By GAYLE WEBER

gweber@dailynews.net

The organizers of an Osborne County historical tour agree -- stop No. 19 is their favorite on the 20-mile trip through some of the original homesteads in the county.

"You descend into an amazing grove of trees that were there before the settlers," Von Rothenberger said. "You can drive for a mile under a canopy of trees."

The Baertsch Grove stop is one of 22 along the "Sod and Stubble" tour through northeast Osborne County. Rothenberger hopes the tour becomes designated as the first project under the newly-formed Kansas Backroads Program.

Most people are familiar with the Scenic Byways program through the Kansas Department of Commerce, but the backroads program is a separate arm, according to Laura McClure.

"It's historical, not scenic," McClure said.

The backroads program was created to provide an economic benefit to rural Kansas. The program requires all roads on the tour to be maintained by county crews.

The "Sod and Stubble" tour starts a mile north and a mile west of Downs and corresponds to significant events in the 1936 book by the same name.

The tour travels to the Henry Ise homestead, the focal point for the book, written by John Ise, who grew up there. It also visits neighboring homesteads, a one-room schoolhouse, famous incidents in the book and the Rose Valley Church.

"The Rose Valley Church is still in operation, still meeting every Sunday morning," McClure said.

Another one of her favorite stops is the Rose Valley cemetery.

"The old cemetery is very small, but it still has jackrabbits," McClure said.

She said tour groups are encouraged to take a sack lunch along the route and have a picnic either near the cemetery or Baertsch Grove.

Rothenberger guides people along the trail but also encourages them to do a self-guided tour with a brochure provided by Osborne County Tourism.

The tour stops at least every mile at one of the 22 markers.

The tour can be done by any mode of transportation, including bus tours, but Rothenberger thinks bicyclists get the most out of it.

"They get to feel what it was like because they're going the same speed as a horse and buggy," Rothenberger said. "They begin to appreciate what the settlers went through."

Preserving the sites along the tour has been made possible through volunteer efforts and private donations.

Rothenberger said they are hoping that by getting a state designation, they will be eligible for funding to further preserve the historic sites, including the Ise homestead.

"We just want to keep the story going, so down the road it can be preserved," he said.

"The biggest thing we want from the state is to get it on the state transportation map and the Web site so people know it's there."