Worth Ranch The Big Adventure

Our history

Traditions

The Ranch changed over the years, but its essentials stayed remarkably the same.

  • A carved wooden sign inside a stone arch reading Worth Ranch Grace.

    The Worth Ranch Grace

    Written by Jerry Fulkerson and said before meals. In the early 1930s it spread across the country as the "Wilderness Grace," reportedly carried by Region Nine executive James P. Fitch, later general manager of Philmont.

  • Scouts and staff in uniform walk in a line past the arched native-stone dining hall.

    Marching to meals

    Troops marched to the dining hall, and the singing after meals is one of the sounds alumni remember most.

  • Scouts in uniform gather at dusk around a blazing campfire in a stone-rimmed council ring, with two tall carved poles and the Brazos valley beyond.

    Sunday welcoming campfire

    Each week of camp began around the fire, with stories under a vast night sky.

  • Staff skits at the amphitheater

    A long-running staff tradition for every camp week.

  • The Podunk marker

    A camp legend handed down from one generation of campers to the next.

  • Painted portrait of Cap Kidd in a campaign hat, glasses, and a Longhorn Council uniform.

    Cap Kidd's morning coffee

    Ranger Cap Kidd met unit leaders over coffee before the Scouts woke, a place to talk through problems and swap ideas.

  • Several canoes paddle down a calm stretch of the Brazos River.

    Aquatic School

    Since 1954, an invitation to Aquatic School has been a mark of trust. Scouts learned swimming, lifesaving, rowing, and canoeing in the pool and on the Brazos.

  • Scouts in life jackets paddle a line of loaded red and green canoes down the Brazos River below wooded hills.

    The Brazos River Canoe Race & Canoe Trek

    Long paddles on the river that gave Worth Ranch its character, from cold Possum Kingdom releases to sandbars and rapids.

  • The WR brand burned into a red-painted wooden door.

    The Worth Ranch Brand

    The WR brand on doors and patches, and the phrase alumni use for the lasting claim the Ranch makes on memory, loyalty, and fellowship.

Order of the Arrow ceremonies are part of Worth Ranch's story, but their details are not published here.