Minnie, Marcie, Bebe and Tom Friedman pose with the Echo Hill Ranch welcome sign in 1965. PHOTOS C OURTESY O F ECHO HILL RANCH
Echo Hill Ranch Welcomes Campers Again After 13 Years An old story gets a new beginning BY DAVID NORRIS
T H E Y E A R W A S 1 9 5 3 A N D T E X A S was in the middle of one of the worst droughts in its history. About 18 miles southwest of Kerrville along an old dusty road, Tom Friedman, a decorated war hero, and his wife, Minnie, were about to embark on an adventure of a lifetime. They’d just purchased nearly 300 acres of rough Texas backcountry land. They called it Echo Hill Ranch and already had a vision of turning it into a summer camp for kids. The dream was a big one and likely filled with lots of risk, yet Tom and Minnie pressed on. There’s no way they could have known, but that decision would end up changing the lives of countless children in the coming years and create memories to last lifetimes. Generations of families would come to be known as Echo Hill campers. Families like the Markmans. Nearly 70 years later, Melisa Markman recalled some of those lasting memories she and her family made at the camp. “My mother was a charter rancher, which means they were here the first year that Minnie and Tom Friedman opened the
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camp in 1953,” said Markman. Markman and her brother grew up to become campers themselves and Markman eventually went on to become a camp counselor. Now her children are learning the beauty of Echo Hill Ranch. “When my children were old enough, they also came out to the camp,” she said. Texas has seen a lot of changes in the decades since Tom and Minnie founded the camp. New buildings and homes seem to be going up every day as the old Texas backcountry slowly loses its original luster. Markaman said all that growth seems somehow to stop at the ranch. “You look around and see the hills are the same, the flag ring is the same, the dining hall is one of the original buildings,” said Markman. “A couple of new buildings go up, but the place doesn’t change and that’s really special.” About a decade after Tom and Minnie first opened the gates to Echo Hill Ranch, the family stood on a patch of dried grass next to the entrance sign to pose for a photo. Tom and Minnie are in the photo along with their young daughter, Marcie, and their dog, Bebe.
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