Smiley-Woodfin Native Prairie Grassland

The Nature Conservancy credits M. L. Smiley, a Lamar County native, with buying the meadow beginning in 1899 and keeping it in hay and cattle. It says he promoted the quality of native hay, which led other local owners to manage prairie rather than plow it. The grass is Silveus' dropseed, which early farmers called wiregrass. The Conservancy's Smiley Meadow Preserve now covers about 1,050 acres, including 953 donated by Ørsted, and is closed to the public. Texas Parks and Wildlife wrote that the meadow is cut each year for hay and burned periodically.

What the plaque says

Smiley-Woodfin Native Prairie Grassland This meadow, approximately 2100 acres, is the largest section of native grassland existing in Texas. It was originally part of a prairie system that stretched throughout the Midwestern United States and into Canada. Since the earliest settlers arrived in this area in the 1830s, when Texas was part of Mexico, this grassland has remained uncultivated, providing an annual harvest of native grasses. A lack of fuel and surface water made this area unsuitable for pioneer farmers. Although similar land nearby was tilled and planted, often resulting in erosion or overworked soil, this site was saved by the owner M.L. Smiley (1872-1953). A native of Lamar County, he used the meadow for cattle grazing and for hay production. Early harvests consisted of cutting and stacking the grasses for drying, or transporting the hay to nearby steam-powered presses. The process was later simplified by the use of gasoline-powered machines that harvested and baled the hay on the site. After Smiley's death, the meadow was inherited by brothers George S. and Gene M. Woodfin. Today the Smiley-Woodfin Prairie Grassland is the largest supplier of native hay in the state. (1981)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Bell Maxey House State Historic Site — 8.8 mi
  The Italian-villa-style house in Paris, finished in 1868 with a lawyer's fees, where a Confederate major general turned U.S. senator and two later generations of his family lived.
• Evergreen Cemetery — 8.9 mi
  Paris's town cemetery since 1866, with a carved-stone gallery that includes the Babcock monument in cowboy boots, and the grave of the three-year-old whose death led to the 1893 lynching of Henry Smith.
• Eiffel Tower — 11 mi
  A 65-foot Eiffel Tower with a red cowboy hat, built by the local welders' union in 1993 beside Paris's Love Civic Center.
• Cooper Lake State Park — 20 mi
  Two units on Jim Chapman Lake, a Corps reservoir proposed in the late 1930s, stalled by a lawsuit until 1984 and dedicated in 1991, with a 10.5-mile equestrian trail and wildlife land around it.

More markers nearby

• Tridens Prairie — 0.5 mi
• Lamar County — 6.1 mi
• The Historic Persimmon Grove and Capt. Hill's Military Camp — 6.9 mi
• Burial Site of John S. Chisum — 8.1 mi