Cottonwood Falls ? Supporters of the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve are optimistic that the troubled landmark may be saved by a recent $4.8 million endowment.

Frank and Frances Horton, of Wellington, recently bequeathed the endowment to the Nature Conservancy. The Hortons owned a Wichita furniture store, an aircraft-related manufacturing business and ranches in Kansas and Wyoming.

Under a preliminary agreement, money from the endowment and the conservancy will be used to pay the preserve’s $4 million debt and the Nature Conservancy will take ownership.

“We are looking for a bright future for the preserve,” said Alan Pollom, director of the Kansas chapter of the Nature Conservancy. “There are a lot of things that are possible now.”

Less than 4 percent of the nation’s tallgrass prairie remains, and much of it is in the preserve in the Flint Hills.

Supporters of the park hope the new arrangement will allow them to turn the 11,000-acre preserve into the tourist destination that was envisioned when it was established a decade ago.

They envision a visitor center, bison herd, trails, camping and horseback riding. Other plans include shuttles to carry visitors to a ranch house, barn and one-room schoolhouse.

“These are exciting times,” said Paul Duffendack of Bucher, Willis & Ratliff Corp. Duffendack is chairman of the board of the National Park Trust, which currently owns the land.

Times have been difficult at the preserve since the National Park Trust, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit organization, purchased the former Z Bar ranch near Cottonwood Falls a decade ago.

At the time, U.S. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker, R-Kan., persuaded Congress to designate 32 acres and the ranch’s homestead and other buildings as a national preserve. Several prominent Kansans vowed to raise money to help pay off the debt. But that never happened.

No improvements were made, no bison were brought in and there was little tallgrass, because cattle had grazed it off in many places.

Last year, Baker, Hayden, former Rep. Dan Glickman, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and television journalist and Kansas University alumnus Bill Kurtis formed the Kansas Park Trust to purchase the park from the National Park Trust.

At the same time, the Nature Conservancy learned about the endowment from the Hortons, who had asked that their bequest be divided equally between the Kansas and the international segments of the Nature Conservancy, Pollom said. The Nature Conservancy is owner of the world’s largest system of privately owned nature preserves.

The Tallgrass Prairie Nature Preserve’s obligations include $1.7 million for the mortgage, about $800,000 in debts incurred by the National Park Trust and $1.6 million to buy out a grazing lease. The deed will be transferred from the National Park Trust to the Kansas Park Trust to the Nature Conservancy.

The Kansas Park Trust will continue to raise money and promote tourism. The group’s first priority is having a visitor center built. Members of the Kansas Park Trust will lobby the state’s congressional delegation to obtain an estimated $5 million funding for construction of the center.

In addition, plans have begun for a walking and biking trail that would connect Cottonwood Falls, Strong City and the preserve.

The deal is tentatively scheduled to close in March, but some details still must be worked out, said Paul Pritchard, president of the National Park Trust.