Heart of Texas

By Hector Perez

In beautiful Clifton, Texas, Lake Whitney Ranch is an excellent place to enjoy fresh air and activities such as hiking and camping near Lake Whitney. The ranch is full of sunshine and adventure, just waiting to be explored.

Lake Whitney Ranch can accommodate those who want to pitch a tent or park their RV. Even guests who don’t have camping gear or an RV but still want to explore God’s beauty can book a cabin or a room in one of our lodges or a house on the property. It doesn’t matter what you want in a camping experience; you will find it at the ranch.

Previously the ranch’s central kitchen was inside the chuck wagon beside the Event Center. Staff had to carry food into the Event Center from outside. Today, we provide food service from a completed commercial kitchen inside the Event Center.

The Nature Center used to be in the small basement of the Tree House, where most items stayed packed in boxes due to space constraints. An unused two-door garage near the caboose has been converted into a temporary

Nature Center. Items that had been previously stored away in boxes are now showcased in newly purchased display cases. Every group that visits the ranch is encouraged to stop by and enjoy the improved Nature Center, which also functions as a meeting room or, during summer camp, as a nature classroom.

In past years, the summer camp utilized a small room in the Event Center as its camp store and used the kitchen’s dry food closet as an office; Now, a cabin near the main entrance houses a temporary summer camp office and store. Built from a 40-by8 metal container, the outside is constructed to look like a Western-themed storefront. We must be creative with what the Lord has provided when funds are limited.

More than a year ago, Lake Whitney Ranch received a donation to purchase a 16by-32 building. With the help of wonderful volunteers, we transformed the building into a nurse’s station permanently located in the camporee area. Partitions inside divide the space into two patient rooms with sinks, a central waiting area, one bathroom and a room for the resident nurse.

The chuck wagon was relocated to the camporee area, as well, and placed near the nurse’s station. This gives any large group that wants to stay on the camporee side of the ranch the option to rent a commercial kitchen, which proves helpful when feeding volunteers.

Two other features on the camporee side include a Pathfinder Museum created to showcase pins and other historical memorabilia from all over the world and an entrance sign for the area. This beautiful Texas Conference sign was displayed at the International Pathfinder Camporee in Oshkosh, Wis., in 2019, then brought back and installed at Lake Whitney Ranch as a permanent welcome sign.

Volunteers are responsible for completing much of the work at the ranch, including transformation of the caboose to a one-bedroom “cabin” with a full bathroom. It sits in a great spot with a breathtaking view of Lake Whitney.

In 2022, we acquired a house located on our boundary line and beside one of the camp’s already owned houses. Our volunteers reframed the inside of the house, creating four bedrooms and two bathrooms to accommodate up to 14 people. We are continuing to provide accommodations for groups of all sizes. Now, for the most exciting news. Using two different models, we are constructing four bath and shower buildings in the camporee area. Two of the buildings will house a total of 24 complete family bathrooms. The other two buildings will have 24 separate showers, toilet stalls and sinks. We are very excited to watch this dream turn into a reality!

Visitors have wanted bath and shower houses on the camporee side of the ranch for years. The infrastructure for this worthy goal required laying 3,000 feet of gravity-fed pipes to connect the bathhouses to the sewage treatment plant. Most donors understandably prefer to donate money for other things, but this project was necessary and expensive due to the rocky soil at the ranch.

At the same time, the ranch connected its RV sites to the new gravity-fed pipes. Previously, the RV sites offered only water and electricity, but now more than 30 RV sites have full hookups and 30and 50-amps capacity. We also added an RV dump station.

As Lake Whitney Ranch waited for completion of this infrastructure, it acquired a portable shower trailer with eight stalls to provide better service for small groups camping in tents at different locations.

As funds allow, the ranch will continue to make improvements. Masterplan Phase 2 calls for six summer camp cabins available for year-round use. This would increase the housing capacity to 256 beds. Masterplan Phase 3 outlines construction of a multipurpose building.

Together, we can continue to make Lake Whitney Ranch a light in the heart of Texas.

Thank you for being so supportive during the past three years. We accomplished so much due to our dedicated volunteers and generous donors. God bless you all!