From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for April 20, 1989:

In Washington this week, members of the Kansas congressional delegation agreed to seek $50,000 from Congress for a feasibility study of a proposal to turn an 11,000-acre farm in the Flint Hills into a national monument. A group of Flint Hills residents met with legislators with a proposal that the government spend $4 million to acquire the Z-Bar ranch north of Strong City in Chase County. The group hoped the National Park Service would operate the site as a tourist attraction, keeping it as a working ranch but also making it a wildlife preserve.