The oldest, still active member of the Arizona Horse Cutting Association lives right in Athens County just minutes from Nelsonville and Burr Oak State Park. Walt Semingson has been a horseman since he was a young boy growing up on his parents' ranch in North Dakota near the Montana border. These days, in his mid 80s, he'll still climb up on a horse to show how to use it to separate a cow from a cattle herd, but it's his sons who actually run the Semingson family-owned Smoke Rise Ranch. This is a place where cowboys not only look like cowboys, they are cowboys, chaps and all.

Just a last spring, Walt treated me to his horseman's skill before his son Mark took me horseback riding. Horseback rides and lessons are part of Smoke Rise's fare. You can even stay longer to learn how to be a ranch hand yourself. If I didn't know my geography, I'd have sworn they had whisked me out west, and I've been out west.

Their pristine acres are surrounded by the Wayne National Forest and state forest property, not far from Burr Oak State Park, makes it a perfect place for a family getaway. You can camp at the ranch's campground or rent a cabin. During the weekend of March 30-April 1 at the "Pre-season Tune-up" you can learn how to herd cattle. There are other special event weekends , including rodeos, from the spring through the fall. You can also enjoy winter with a horseback ride.

We just spent a couple hours there, but I'm itching to go back for more of Walt's stories about when he trained neighbors' horses back in 1930-and how exactly his authentic working ranch ended up in Ohio in the first place.