Chamber hears from Kentucky Mountain Crawlers President
Regular Meeting, June 14, 2006

    Ken Crider, President of the Kentucky Mountain Crawlers, reported on the 4x4 club's latest event and spoke to the Chamber about the growing off-road tourism industry during the June meeting.

    The Summer Shine Crawl, the first major event organized by the club, brought out thousands of riders to Harlan County during Memorial Day Weekend. An estimated 3,000 truckers and ATVers visited the county during that weekend to ride the park and participate in the club's event, which was located at Verda Field. The event brought more people than last year's grand opening, and kicked off the summer riding season that may bring tens of thousands of tourists to Harlan County this year.

    "Roger (Fannin) made a profound statement ... He made the statement this may be the best thing to happen to Harlan since the railroad, and he may be right," said Crider. "We have something in Kentucky that most people don't have, and that's the tall mountains. When they come from Ohio and they pull up in the park, one of the first things they say is 'boy those mountain's are tall.'"

    Crider focused on the need for more businesses and individuals to invest or get involved in the tourism industry, infrastructure such as restaurants and amenities.

    "Hatfield McCoy spent 10 years putting an infrastructure system. They got everything done before they opened it," he said. "I didn't want to wait 10 years. Joe Grieshop didn't want to wait 10 years. So we knew going in that we didn't have the infrastructure when we opened the park. We were hoping that they would come and enjoy it and see that we were trying and so far it's worked. We get very few negative complaints."

    Crider pointed out things that were missing in Harlan County, such as gift shops, welcome signs and a spirit of entrepreneurship.

    "How many stores can you go into in Harlan and get a Harlan County souvenir? How are we going to promote tourism here if we don't have anything for them to pick out and say 'I've been there' and show someone else where they've been?" For more information about the Kentucky Mountain Crawlers, visit their web site at www.kymc.org

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