We have your EXACT situation, just a couple thousand miles south.  We are rural, with a low visitorship, and a very small staff (2 FT, 1 summer intern, 0 volunteers).  

We've tried several approaches since we opened in 2004:

 -- open Monday - Saturday, from 9am - 5pm, tour when you walk up

 -- open Monday - Friday, 10am - 5pm, tours on the hour

 -- open Monday - Friday,10am - 4pm,  tour when you walk up

In every single one of those circumstances, we could sit here all day and never see a soul. 

We are very rural and there is literally no other reason for tourists to come to our small town. Our interpretive focus does not have the "name recognition" of something like Jefferson or Lincoln or Ford. Nor is our site something so unique/odd that it is a curiousity, like the Biltmore.  

So, now we are open by appointment , though we will do a walk-in if we are here, which has curtailed a lot more visitorship, I'm sure, but it has permitted us to focus on what our real strenths are:  school groups from September through May, teacher training workshops year round, and summer camps (4 weeks for ages 10-17).  

We are busy all the time and relish not having to give constant wallpaper and furniture tours. 

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