HNR Quick Facts: 9 mi NW of Lawrence/campus Acquired in 1999 Site of Fort Shannon Directions & Maps

In 1999, Hubert "Hub" Hall and his wife Kathleen McBride Hall donated a 47-ha (116-acre) parcel of land for KSR to use for environmental research and education.

Located southeast of the small city of Lecompton, which was a territorial capital of Kansas, HNR is important in local and regional history. Wilson Shannon, territorial governor of Kansas from 1855-1856, lived in a home near HNR, and small improvements on the site were known as Fort Shannon. Little remains of the improvements today, but the site affords opportunity to discuss the interplay of cultural features and natural history.

HNR is situated on uplands, about a mile south of the Kansas River, northwest of Lawrence. The soils are generally thin, and there are outcrops of the Oread and Lecompton Limestone. Small acreages of high-quality tallgrass prairie are found on the HNR, as well as prairie that has had a history of grazing, and prairie that has been seeded in former cultivated fields. Much of the woodland is represented by early successional tree species, but some ravines contain trees characteristic of mature forests.

Research and teaching activities at HNR focus on conservation and restoration of native habitats.

Hubert "Hub" Hall (left) and researcher examine habitat at the Hall Nature Reserve.

The Hall family has long held an interest in conservation. In fact, it was Hub's father, E. Raymond Hall, who led the effort to establish the first KSR reserve in 1947.