Saturday tours of Elk Farm highlight record-size animals

Friday, June 30, 2006

By ASHLEY HARDIN ~ Staff Writer

Animal lovers will have a chance to visit a farm that is unlike many in Indiana this weekend.

The Keeton Elk Farm in Bainbridge will be offering a free farm tour on Saturday, July 1 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Frank Keeton said the tour will include wagon rides around the farm, a chance to see four bottle-fed calves that are two- to five-weeks old, and is an opportunity to eat some grilled elk burgers.

This is the sixth time Keeton Elk Farm has offered a free farm tour. They have had as many as 3,000 people from as far away as Missouri and Pennsylvania come to their tours, he said.

These people come for a reason though.

Keeton is nationally known for the largest elk bulls in recorded history. On his office walls hangs the antlers of the first, second, and seventh largest bulls known.

Plus Keeton still has Impressive, the second largest bull, who is growing another set of antlers.

Keeton said people even come in to buy replicas of the largest antlers in the world. Places such as Cracker Barrel and Cabela's have antlers hanging in them and they want to have the best.

Keeton, an avid hunter, knows the competition well, but he now competes a different way.

He has been genetically improving his herd of 380 elk in order to have the best. Plus this way they have been able to DNA-match all of their animals to their parents. They can give a person the family history on any elk they own.

He can't hunt every day, but he can see the animals every day and to him that type of enjoyment is worth it.

"It's just neat to watch them and be around them," Keeton said. "It's not about the kill any more."

If anyone has an interest for large antlers or just to see animals roaming free, Keeton says that person should come out on Saturday to see these "fat and happy" elk.