An historic gift to the children of Texas

"I had such a wonderful childhood . . .

I want so much for other children

to experience this life,

especially those children with no place to go. 

My mother and sisters and I decided a long time ago

that this ranch would be a children's home."

-- Oma Bell Perry

Oma Bell Perry

1913 - 2003

Big Springs Ranch

Two Ranches

Brief History of Big Springs Ranch

The Place of a Thousand Angels
Grandparents Program
Land Offers Many Possibilities
Meditation Garden
Charter High School & Middle School
BSRC Auxiliary & Thrift Stop
Photos of Big Springs Ranch Campus

Map of  Big Springs Ranch

Map to Big Springs Ranch

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Oma Bell Perry formally gifts the 7,000 acre Big Springs Ranch to Hill Country Youth Ranch on August 29, 1996 at a ceremony on the banks of the Frio River.  This was the first of what has become an Annual Picnic to celebrate progress.  Below, Oma Bell and Gary host the dedication of the first children's home on April 30, 1999.  Oma Bell spoke at each such ceremony until her death in 2003, always entertaining the crowds of 400 or more with stories  about growing up in the wilderness setting, and later about the children she had come to call her own, who shared the Big Springs Ranch with her in her final years.

Gary and Oma Bell shared the speaking duties at the first seven annual dedication picnics.  The great grandaughter of Stephen F. Austin's sister, and a descendant of the first colony of Texans to come from Virginia in the19th Century, Oma Bell was a virtual treasure house of historical knowledge.

Oma Bell Perry, along with her mother and two sisters, came to settle the Upper Frio Canyon, where the Frio River begins, in 1930, when only a few hardy families had settled in the area.  Oma Bell was 17 years old.  This family of women would ranch the rugged canyons, carving out a living raising goats and cattle, for 70 years.  None of the daughters married, and before their mother died in 1970, they would agree on a plan, and promise to find a charity to take the land after the last one had died, with a commitment to build a home for orphaned and abused children.  Oma Bell's two sisters both passed away during the summer of 1986, and Oma Bell spent the next ten years looking for someone to come to this remote rural valley and help her fulfill the family dream.

Oma Bell pursued her family's vision with dogged determination, contacting 22 organizations and churches throughout the nation.  Finally, at age 83, nearly exhausted by her search, she finally convinced the son of another hill country ranching family, Gary Priour, who had founded Hill Country Youth Ranch 50 miles away in 1977, to accept the challenge.  The year was 1996, and Oma Bell would live long enough to see children playing in the river and studying in the charter school, experience the healing qualities of the beautiful land she had spent her life caring for. 

The first Children's Homestead was completed in April 1999, and the first Grandparents Cottage was finished in February, 2000.  Thus, an intergenerational village was born.   Facilities now include a high school, a middle school, a library, a gym, a vocational shop complex, a barn and riding arena, a general store, four children's homesteads, two transitional living houses for older teens, five grandparents cottages, a community center, a volunteers' RV park, an administration building, and a wilderness campground.  

Hill Country Youth Ranch has maintained the Big Springs Ranch as a working cattle ranch, teaching young people the rigors as well as the joys of roundups, rodeos and taking care of animals.  The horse program is a favorite among the residents, and outings to remote areas often foster special memories. As the children's village continues to grow, great care is being taken to keep the ranch setting in remote areas as undisturbed as possible so that its naturally healing powers will remain available to all who come to live and visit Texas' most beautiful landscape.

Miss Perry was fond of saying, "Mama always said to keep the land just as the Indians left it". The HCYR team works hard to respect that wish. The first children's residence, the Davenport Homestead (photo right), was completed in April 1999 on a flat beside a spring-fed draw and on the very site of the first European homestead in 1896. Now, young pioneers of the 21st Century call the spot home. 

Many Texans know of the Ranch through its nickname "country of 1100 springs", made famous in the 1970s by a TV advertising campaign featuring the falls and river. To be sure, there are few places on earth that can match its breathtaking beauty. The Ranch existed for centuries as home to native Americans, and eventually to the European pioneers who came to homestead.  Its most recent purpose is a tribute to the visionary who saw its possibilities for children and dreamed an impossible dream that in the end came true.  Today the Ranch serves a multitude of purposes.  In addition to a children's village, homes for retired persons are nestled in the landscape as part of a program that brings the generations together. Also, parts of the 7,000 acre ranch serve as a wilderness adventure park for underprivileged children from throughout the state. A Charter School, which ranks consistently in the top 5% of Texas Charter Schools, provides students with state-of-the-art teaching facilities and a chance to rise to the highest level of their academic capabilities.