Echo Hill Ranch is a summer ranch camp of about 400 acres (1.6 km<sup>2</sup>) in the Texas Hill Country, south of Kerrville near Medina. It operated as a private Jewish summer camp from the summer of 1953 through the summer of 2013. It reopened in 2021 with a focus on Gold Star families.
History
1953-2013
The ranch was founded in 1953 by Dr. S. Thomas Friedman and Minnie Samet Friedman. Echo Hill was founded as a noncompetitive, child-centered ranch camp for boys and girls ages 6–14. Campers and staff were mostly from Texas though a few came from international locations. Although the majority of campers were Jewish, children of all faiths were welcome at the camp. On July 24, 2013 the camp announced via their Facebook page that it would not reopen for summer of 2014.
For nearly 20 years, the camp had also been home to the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch; the program was later phased out, as the remote location of the camp made it difficult to attract adopters for rescue animals.
2021-present
Tom and Minnie's youngest child, Marcie Friedman, is accredited by the ACA as a camp director. After working for the state department for decades, she became interested in remaking Echo Hill Ranch as a place for Gold Star families (children who have lost a parent in the military) to come to camp, tuition free, with volunteer staff and operated by generous donations given by organizations and individuals interested in supporting such families. The inaugural year of Echo Hill Ranch Gold Star Camp was planned for the summer of 2020 but was instead pushed to 2021 because of COVID-19 concerns.