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Eastern Cowley people hope to take advantage of their assets

By FOSS FARRAR
Traveler Staff Writer

DEXTER -- Two years ago, Wichita investors proposed to turn this area into an 8,000-acre recreational lake with cabins, resorts and retirement homes overlooking the water.

That got people of this small Cowley County community fired up. They didn't want out-of-towners coming in and drowning their land with its historical artifacts and beautiful landscape. Eventually, after loud protests from landowners, the lake proposal fizzled out.

On Saturday, Dexter residents joined with others from surrounding communities northeast of Arkansas City to make their own economic development plans.

"We have a lot more to offer than just a body of water," said Jack Drake, one of the organizers of the "ABCD Workshop." (The acronym stands for Atlanta, Burden, Cambridge and Dexter.)

Drake, his wife Vicki, and several other women from the Dexter area were inspired to organize the event after meeting an economic development consultant at a recent seminar in Kingman.

The consultant, Remelle Farrar, is director of community development in Canadian, Texas, in the Texas Prairie Rivers region. Farrar and Bob Rogers, a wildlife technician from Canadian, led the workshop Saturday in Dexter.

"There were six of us from Dexter who went down (to Canadian) and decided to get her to come up here," Drake said during a lunch break in the program.

The Dexter travelers spent three days in April in the Texas panhandle community, staying at a bed and breakfast, he said. Though there was no running water or electricity, it was "the most enjoyable weekend I've ever spent."

Some 400 to 500 people stayed at the bed and breakfast and in campers, he said. "There was a lot going on."

Why would people want to spend a weekend in such rustic conditions?

"They are hungry to go out and see how grandpa and grandma lived," he said.

In her remarks Saturday morning, Farrar said the marketing of nature tours or story-telling events in which people sit around a campfire doesn't have to be expensive. In fact, the best marketing is having local people tell stories.

"We can't compete with Wal-Mart, Branson and Six Flags, and we don't want to," Farrar said. "Our marketing should simply tell the story of who we are."

Communities that draw tourists are missing out if they don't make mementos available, she said. One of the top reasons people travel is to shop.

"I might come (to a new place) once (without buying anything), but if I were to return there I would buy that item to show the uniqueness of the area, a memento that reminds me of the taste, smells and people I met there."

For example, in her Texas community, the cedar tree is prominent, she said. But when cedar posts drop to the ground, in most cases, they rot.

"Then Bob got an idea," she said, referring to Rogers. "He cut (a post) into four pieces and made it into bird feeders. Now tourists from Oklahoma or Texas buy them, take them home and put peanut butter in them."

Rogers also wrote a story that is attached to each bird feeder he sells, she added.

Youngsters are the biggest marketing tool for the Canadian community, Farrar said. The community has started an educational outreach program in which children learn about science and nature as they camp out in the woods. Grants are available to fund programs such as this one.

"We had 40 kids from across the Texas panhandle and it cost only $20 per kid to attend. "But we got money for bottled water and food through a grant and taught them about water preservation."

A few years ago, communities in five states, including Texas, in the Texas Panhandle region formed a center for entrepreneurial leadership. Among those on the Prairie States Coalition staff is Farrar.

"The choice of many of our communities is very clear," a booklet on the program billed as "a national model for rural economic recovery," says. "Either find a way to reinvigorate and, if necessary, reinvent the regional economy, or be prepared to put up a sign saying, 'Last one out, put out the lights.' For most of us, the latter is simply not an option."

During the lunch break, Farrar said the Dexter area with its trees, rolling hills and creeks is one of the prettiest areas she's seen. She also singled out the Chaplin Nature Center west of Ark City as a potentially big tourist draw.

"But I've never seen anything about it, except when I pass by," she said. "Kansas has this big inferiority complex when it comes to marketing."

Editors Note: Reporter Foss Farrar is not related to Remelle Farrar, who was quoted in the story.