Ethnographic Resources
Collection of information about the park's ethnographic resources is ongoing. The area of the Flint Hills has been affiliated with numerous American Indian peoples including the Kaw, Pawnee, Wichita and Osage, and local communities. Ongoing consultation with these groups will assist in identifying and protecting important ethnographic resources. Such resources may be sites, structures, objects, landscapes or landscape features. Some documented archeological sites have ethnographic value and importance. Natural resources may also be identified as ethnographic resources, if they have legendary or religious significance, or traditional subsistence value to a group.

An Ethnographic Overview and Assessment is required for the preserve. The report will summarize the ethnography of pre-contact, post-contact, and contemporary groups represented in the preserve. The report will include a discussion of the groups' uses, perceptions, and occupation of the land, and cultural values associated with the natural and cultural resources. In addition to American Indian groups, traditionally-associated groups include local communities.

An Ethnobotany Report is underway. This report provides a comprehensive plant list that itemizes all plants used by American Indian tribes in the United States, and plant uses by those tribes. To date, over 200 ethnographic resources have been identified. Four are ethnographic landscapes, one for each of the four culturally affiliated tribes. There are 201 plant species currently listed in the Ethnobotany Report, nearly all of which are associated with American Indian uses.

No sacred sites or Indian Trust resources have been identified to date. In the event that future research and consultation identifies such resources at the preserve, all compliance requirements, consultation, and NPS policies will be followed.

Structures
The preserve contains over 60 known structures and features (see Figure 10), and it is expected that as additional survey work is accomplished, more will be discovered. These resources document the evolution of farming, ranching, and rural lifeways on the property from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries. Of the 60 known structures and features, 38 were documented as part of the List of Classified Structures (LCS) survey in 1997. The majority of these are concentrated at the Spring Hill Ranch headquarters, including a Second Empire house, a three-story barn, a springhouse/smokehouse, outhouse, icehouse, and a poultry house/scratch house. All of these are built of local limestone. There is also a stone schoolhouse, the Lower Fox Creek School, 1/2 mile to the north, and 36 miles (60 kilometers) of stone fence. Following completion of the HRS, the LCS will be updated and finalized.

The entire preserve property was listed as a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1997 for its association with the cattlemen’s empire of the late 19th century and its association with the transition from the open range to the enclosed holdings of the large cattle companies in the 1880s. The period of national significance extends from the first purchases of lands by Stephen Jones in 1878 through 1904, when the ranch lands began to be sold off by Bernard "Barney" Lantry’s sons. Eight buildings and four structures have been identified as contributing to the property’s national significance. Vehicular traffic in the form of visitor parking, tour buses and stock trucks may come into direct contact with some of the resources, or cause heavy vibrations that may contribute to the collapse of fragile or deteriorated elements such as stone walls or stone bridges. Structures no longer actively in use at other locations across the preserve, such as stone walls and ruins, suffer from deterioration and possible impact from grazers. Range fires could also impact historic remains that include wood elements, such as the corrals.

Cultural Landscapes
Two sites within the preserve are identified as contributing sites to the 1997 NHL designation: the garden terraces in front of the ranch house and the extensive ranch lands. There are five retaining walls forming terraces between the house and Highway 177, which runs north/south through the NHL. The terraces are built of local limestone in various masonry techniques, including dry-laid rubble, roughly squared rubble, and coursed ashlar with quarry face. The upper terrace contains a circular stone base for a fountain. The ranch lands include landscape features consisting of vast expanses of native prairie rangelands with intermittent corridors of woodlands along streams and drainage ways. The preserve’s ranching and agricultural history can be seen in the relationship of pastures and former cultivated areas defined by stone fencelines, domestic spaces with historic plantings, remnants of hedgerows, and roads.

The NPS Midwest Regional Office has initiated a cultural landscapes inventory (CLI) at the preserve that should be completed in 2000. In addition to survey work at the school and ranch headquarters area, basic information was collected at the Red House ruin site, several mid-19th century occupation sites, quarry sites, stone fencelines, and at water features. The ranch headquarters area includes plantings of mature walnut and juniper trees. The habitation sites show evidence of human occupation such as Osage orange hedgerows, stone fence enclosures, and surface depressions.

Museum Collections
Both the NPS and the NPT have acquired cultural resource collections. At this time NPS-owned museum collections include archival and historic collections. The potential exists to develop an ethnographic collection; however, to date there are no known extant materials. Natural history specimens have been collected from the preserve by researchers at local universities such as Kansas State University and Emporia State University.

An Interim Scope of Collections Statement (SOCS) has been completed, and defines the use and scope of museum collections that contribute directly to the mission of the preserve. It also provides guidance on future acquisitions in order to prevent arbitrary growth of the collection. The NPT will assist in acquiring objects, archival materials, and visual materials, as defined in the SOCS.

The NPS and NPT hold joint stewardship of the collections. Presently, collections owned by both the NPS and the NPT are located in various places. NPT-owned collections are exhibited in the Spring Hill Ranch house, the barn, the smokehouse, and are stored in offices at the Midwest Archeological Center in Lincoln, Nebraska. Collections owned by the NPS are stored at the preserve headquarters and temporarily at the Midwest Regional Office in Omaha, Nebraska.