Soapstone Prairie Natural Area


Soapstone Prairie Natural Area is a park and conservation area located in northeastern Larimer County, Colorado, United States.
The City of Fort Collins purchased the land for Soapstone Prairie Natural Area in 2004, which was opened to the public in 2009.

Shortgrass prairie

The natural habitat of eastern Colorado was shortgrass prairie. Over the past 150 years much of the land was used for agriculture. Of the 40% of the remaining shortgrass prairie, much of it is "degraded" and fragmented due to neighboring cities, towns and farms.

Lindenmeier Site

The Lindenmeier Site, named for the previous Lindenmeier Ranch, is a Folsom archaeological site on the Soapstone Prairie Natural Area. The site contains the most extensive Folsom culture campsite yet found with an uncorrected averaged radiocarbon date of 10,660±60 B.P., or 8,710 B.C. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark on January 20, 1961.