50th Celebration

Allen and Catherine McMurchie
Photo courtesy of echoranch.org 
50 Years of God’s Faithfulness

Recently we had our 50th anniversary celebration. The theme for our birthday bash was “Celebrating 50 years of God’s Faithfulness.” People from all over the US came to celebrate with us. We even had the privilege to meet a lady who was a camper the very first year in 1964. One of the highlights from our weeklong celebration was to hear stories from former directors of how God used this camp to spread the Gospel all over Southeast Alaska. As we heard stories from the past, we knew that over the past 50 years God has blessed this piece of property in Alaska, and to think it all started with one man and a vision. Allen McMurchie got a 180 acre parcel of land from the state of Alaska and he started a logging company. As he was logging to rugged land of Alaska in the 1950s, he had a vision of having a full time Christian ministry on his property. Before he acted on that vision, a plywood company offered McMurchie millions of dollars and a free ticket to relocate anywhere in the world for his 180 acres. He politely said no, because he had a vision. They say vision without follow through is day dreaming, Allen McMurchie was no day dreamer. In 1964 he started Echo Ranch
Bible Camp, feeding kids in a dining hall that is smaller than most bedrooms and cooking in a kitchen that would fit in most people’s closet, they had a great year. Cooking all the food and baking pies in a wood fired stove, they fed the kids and they loved the food. If you are wondering, it takes 13 sticks of wood to bake and apple pie. Jake Hoffman was the first director of Echo Ranch in 1964 as his wife Hilda was the first cook. Then in 1966 Don Callison came to be director and was there as director until 1984. During those years camp grew immensely, buildings burned down and new ones
were built. In 1975, about one week before camp was to begin, the dining hall burned down to the ground, all the mattresses for all the cabins, sports equipment, groceries, tables, chairs, everything was gone. Word quickly spread around the Juneau area and businesses donated building materials for making tables and benches to eat on, sports equipment, mattresses, and so much more. A new Ranch House was being built for the McMurchies and they used that as the dining hall for a few years until the current dining hall was constructed in 1979. Uncle Don as he was called shared many stories of how God worked at Echo Ranch, campers being saved and people coming together to serve the Lord.

Dean Diller was the next director from 1984 to 1996. A farmer from Ohio, came to Echo Ranch to be a Mainenance man and was asked to be the director. He told us a lot of stories of campers and how they were changed by God. Over his 13 years of being director, over 2000 campers accepted Christ as their Savior. Every time a counselor would tell him a camper accepted Christ, he would shout out “GLORY!!”.

From 1996 till 2009 3 different directors have been out at Echo Ranch, Gary and Juanita Lidholm from 1996 – 2000, Randy and Valerie Beaverson from 2001-2006, and Rick and Pat Shaner from 2006-2009. The current directors are Randy and Allyson Alderfer.

Over the past 50 years, God has used Echo Ranch for His glory, and thousands of souls have been changed as a result. All because of the vision of one man, Allen McMurchie. He could have made millions of dollars selling his property, but instead he invested in eternal rewards.

We are a part of Echo Ranch’s history and we have the opportunity to bring it into the next 50 years. As you support us, you also are a part of God’s work in Southeast Alaska.