Z Bar, Spring Hall Ranch, Tallgrass Prairie Kansas Photo Print

"Z Bar, Spring Hill Ranch House, Strong City, Kansas" by Catherine Sherman. The Z Bar, Spring Hill Farm, built in 1881, is now a part of the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, north of Strong City, Kansas. 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 4% remains, primarily in the Flint Hills. Stephen F. Jones named his ranch the Spring Hill Farm and Stock Ranch for the springs found on the hill west of the house. The main ranch house is located two miles north of Strong City, Kansas, facing east. It was built on a hillside with a two-story exposure on the upper side and a three story on the lower level. The architecture represents a blending of Renaissance influence and Plains Vernacular. It is a Second Empire style of 19th century architecture with a mansard roof enclosing the upper story with dormers and projecting mansard gables, cornices, brackets, and stone quoins at the corners of the house. The native limestone used in the building was quarried and dressed at the Rettiger home quarry, north of Strong City. Individual building stones are square cut on all bearing surfaces and have a rough hewn face. The stones are all the same size. The cost for the Spring Hill Ranch was $40,000; $25,000 for the house and $15,000 for the barn and outbuildings. According to local legend it took "20 men working night and day to complete the home. There was so much activity during the construction that travelers often thought they had reached Strong City and "tried to put up for the night." The front yard was terraced and planted with lilac and rose bushes and once featured a fountain with goldfish, supplied by the spring.