By Stuart Rosebrook, Ph.D.
For at least a century Prescott has been a center of summer camps in Arizona. Like Arizona’s legendary desert Dude Ranches, which have famously operated in the warmer desert valleys since 1923, summer camps began operating in the state’s cooler regions. Three area camps have been operating over 80 years: Wamatochick (centennial this year), the YMCA’s Camp Sky-Y (1938) and Friendly Pines (1941).

Prescott boosters suggested in the January 2, 1877, Arizona Miner that the community was an excellent refuge for desert-dwellers seeking relief from summer heat. In early 1900, according to the February 15, 1900, Arizona Republic, the “Iron Springs Outing Club” was founded by 50 Phoenix businessmen as a summer colony. The community’s residents, the majority of whom lived year-round in Maricopa County, have been enjoying Prescott’s cool summers in their cooperative camp ever since. 

In 1929 Charles H. Orme Sr. and Minna Orme purchased the Quarter Circle V Bar Ranch along Ash Creek northeast of Mayer. The Ormes founded a rural accommodation school for their three children, Charles Jr., Morton, and Kathryn, as well as the children of Juan Almanza’s family, who worked and lived on the ranch with the Ormes.