On to the 3rd major event, and the event that actually really pushed me into writing this blog: the history and memories of Brush Ranch Camps, Tererro, New Mexico. The line between historical fact and my memory is a bit blurred, so I apologize in advance for any chronological mistakes or other bits and pieces that I may get a little wrong along the way.

I would like to take a moment to apologize for the lack of photos in this post. Most of the things I’m mentioning in this post should and will have longer posts dedicated to them and I will include photos at that time. Plus, I don’t know where they are right now and since becoming mother of twins, it’s all I can do to get dressed each day, much less search for photos. Yes, it’s nearly 4:00 and I’m not dressed yet. I did remember to brush my teeth!

In 1956, my grandparents, Newcomb and Kitty Rice purchased the Brush Ranch property, 11 miles up the Pecos Canyon, from the Old family. It had previously been owned by Lyle Brush and everyone seemed to thing the name was perfect so it stayed through multiple transitions. The property had been running as a dude ranch for a number of years. It had, at one point, also been called Irvin’s on the Pecos. So the story goes, Newcomb didn’t have “two pennies to rub together” but Mr. Old sold him the property anyway and somehow, over the years, Newcomb was able to complete payments on the property.

Newcomb and Kitty started Brush Ranch Camps for Girls. The original idea was that it would be a performing arts camp that focused on dance, drama, and music. My grandfather came from a performing arts background (I’ll dedicate a later post to his history and how he and my grandmother met) so it seemed a natural transition for them.

As time went on, they added more and more activities, including, at one point, until the insurance world had a fit I’m sure, trampolining! How fun would that be?! They also added horseback riding, arts and crafts, synchronized swimming, and several more traditional “camp” activities to the program. In the mid 60’s, they began to allow boys into camp. They built a separate “boys camp” area just north of the main Brush Ranch property that included one very basic cabin and eventually several tent platforms and a wash house. It was MUCH more crude than the girls cabins that were complete with running water, heating, fireplaces, and even carpet (in some cases). With the addition of the boys camp came the addition of several more activities: shooting, fencing, archery, ropes course, and fishing.

As you can imagine, summer camp is not lucrative all year around, so the Brush Ranch School opened in the 70’s. The school focused on middle school and high school aged students with learning differences and was a boarding school.

At the time, my dad was living and working on the Brush Ranch property doing various odds and ends and my mom had just graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in education. She worked for a few years in Corpus Christi and was then hired as a teacher at Brush Ranch School. One thing led to another, and in 1976, my parents were married in the booming metropolis of Quanah, Texas, where my mother had grown up. They lived for several years in what was used most recently as the nurses cabin, right down by the gurgling Pecos river. They eventually built the house I grew up in on the north end of the property with the help of several of their friends. From what I’ve heard, it was quite the group effort.

Dad living in what eventually became the nurses cabin.

Somewhere along the way, my grandparents purchased another bit of acreage north of the boys camp area with a giant lovely house, guesthouse, and old rickety other building (no idea what it was but I LOVED exploring in there when I was a kid and finding all sorts of really old junk). This was the Timberland property. Eventually, the ropes course for the camp was built on this part of the property.

All in all, the entire property was around 300 acres right on the river with a winding dirt road that connected everything that ran along the back side…think over the river and through the woods, to grandmother’s house we go, because that’s exactly how it was!

In the late 70’s or early 80’s, my parents took over full operation of the camp business and expanded it quite a bit, adding various programs throughout the years. At some point, they were involved in the business operations of the school as well, but after a bit of a family feud, they became completely uninvolved in the school and the camp and school ran as two completely different entities.

So, things cooked along like this for the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s. In 1996 another piece of property was purchased and used for various camp activities. This property was much farther north up the canyon and was know as Rosilla Peak Ranch.

My parents lived full time on the main property in the house I mentioned earlier. My older brother was born in 1980, I showed up a little over two years after that, and then our youngest brother was born in 1988. We grew up at summer camp, and it was awesome, I can only assume, every little kid’s dream! We had all the playmates we could ask for, plus we had super cool college kids (counselors), as our mentors each summer! We had a blast. (It’s worth mentioning that the winters weren’t too shabby either, with tons of snow and great sledding hills!).

A bazillion kids and staff from all over the world (literally), must have come through that stone front gate, where a bazillion more memories were made, many of which are still cherished today. Of course, there were ups and downs, most of which I was sheltered from since I was a child during a lot of this time.

Brush Ranch Camps staff photo, 1989 (courtesy Barbara Cohen). My parents are on the bottom row directly under the “ch” in “Ranch. And there I am, clearly a staff member, bottom row, far left.

Beginning in the late 90’s, Newcomb and Kitty spent less and less time at Brush Ranch and more time at their second home in Santa Fe. As they grew older, the drive and the weather became too much for them. Newcomb passed away in 1996, and Kitty died several years later in 2001.

After Kitty’s passing, another sort of family feud ensued between my father and his sister. Eventually, my parents decided that the best course of action for everyone in the long run would be to discontinue camp and school operations and sell the majority of the property. Neither the camp or school had been profitable in the years leading up to this decision, and my parents did not want to work their fingers to the bone for the rest of their lives. The last summer of operation was 2004.

They sold the north end of the property (including Timberland, the house I grew up in, and the boy’s camp area) to a couple from Texas. They sold the south end of the property with the majority of the cabins and gathering spaces to a family who owns a large insurance firm in Albuquerque.

They kept 12 acres that they named Rancho Compostela that included the barn and a building that was built in 1994 as a classroom for the school. They hired an architect and a contractor and remodeled and added on to the classroom building and made it into an amazing home. (Meanwhile, they lived in the dining hall for the camp, which only caught on fire once while they lived there!!) They spent lots of time improving the grounds of the property, and did some major work on the barn as well, including chopping it in half and pouring concrete floors. It was a great space for a big party (this is where we had our wedding reception)!

A portion of the 12 acres my parents kept after selling the other parts of the Ranch. This is taken looking from the house to the barn, north, up the Pecos canyon. 

Mom and dad were living the life of a retired couple and were settling in nicely. All that changed on April 1st, 2009 when their money manager committed suicide by way of fiery car accident. As weeks and months went by after his passing, it became evident that the money made in the sale of the Brush Ranch property was tied up in multiple lawsuits. I won’t go into too many gory details here, but the short story is that a large portion of the money was lost in what was basically a ponzi scheme, and the rest was tied up in lawsuits and court fees. The Rosilla Peak Ranch property was taken as a part of a settlement, and just this spring, my parents sold their 15 acres to a lovely Albuquerque family so that they can officially get out from under the black cloud of 2009 and MOVE ON!

I won’t pretend that this hasn’t been difficult for our family. It has been. Really, really difficult. The sale of the last piece of property was especially bittersweet, as it means the end to an era for our family, but it also means the beginning of an exciting new era. And era that I have high hopes for, one that includes improved health and happiness, lots of grandparent time, impromptu family get-togethers, and much much more!

I truly believe that Brush Ranch had a major impact on many lives and I intend to share more detailed memories, funny stories, sad stories, traditions, songs, and whatever else comes to mind. If there’s a specific story you’d like to share, please go to my contact page and send it to me or email me at alden@youretheheartofus.com .  I just might post it on the blog! Please include any photos you have that might accompany your story!

I cannot guarantee that I will post your story or when it will be posted, but I will do my best to alert you if/when it is posted. I reserve the right to edit stories as I see fit and will do my best not to change any hard facts.