15 Years of Farm Stay USA: Celebrating Our Roots and Honoring the Founders Who Helped Cultivate a Movement (2)
Part 2 – The Ranches
As Farm Stay USA celebrates 15 years of promoting authentic farm stays and agritourism experiences across the country, we continue our spotlight on the 21 founding members who helped shape this vibrant national network of working farms and ranches.
In part two of this four-part series, we feel like this is the perfect moment to answer a common question: What’s the difference between a farm and a ranch?
In some parts of the country, what might be called a ranch in Montana is called a farm in North Carolina (and vice versa). Property owners decide what feels most accurate for their operation, often influenced by regional language and local traditions.
At Farm Stay USA, we use “farm stay” as a catch-all term—one that includes milking cows and herding them, picking apples and fixing fences. Ranches are an integral part of this story, even if they have to roll with the “farm” label now and then.
This week, we’re featuring a few of our founding ranch members out west—where the skies stretch wide, the hospitality runs deep, and guests come home with memories (and maybe a little dust on their boots).
As with Part I, we used a light-touch Q&A format to gather reflections—some ranchers followed it to the letter, others blazed their own trail. Just like their operations, no two stories are the same:
Montana Bunkhouses Working Ranches based in Livingston MT is a collection of about 20 working ranches offering a look into ranch life from the back of a horse. In 2002 Karen Searle founded the organization as an agritourism co-op modeled on the European Farm Holiday program. She educated, then coordinated some of her ranching neighbors to add lodging as a diversified income stream as they worried about passing down their ranches to the next generation. She set out to be the go-between and to find paying guests who were not looking for the lux experience of a dude ranch but rather the hands-on opportunity of a cow poke. Karen has always known her strength as a match-maker but her advice for someone just entering the business is to not reinvent the wheel. Rather take advantage of the types of training Farm Stay USA offers, as well as mentors in the field and local extension services. Now in its third decade as a cooperative, Karen is proudest of her organization being selected for the National Geographic Tourism MapGuide of the Greater Yellowstone area. They are the only Montana ranch-vacations to have met the criteria for authenticity of experience, culture and heritage. While she sees a benefit to her ranch owners in dollars and the ability of a family’s son or daughter being able to return home to carry on the ranching tradition, she also recognizes the non-tangible joy of sharing a way of life that is hidden to most.
Howard Creek Ranch in Westport CA is an historic 60 acre, ocean front farm, bordered by miles of beach and mountains on the beautiful Mendocino Coast. The farm opened to guests in 1978. When asked why they started up, the answer was “because it was here!” The ranch includes farm animals (sheep, llama, goats, horses), award winning gardens, fireplaces/wood stoves, a 75 foot swinging foot bridge over Howard Creek, hot tubs, on-site hiking, 1000 year old redwoods, and horseback riding on the beach or in the mountains. Favorite farm chores with guests include bottle feeding calves, lambs, kids and foals. Because of the location, there are all forms of wildlife. One year their dog treed a bear and a guest’s dog joined in the fun with plenty of barking all morning long. The bear finally left and never returned and luckily the dogs remained uninjured, but not for lack of effort and enthusiasm. (Editor’s note: this is why a number of farms do not allow people’s pets to accompany them on the visit. Farms provide too many options for dogs to get into trouble, either with livestock or with wildlife.) As for joining Farm Stay USA 15 years ago, interactions with the guests who have found the farm via the site have” been lovely and a wonderful addition to our lives.” – Charles and Sally Griggs.
Rustridge Ranch in St. Helena CA is a rustic Napa Valley property: a thoroughbred racehorse ranch, a vineyard and a winery, and a bed and breakfast. The B&B opened in 1989 just before Napa County put a moratorium on B&Bs. The operation didn’t actually start hosting guests until 1990. There had been talk of doing this, as the family was always hosting friends in their large rambling house in the middle of nowhere, but the changing laws hurried up the process. It also felt like a good way to promote the winery. These days guests can join in for chores at feeding time, sip wine in the tasting room while surveying the vineyards, and maybe even be lucky enough to watch a young racehorse running down the vineyard aisles for a workout. A fond memory for Susan centers on a particular family group from years ago. The couple, having visited the ranch as adults, went on to have three children of their own. The oldest child loved horses and the couple remembered Rustridge and brought her to visit when she was nine years old. After that, they came every summer. Their daughter helped out, knew all of the animals and their histories, and would greet guests and give them a tour as if the ranch was her home. As for becoming an inn-keeper, Susan felt she really didn’t know what she was doing to start but guests would make suggestions that she would adopt. She wanted to be the best host she could be. When problems arise, she will ask if the guests have a solution. Generally these solutions are fair and everyone walks away feeling good. Napa Valley has not become easier for farm stays in the years since Rustridge opened, but Farm Stay USA has stayed true as an advocate for this kind of experience and the ranch has been able to promote what it has to offer under the more descriptive banner.
Willow Witt Ranch is a located in a box canyon nearly a mile high in the Southern Cascades near Ashland, Oregon. The 445 acres feature meadows filled with wildflowers, conifer forests, oak woodlands, springs, wetlands, and streams flowing from the crest of the Bear Creek Watershed. The ranch, owned since the early 1980s by Suzanne Willow and Lanita Witt, has been a project of theirs – to rehabilitate an overgrazed landscape into conservation areas, regenerative organic vegetable gardens and responsible livestock farming of goats, sheep, chickens and geese. The women started sharing their property in the form of a B&B studio attached to their farmhouse back in 1986 but it wasn’t until 2008 that they dove into a more serious farm stay format. The campground was added in 2010 and their Meadow House reverted from a full-time rental in 2012. While the property is expansive, Suzanne has found over the years that it’s best to set boundaries to protect your time, decide what you like to do in terms of hospitality mixing with farming, and start small, then grow as it makes sense. Interacting with guests has been fun when taking a hike that included the goats and always allows for some education about the land. Her best guest experience: a father and his two sons came to the ranch three years in a row. On the third year the younger boy watched a goat giving birth. He was handed one of the slippery kids to dry off, at which point he turned to his dad and said, “This is the best day of my life!” As an Oregon ranch, Farm Stay USA always held a kinship and was the #1 referral for their business. The larger benefit for Suzanne and Lanita was being part of a community where they could share their thoughts with those who knew exactly what they were talking about. Sadly, Lanita passed away in 2022. Suzanne continues to run the business which, besides the farm stay, includes an educational non-profit The Crest and The Forest Conservation Burial Ground.
Wilson Ranches Retreat is a family-run working cattle and hay ranch on 9,000 acres in the beautiful Butte Creek Valley outside of Fossil Oregon. Eight generations of the family have been involved in ranching in the Columbia River Plateau and John Day Basin since the 1870s. Today, the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th generations are still working the ranch! In 2000, Wilson Ranches Retreat Bed and Breakfast opened to guests, offering an opportunity to experience ranch living in Eastern Oregon’s high desert. Guests from all over the world have become a part of the Wilson Ranches family. Many have viewed the ranch from horseback and been involved in cattle drives and pasture moves. Laughter at the breakfast table has greased many a wheel. The tradition of pioneer hospitality and the privilege of being stewards of the land are gifts the family cherishes and hopes to pass on. For those thinking of hosting guests on the ranch, a good hearty breakfast is always welcomed and sitting around the table to share stories and history adds to the experience. Sharing one’s ranch is a labor of love for a way of life that is quickly disappearing and the impact of sharing one’s time more important than ever. Often introducing a little buckaroo to horseback riding, even adults who have never sat astride a horse, is rewarding in itself as there is nothing like seeing the countryside from the back of a ranch horse. Many guest experiences have been memorable but they also have common themes: connection, healing journeys, the joy of riding, and families. For Wilson Ranches Retreat, located in the home state of Farm Stay USA, the organization has been a champion for Oregon working farms and ranches offering hospitality, invaluable in sharing their stories, serving as a resource, and carving a pivotal place at the table for agritourism.
These ranchers brought something special to the table—bold hospitality, deep-rooted traditions, and a true love of the land. Whether it’s corralling livestock, gathering around a fire, or saddling up for an early morning ride, their stories capture the spirit of ranch life in all its dusty, dazzling glory.
We’re so grateful they saddled up with Farm Stay USA from the very beginning.
Next week, we shine a light on The Enthusiasts—a few founding members who got their launch with us but have since built something uniquely their own. Whether it’s a vineyard, a fiber farm, or a little slice of creative heaven, these stays remind us that there’s more than one way to share farm life.
If you haven’t read Part I: The Trailblazers, be sure to check it out!
(Header photo courtesy of Montana Bunkhouses Working Ranches)