Kansas and Oklahoma For clients keen to sample the true cowboy lifestyle, Kansas and Oklahoma are hard to beat, says Howard Carr B
oth Kansas and Oklahoma maintain a proud Western pedigree, with genuine working
ranches and vast cattle drives overseen by real-life cowboys. Tourists are made very welcome but authenticity is key: what you see is the real deal and little is manufactured purely for visitors’ benefit. Kansas is dubbed Beef Country because of its lush grasslands that produce the highest daily weight gain for grazing cattle in the US. Cattle towns such as Dodge City, home of Wyatt Earp and the Boot Hill cemetery, retain a strong cowboy culture. Oklahoma boasts the country’s largest
weekly live cattle auction in Oklahoma City. Visitors can watch wranglers moving thousands of cattle through auction pens every Monday and Tuesday. Oklahoma is also home to 39
American Indian nations – more than any other American state. Many tribes welcome visitors to their cultural centres and to their traditional annual powwows, art markets and rodeos. The Red Earth Festival in Oklahoma City every June is North America’s largest multi-tribe powwow. Guest ranches in Kansas and
Oklahoma offer holidaymakers the chance to sample a taste of the Old West. Visitors can saddle up for a trail ride, take a roping lesson, join a cattle drive, heat up a branding iron or just sit back and enjoy the atmosphere.
For springtime visitors to the Flying W Ranch at Cedar Point in Kansas, there is the added bonus of Flames in the Flint Hills. This spectacular event (scheduled for April 13 in 2013) attracts a huge crowd as the ranch stages a
controlled burning of the prairie to encourage healthy grass growth. The Flying W has
more than 3,000 cattle on its 9,000 acres. Guests
are accommodated in a modern bunkhouse with five rooms.
The Moore Longhorn Ranch near
Dodge City stages cattle drives of 35-65 miles every spring and autumn. Holidaymakers joining the drives sleep under the stars or in 19th Century- style tents, with meals prepared in chuck wagons. The ranch also has seven one-room cabins for guests, who can help to round up cows while on horses and learn to rope and brand cattle. The Island Guest Ranch at Ames in Oklahoma covers 5,000 acres on an island in the Cimarron River. Family- oriented activities include riding, square dancing, powwows, fishing, swimming and hiking.
Just north of iconic Route 66 in
Oklahoma is Tatanka Guest Ranch at Stroud. Less than a one-hour drive from Oklahoma City and Tulsa, facilities include 10 upscale guest cabins, a two- bedroom guesthouse, recreation room, playground and a 15-acre lake.
Taking only five guests at a time, the High Point Horse Ranch at Seminole puts the accent firmly on horsemanship. Professional riding lessons concentrate on specific disciplines such as reining, haltering and trail riding. Other activities include cowboy campfires, fishing and barbecues.
Many ranches are happy to take
visitors to local attractions, rodeos and even cafes popular with cowboys often at no
extra cost. Dodge City, a historical round barn at Mullinville and the
hideout of the Dalton Gang – a notorious group of 1890s outlaws – are popular spots from the Moore Longhorn Ranch, for example. Must-see attractions in Oklahoma include the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City and Woolaroc, an impressive western art museum and wildlife preserve at Bartlesville.
Tourism Talk LISA WEIGT
International Marketing and Public Relations, Kansas/Oklahoma Travel
and Tourism “Horse lovers find ranch holidays different in Kansas and Oklahoma. This is because real-deal, working cattle ranches in the two states do not have ‘stable’ horses. The Moore Longhorn Ranch, the Flying W Ranch and the Island Guest Ranch teach their guests how to ride working ‘cattle horses’ properly.
“These horses are well trained and western-reined. This allows guests open-range riding rather than nose-to- tail trail rides.
“The High Point Horse Ranch, just east of Oklahoma City, is the place to book for highly customised western riding and reining instructional holidays. “More UK travellers are choosing Kansas and Oklahoma because the
38 June 2012 •
www.sellinglonghaul.com
Selling Tip Kansas has a four-day Cowboys and
Cattletowns self-drive at
www.travelks. com
OKLAHOMA TOURISM
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