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By Betty Shimabukuro
Star-Bulletin
WAIMEA -- Isaac Haworth lifts the reins and calls out to Princess Rita and Hula Girl: "Step up there, good girls."In deliberate clip-clops, the two horses pull Hayworth's open-air wagon off the pavement, through the gate and onto Parker Ranch land.
"I came here 11 years ago to get away from horses," Haworth chuckles as he surveys the ranch from over his horses' back sides. He'd been part of the competitive horse-show circuit, but came to Waimea to farm. Eventually, though, he started running carriage tours, and about 18 months ago he ended up here with Princess Rita and Hula Girl, all doing their part to bring tourism to these 225,000 acres of open fields.
Their wagon rides for visitors became the first step in a plan to turn Parker Ranch into a full-fledged, fully outfitted visitor destination.
The Big Island ranch is exactly what its name implies, a working cattle ranch producing more than 10 million pounds of USDA choice beef each year. It is among the oldest and largest cattle ranches in the country.
26th annual rodeo and horse races take place Labor Day weekend: ROUND-UP CLUB RODEO
Showtimes: 11 a.m. Sept. 2 and 3 (rodeo only on Saturday; rodeo plus races on Sunday)
Also at Parker Ranch
But Parker Ranch wants to be known for more than beef. Specifically, it wants to build an identity as a place a visitor can enjoy the outdoors, the cool air of this mountain elevation and the excitement of the paniolo life.
The closest model would be Oahu's Kualoa Ranch, which offers horseback riding, all-terrain vehicles, a gun range, helicopter rides, volleyball, tennis, even golf on its North Shore acreage.
Parker Ranch is headed in that direction, with its own palette of "outdoorsy, eco-tourism" activities, but in small steps, says Diane Quitiquit, vice president for marketing and development.
"Within the next five years you could come back here and be able to spend the entire day at the ranch, and leave tired and exhilarated and wanting to come back the next day," Quitiquit says.
For years, the ranch has opened itself to visitors in low-key, rather sleepy ways: A small museum explains ranch history through a collection of paniolo artifacts and memorabilia from the Parker family. Two old family homes -- Mana Hale and Puopelu -- have been open for tours since 1988. Weekly "Paniolo Friday" activities bring kupuna into the homes to teach Hawaiian arts, from ukulele playing, to hula, to quilting.About 1,500 people visit the ranch each month for these activities.
The ranch also opens up for community events several times a year, as it will on Labor Day weekend for the annual Ranch Rodeo and Horse Races -- two days of team roping, bull- and bronc-riding, barrel racing, cow racing and sheep riding, capped by horse racing. The event raises funds for scholarships for the children of ranch employees.
Quitiquit's mission is to expand these offerings.
First up were Hayworth's 45-minute wagon rides, which provide a glimpse of both historical and modern ranch operations.
Hayworth guides his horses past rock-wall corrals built 150 years ago to house the wild cattle brought from the hills by the first Parker paniolo. Then he'll stop so families can take photographs of the kids with the horses in front of the old stables.It's this combination of history and tourist accommodation that the ranch aims for over the next few years.
Just a few months old is the "Ride on the Range," a two-hour tour for experienced horseback riders that involves an actual cattle drive a la "City Slickers" ($150 per person for groups of at least four).
"The Parker Ranch paniolo is so well-known," Quitiquit says. "To be able to ride with our cowboys is really a unique experience."
She has been interviewing vendors who could provide other adventures on the ranch, including all-terrain vehicle riding, mountain biking, hiking, camping, even hot-air balloon rides. "What we want to do is create a cluster of all kinds of activities.
Eventually, she even sees visitors staying on the property, perhaps in a retreat or a lodge. Waimea is a community growing in the number special events it offers, she said, yet accommodations are minimal.The aim in opening up the ranch is to generate revenue that would support the historic homes and the programs offered there, while spreading the story of the Parker family and the ranch lifestyle, Quitiquit said. "It's a story of tragedy and gala parties, all the thrills and chills of the ranching industry."
The family history begins with John Palmer Parker, sailor-turned-cowboy who won the trust of Kamehameha I, and ends with Richard Palmer Smart, John Parker's great-great-grandson, a Broadway and cabaret performer whose show-business history is memorialized in The Broadway Room in one of the historic homes.
When he died in 1992, Smart left the ranch in a trust to benefit several organizations in the Waimea community.The intervening decades include the tragic early deaths of John Parker's second son and daughter-in-law, the escapades of renegade grandson Sam, and the up-and-down fortunes of the ranch that at one point was almost lost to the family.
There is much to be told, Quitiquit says.
"We want people, when they leave, to feel they've make a connection with the ranch. ... Even if you go on an ATV ride we want you to learn the story of Parker Ranch."
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