scholarly Article
About Doolittle State Preserve - By Iowa DNR
"Iowa's Doolittle Prairie is one of the most diverse places in the state" - By Iowa DNR
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