A place to be a girl

Rocky River Ranch is a place you don’t hear too much about unless you have a daughter or know a five to fourteen year old girl. Locals don’t talk too much about the ranch and its interesting history and purpose.

In 1953, Carol Knolk and Jane Brown opened the camp on the banks of the Blanco River down river from the Ranch Road 12 Bridge. The ranch was sold to Mary Anderson and Sandra Bateman in 1971. Today, as in its founding in 1953, “its mission is to grow individual girls,” Camp Director Shanna Watson said. She continued. “It has been family owned and operated since the beginning… The kids need summer camp. Society is focused on instant gratification, social media. They’re not making any real connections. Here they fit in with all we have to offer at camp, have fun but learning while you’re here.”

While there the girls can play in the river, paint and ride the over 20 horses. But underneath it all is also building relationships with other girls, and exploring different unexplored areas.

“The girls come for one or two weeks, no phones or contact with parents. It builds relationships and character.” There are programs for young ones, and once they reach the stage of being able to spend overnight there.

“There’s 150 beds at the resident day camp…growing the individual girl, they get to plan how they will spend their day. There are arts, drama, climbing wall, a zipline, and horseback riding. Let them try something new, something they can’t do at home, there’s forty classes including baking and tennis.”

Their camp has a 90% return rate of attendees, building leadership skills in girls, skills such as collaboration, and problem solving. ”We have 80 counselors and 99% went through the leadership program and they want to give back to others. The staff is what makes it better,” Watson said.

The girls have to be fit as climbing up and down to the river can take a while climbing the steep irregular steps. But waiting at the bottom is the clear inviting banks of the Blanco. On a sunny, hot day it seems perfect.

Being in operation sixty-six years means a lot of traditions are handed down each year. One of the of traditions at the camp is the gum tree. At the entrance to the mess hall is the tree with a whole lot of gum stuck on it. It started when girls would stick their gum on their dinner plates.

The cook got tired of this practice and told the girls not to do this or starve. The girls asked where to put the gum. “Stick it on a tree and not on your plate” was the answer. Hence, an old tradition, to remember and laugh about.

Over the course of the summer, the camp would have been home to about 850 girls, learning independence and building personal and real relationships with other girls, and all without the aid of modern electronics and the ubiquitous cell phone. In other words, having a great time at a great place to have it at, Rocky River Ranch.