REPUBLIC – Ferry County is prominently featured in the new Washington State Visitors’ Guide with a dramatic Kettle River photo by J. Foster Fanning topping an article about the northeast section of the state, and the K Diamond K Guest ranch is featured in a four-page article.

Foster Fanning said the publication’s graphic designer Christina Rascon found his photo of the Kettle River on the online photo-sharing website Panoramio, where he has numerous photographs, many taken in Ferry County. The photos on the site are linked to Google Earth. The Vulcan Greens photograph had 794 views as of April 20.

The image shows a very green Little Vulcan Mountain with a swollen Kettle River in the foreground. It was shot last June 13 when the Kettle was near flood stage due to recent rains and some late runoff from the Monoshee Mountain Range.

Rain clouds had given way to a random burst of late afternoon sunlight, and the lighting with afternoon shadows accentuates the lush greens of the landscape.

In January, Rascon contacted Foster Fanning asking if he’d be interested in having the photograph in the Washington State Visitor’s Guide.

The article that accompanies the photo, titled “Final Frontier: Traversing the Northwest’s Inland Empire,” speaks of an area that starts in Tonasket and extends eastward.

Writer Craig Romano mentions Wauconda which once boasted 300 residents, the Stonerose Interpretive Center and Eocene Fossil Site, the K Diamond K Guest Ranch, the Sherman Pass Scenic Byway and Colville National Forest and Lake Roosevelt before continuing on to sites in Stevens County.

A map directs tourists across the county on State Route 20.

Another article in the magazine by Seattle-based travel writer Amanda Castleman tells of the ranch’s hospitality and of a late autumn cattle drive.

Castleman called the K Diamond K and asked if they’d be interested in having an article in the Tourism Guide.

“It was a pleasant, pleasant surprise,” Kathy McKay of the K Diamond K said.

McCay said the effects of the article were immediate. Right after the book was released someone made an online reservation from SeaTac International Airport at 1 a.m.

She says the ranch is looking forward to a great season. Most of last year’s staff is back, and she’s looking forward to the visitors guide, other regional publicity and the online reservation system to bring new people to the ranch.

“The online reservations are fabulous,” McKay said. “It’s like Christmas when you wake up in the morning and discover reservations.”

Stonerose Interpretive Center and Eocene Fossil Site alone had 7,558 visitors during 2011, according to Stonerose records.

McKay says ranch guests are also given the opportunity to visit area attractions that appeal to them and shop at local establishments.

An introduction in the visitors’ guide says travelers are looking for information to help them make decisions on where to go and what to see. They say the guide is an authoritative, insightful and eminently practical travel resource.

If so, it should be instrumental in luring visitors to Ferry County.