JUNCTION CITY, Kan. (AP)--It has become a growing trend in Kansas: creating ways to acquaint people from the city with country living.

Kelcey, Elaine and Janel Harder are happy to accommodate.

The Sun Rock Ranch, one of four agri-tourism stops in Geary County, allows guests to ride horses, take riding lessons, camp or fish. When calves are on hand, visitors can bottle-feed a not-so-little baby. In the spring, visitors can spend time with colts on the ranch.

The 3,000-acre Sun Rock Ranch was home to Kelcey Harder and Elaine Harder, his mother. Janel married Kelcey a few years after a chance vacation to the ranch with one of her friends brought them together. The Harders got into agri-tourism when they opened their home as a bed and breakfast in 1991 to provide an extra source of income. The house has three rooms used for bed and breakfast guests: the Rose Room, the Victorian Room and the Pioneer Room.

"Being the outsider, I saw the potential for something like this right away," Janel said. "Every time I brought one of my friends here, they would just love the openness and the quiet, and I always heard them say, 'Oh, I could just stay here forever.'"

After some remodeling, Sun Rock Ranch opened as a working ranch vacation stop in April 2002. Business started slow for the Harders, but soon visitor numbers began increasing.

"I started marketing us on the Internet because that's the cheapest way to get our name out to the most people," Janel said. "Now we're full from early summer all the way through December almost."

Janel and Elaine are quick to point out that many of their referrals, however, come by word of mouth.

"We've had groups come out, and that word seems to have spread quickly," Janel said. "Those have been some really great experiences, and we've gotten to know people we consider our friends through them."

Among the groups that have visited the ranch are Boy Scout packs, who come to earn merit badges.

"I think the scout group had such a great time. They fished, they camped, they were able to ride some," Elaine said. "A lot of people who come here enjoy wandering around to the ruins of old homesteads that we have on the grounds. There's also still some wagon ruts in a couple places, and people are really fascinated by things like that."

Outdoorsmen also frequent Sun Rock Ranch. The ranch also holds horse clinics and weddings.

"This will be the first year that we have had a wedding here," Janel said. "There are some beautiful areas here to have a wedding."

Janel would like to create a site on the grounds for weddings.

"It's something we've kind of tossed around," Janel said. "I think it would accommodate more people wanting a western-style wedding if we had a special area set aside. We have some great backdrops and places right now, but I think if we added some things, it would pull more wedding parties in."

The Harders think that agri-tourism businesses must work together for the industry to succeed in Kansas.

"We all don't have the same thing to offer," Janel said. "That's where all of us networking together will help draw repeat guests to Kansas."

Leaders in Dickinson, Morris, Marion and Chase counties have formed a steering committee to promote tourism in their counties and Kansas is paying more attention to its agri-tourism industry.

Because of efforts on the part of the Kansas Travel and Tourism Division, several international tourism magazines, including Ranch America, America 4 You and Argus Reisen, have sought Sun Rock Ranch for publication, featuring the ranch in their issues.

State lawmakers also passed legislation last year that gives agri-tourism businesses registered with the state an opportunity to receive a tax credit that absorbs some of the cost of business insurance.

Because it is in many ways an nascent industry, few companies insure agri-tourism. The Harders' insurer is in California.

"People just aren't very familiar with what we do, and, therefore, it's hard to get insurance," Kelcey said. "Also, there hasn't been a lawsuit to really determine any boundaries."

Kelcey said the high cost of insuring hunting has deterred them from adding hunting as one of their visitor activities.

"We've already got tractors, animals and horseback riding on our property," Kelcey said. "For liability insurance, that's enough."

Janel adds that many small agri-tourism businesses can't afford to insure themselves.

"As a small business, just starting out, insurance is very cost-prohibitive," Janel said. "That's why what the state has done with the tax credit is so important for all of us."

The Harders face the additional challenge of juggling Janel's full-time job at Kansas State University with running a ranch of 400 head of cattle and about 30 head of horses.

They have a staff of four to help and weekends get hectic, but it's all worth it for each of them.

"We've met some of the greatest people," she said. "People we would have never come in contact with otherwise."

Date: 1/27/05

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