Note to Editors: Adapted from the Kansas Profile radio series, this column profiles a different Kansan, Kansas community or Kansas-based company every Wednesday, as a regular feature of the K-State Research and Extension News  lineup. A photo of Ron Wilson is available at  http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/news/sty/RonWilson.htm.

Released: March 21, 2007

By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.

“Feel the burn.” It’s what the exercise leaders say as they put us through a vigorous round of exercises, burning the calories away. But there is someone who “feels the burn” in a different sense. He is an entrepreneur who is helping visitors literally feel the burn of the pasture burning season in the Kansas Flint Hills.

Meet Jan Jantzen, a Flint Hills entrepreneur and prairie naturalist. Jan grew up near Hill City where his family was in the cattle business. His career took him to higher education via the football field. He went to KU on a football scholarship where he played with Gale Sayers and then on to Southern Cal where there was a player named O.J. Simpson.

Jan embarked on a career in college administration. He was an administrator at Emporia State, among other places, and retired from Xavier University in Ohio. He came back to the Emporia area where he bought a local ranch.

After having friends over to the ranch, he realized people would pay for the opportunity to visit such a place. Today, Jan Jantzen’s Grandview Ranch is home to Kansas Flint Hills Adventures which offers agritourism experiences in the scenic Flint Hills.

Kansas Flint Hills Adventures offers trail rides, range burning in season, interpretive tours of the prairie wildflowers and tallgrass prairie, and custom designed packages for families, companies, birdwatchers, hikers, painters, star gazers, and more.

Jan’s ranch is located between Emporia and Strong City, not far from the town of Saffordville, population 14 people. Now, that’s rural. The nearest town is ten miles by road and six miles by horseback.

Part of his tour includes a fantastic scenic view from a hilltop which Jan calls Oh-my-God-this-is-what-I-came-for Hill, because of the reaction that the vista evokes from his visitors. Jan has hosted people from Connecticut to Seattle and more than 10 foreign countries. Wow.

Recently he was hosting two guests from New York. Jan said, “What brings you out this way? Are you just passing through? Visiting family? Here for a conference in Kansas City?”  His New York visitors said, "No, we’re here to see you and the tallgrass prairie. We’ve read about the tallgrass prairie but we’ve never seen it. We read about you on your Web site and now we’ve come to experience it for ourselves."

So people are traveling halfway across the continent to Kansas to see the tallgrass prairie, yet it’s an asset that people here in Kansas tend to take for granted.

Jan says, “I like to teach people about the Flint Hills. The emphasis is on fun and educational experiences which grow out of a deep respect for the land, plants, animals, and the rural traditions and people of the Flint Hills.”

In mid-April, an annual Flames in the Flint Hills event is conducted so that visitors can experience this range burning first-hand. Participants are encouraged to bring cameras and rugged all-weather clothes and join in the burn. I thought this was a pretty slick way to get your pasture burned, but Jan says it is a true agritourism attraction.

This event offers several alternatives for great entertainment. Participants can stay at the Prairie Fire Inn and Spa in Strong City, have dinner at the Emma Chase café, tour the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, enjoy a covered wagon ride and campfire breakfast, watch vintage western movies and cartoons in the evening, and observe the mating dance of the prairie chicken, which Jan’s brochure describes as an outdoor singles club for birds. Primarily, they can participate in both an afternoon and after dark burn, and can torch the prairie grass themselves under experienced supervision. For more information, go to www.kansasflinthillsadventures.com.

Feel the burn, says the exercise leader. In this case, we can feel the burn of the prairie fire, as visitors experience the annual rite of range burning. We salute Jan Jantzen and all those involved with Flames in the Flint Hills for making a difference with this unique agritourism opportunity. Just as those flames help with the renewal of the tallgrass, so these events can help bring renewal to rural Kansas.

-30-

K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus in Manhattan.

For more information:
The Huck Boyd Institute is at 785-532-7690 or rwilson@ksu.edu

K-State Research and Extension