A camp built to last
By the late 1920s, Fort Worth had grown up around Camp LeRoy Shuman on Lake Worth. The council's camp had become too small and too tame for what its leaders had in mind. In 1928, Daniel Carter Beard, one of the founders of American Scouting and its National Scout Commissioner, visited Camp Shuman and urged the council to find a true wilderness camp.
Outdoorsman Joe Taylor already knew where to look. He had led Fort Worth troops into the rugged Palo Pinto country, and he pointed the council to a high plateau in Chick Bend of the Brazos, at the foot of Kyle Mountain. Scout Executive A. J. "Jerry" Fulkerson led the effort, and council president A. L. Shuman rallied the donors. On February 19, 1929, local leaders organized the Boy Scout Foundation to buy and hold permanent camp land. On March 4, Texas Anna McClure sold the Foundation roughly 300 acres of her family's ranch for about $4,000.
Scouts camped on the land that first summer while Taylor, now foreman and "Hike Master," taught them the country. Foundation president Charles F. Roeser invited Fort Worth business leaders to lunch and asked each to sponsor a building. Their gifts produced a museum, a dining hall and kitchen, lodges, a trading post, an infirmary, stables, and a wash house, all of native stone with red slate roofs, arranged around a parade ground in the manner of old Fort Worth. Henry McClure hauled the rock by horse and wagon, and Clyde A. Penry served as volunteer contractor.
The camp was named Worth Ranch, for Fort Worth. It opened on June 9, 1930, and was dedicated on June 15, even as the Great Depression deepened. By July, eight equipped buildings were in use. The founders had not built for a season; they had built for generations.
The generations came. "The Big Adventure" was on camp stationery by 1936, the year ranger Frank "Cap" Kidd arrived for a 21-year stay. A filtered swimming pool followed in 1940–41, which camp records call the first in Texas. In 1953 the ranch became home to the Order of the Arrow's Nishkin Halupa A Pe Lachi Lodge, and Aquatic School began the next year. Scouts marched to meals, sang in the dining hall, climbed Hernia Hill, paddled the Brazos, and gathered at the Captain Kidd Council Ring. In 1998, the council bought the Henry and Bess McClure farm to the east, nearly doubling the ranch.
Worth Ranch hosted Scouts every summer from 1930 through 2026, making it one of the oldest Scout summer camps in Texas. On August 24, 2026, the Ross Fire swept through. It was a devastating chapter, but not the end of the story.
The National Scouting Museum released a video on the connection between Worth Ranch and Philmont Scout Ranch. It also reflects on how the Ross Fire affected Worth Ranch.