Burn, Prairie, Burn describes an unusual tourist attraction:
“Flames in the Flint Hills,” now an annual event, started at Mr. Jantzen’s ranch three years ago. Here, spring is range-burning season when ranchers torch their prairies to revitalize the grass for livestock and kill off invasive plants. It’s a dirty, smoky and sometimes dangerous task usually done by a rancher and one or two hired laborers.Yet the 61-year-old Mr. Jantzen has managed to turn the burn into a cash cow by getting others to pay for doing his work — something tantamount to Tom Sawyer snookering pals into whitewashing his aunt’s fence. Instead of dead rats, apples and marbles, Mr. Jantzen gets paid $100 by every burner.
He makes an all-day party of it, offering snacks, a cash bar and dinner with a live bluegrass band. Well after nightfall into last month’s burn, flames licked the prairie’s ridgelines as guests from as far away as Finland stood sipping beer and swaying to music.