A South Dakota ranch with some historical roots offers a unique view of Badlands National Park while the family-run bed and breakfast attracts international visitors.
Philip and Amy Kruse own and operate Circle View Guest Ranch near Interior. Philip focuses largely on the 150 head cattle operation along the White River, while his wife Amy manages the bed and breakfast.
Philip was born and raised on the ranch and said he's imagined sharing the 2,800 acres of prairie with visitors since he was a child. In 1996 friends and family started construction on the guest house and after four years, the first B&B visitors arrived the summer of 2000.
The ranch is just outside of Badlands National Park and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. It's also close to South Dakota tourist destinations like Wall Drug, Wild Horse Refuge, 1880 Town, Mount Rushmore, and Crazy Horse.
Jacey Ellsworth, a representative for Travel South Dakota, said the Kruse’s ranch offers unique experiences for all ages.
“Every morning they send their visitors out, to gather eggs and they say they even have adults that are visiting that have never even had that experience. So, simple things like that are maybe normal for rural South Dakotans, it’s an awesome experience for our visitors,” said Ellsworth.
The Kruses were married in 2003 and shortly after, Philip and Amy began offering a full menu bed and breakfast.
The main guest house offers seven guest rooms with private bathrooms, AC, Wi-Fi, and a full ranch-style breakfast. Philip said the habits of visitors have shifted over the years, so they purposely leave certain amenities out of the rooms.
“The people are more into their devices instead of just sittin out and enjoying the views. A lot of times they will just sit there and I tell them ‘You can do that at home, why don’t you come out and see the Badlands and see the view.’ I try to encourage them to put the devices down," said Philip. "And we purposefully didn’t put TVs in the rooms. We wanted them to enjoy the area. You can watch TV when you get home from vacation.”
In addition to the main guest house, visitors can stay in a tree house camping cabin, an original 1880s homestead cabin, and a bunkhouse. All offer different amenities and historical context.
The bunkhouse is Philip’s childhood home – that his parents purchased as a Sears house. They were sold as buildable kits via the Sears catalog and shipped to homeowners by rail.
Philip and Amy renovated the original family home to create a four-room rentable bunkhouse.
Philip said the ranch attracts a lot of tourists from Europe.
“I’ll show you a map, I got a map in the house where people put a pin in where they’re from. The Germans especially seem to be attached to the Native Americans. They want to see the reservation. So, a lot of them will stay here and tour the reservation and go to a sweat lodge or go to a powwow,” said Kruse.
The Kruse’s ranch includes a historical 1880’s homestead cabin that they maintain in its original condition. The homestead cabin does not include running water or electricity – and is available for nightly rentals.
The Kruses added a commercial kitchen to the main guest house in 2020. Amy said it became necessary when they decided to offer a full-fledged ranch style breakfast to visitors every morning.
Philip said the ranch side of their operation now depends on the bed and breakfast.
“ I don’t think I would’ve survived without the income of the bed and breakfast. As you know, the family farm is a big struggle to pay the bills. The bills sometimes outweigh the income and so you have to do something else to supplement your income and we run the bed and breakfast,” said Philip.
One of the benefits of the Kruse’s Circle View B&B is that it connects people back to nature. Scott VanderWal, president of the South Dakota Farm Bureau, said that is one of the hallmarks of agricultural tourism.
“Its really a two-pronged thing, where people can enhance their income and revenue. Use the money to expand their farm or ranch, or to help pay for family living, things like that," said VanderWal. "It also goes back to your first question about help consumers what we do and how we do things on the farm or ranch. People are so far removed from agriculture anymore.”
Philip Kruse agrees and said visitors are hungry for that connection with a family farm. And he said the operation doesn’t need to be a big one.
“Even if you had one room available, it’ll supplement your income, you can rent out it, you could provide meals and charge for the meals. You can have them watch what you’re doing. Not necessarily involve them because you know, that insurance gets pretty high if you’re doing that but, they are interested and that connection is what they’re looking for,” said Kruse.
Philip said they had employees in the past, but when COVID hit they had to figure out ways to run the operation as a family.
And that continues to be how the Kruse's operate their Circle View Guest Ranch – keeping it all in the family.
