Mission of Educational Services at Devil's Gulch Ranch
Through our work with people of all ages, we seek to develop an awareness of the role of agriculture in our daily lives, to nurture an appreciation for the experiences that are unique to rural life, and develop agricultural and traditional skills.
Our experience during four years of agriculture-based programs at Devil’s Gulch Ranch has demonstrated that a substantial number of families want both education and recreation that are focused on agriculture and nature. Our programs pursue the following goals:
• To provide opportunities for students to learn and use academics in the context of real tasks.
• To capture, retain, and focus student interest in agriculture.
• To provide opportunities for hands-on experience in skills and practices required for successful employment in agriculture.
• To provide opportunities to gain documented experience in agriculture which can provide references for future employment.
• To provide opportunities for students to identify, develop, and demonstrate personal characteristics required for successful employment in agriculture. Some examples are initiative, responsibility, dependability, and self-reliance.
• To provide opportunities for students to observe and participate in the work environment in the field of agriculture, gaining insights which will inform them as they and select a place in the “world of work.”
• To provide an opportunity for students to discover and deal with the financial realities of agricultural production and/or employment.• To provide students the opportunity to teach what they have learned.
• To provide a venue and resources to explore and develop a body of knowledge relating to sustainable agriculture, building, and power.
Sharing these ideas internationally is another goal of our work with young people. Through exchanges with students and farmers from other countries, we open avenues of international communication; give access to cultural insights, and provide students enrolled with us opportunities to teach what they have learned about sustainable agricultural practices.
“This leads to the further reflection, that no other human occupation opens so wide a field for the profitable and agreeable combination of labor with cultivated thought, as agriculture. I know of nothing so pleasant to the mind, as the discovery of anything which is at once new and valuable -- nothing which so lightens and sweetens toil, as the hopeful pursuit of such discovery. And how vast, and how varied a field is agriculture, for such discovery. The mind, already trained to thought, in the country school, or higher school, cannot fail to find there an exhaustless source of profitable enjoyment.”
—Abraham Lincoln, September 30, 1859
Devil's Gulch Ranch Camp is for 25 kids ages 6-18 who want to:
- Build with their hands
- Work in the shop
- Care for animals
- Work in the gardens
- Explore nature
- Learn skills and crafts from the past
- Make new friends
- See their accomplishments
- Get dirty and have fun
- Push their limits
- Grow