Girls Nature Camps

​One thing I wish to devote the rest of my life to is getting children out into the woods—a landscape I have called home for a third of my life. Having taught young girls for over 55 years, I believe it is essential to build their self-esteem.

Just on the other side of the mountain where I live sits a magical place called Camp Strawderman. This amazing girls' camp is nestled in a beautiful hollow, bordered by Stony Creek on one side and Three Mile Mountain on the other.

​At Camp Strawderman today, young girls from all over the country come to experience a true rite of passage. They live in rustic cabins, go without air conditioning, and embrace limited cell phone use. The camp's roots run incredibly deep; the land itself was settled two and a half centuries ago by a pioneer named Peter Strawderman. 

Much later, in 1929, the girls' camp was officially founded when a group of Girl Scouts came up from Harrisonburg, led by Margaret Hoffman, whose father had purchased the property.

​Almost a hundred years later, girls still fill their days with theatricals, campcraft, nature study, swimming, arts, and tennis—drawing a new generation across the nation to ride horses, explore the woods, and participate in these same priceless activities.

​While Camp Strawderman represents a long, continuous tradition of young women finding strength in the outdoors, another type happened.

During the Great Depression, a brief but fascinating alternative emerged, championed by Eleanor Roosevelt: the "She-She-She" Camps.

​My own home sits between two historic Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps—the first one in Fort Valley, the sixth one at Wolf Gap. One historically served white enrollees, while the other served African Americans. Their close proximity is a daily reminder of a complicated past and a shared legacy of youth experiencing the outdoors.

​While the traditional CCC was created as a male-only relief program—whose enrollees famously planted over 2 billion trees, built 125,000 miles of trails, and spent millions of workdays fighting forest fires—the "She-She-She" camps were born out of Eleanor Roosevelt’s deep concern for the plight of jobless women.

​By 1933, an estimated two million American women were desperately seeking work. Many employers refused to hire them, believing women belonged solely in the home, and several New Deal programs assumed only men were primary breadwinners. As a result, countless unemployed women became isolated, homeless, and close to starvation, often sleeping in subway tunnels or "tramping" through rural areas in search of food.

​"As a group, women have been neglected in comparison with others," Eleanor Roosevelt observed, "and throughout this depression have had the hardest time of all."

By 1934, Roosevelt successfully pressed for a national program combining residential worker schools with work-relief camps. The resulting Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) camps—derisively nicknamed “She-She-She Camps” by critics—were created to provide employment, vocational training, and education. Roosevelt fiercely argued that thousands of young women were just as willing and able as men to undertake conservation, forestry, and public service.

​Between 1933 and 1936, more than 90 of these camps were established across the United States, serving around 8,500 women. While the public enthusiastically supported the men's CCC, which enrolled over 3 million men, the women’s camps never reached the same massive scale, maxing out at about 5,000 enrollees annually.

​Each camp reflected the culture and resources of its location. A typical site housed about 100 women and employed a female-led supervisory staff of 10 to 20 directors, teachers, counselors, cooks, and a nurse. To save money, the program utilized existing infrastructure equipped with heat, light, and sanitation, often moving into former summer hotels, vacated schools, or abandoned male CCC camps.

​The enrollees worked fixed hours (usually 56 to 70 hours per week) on varied assignments. At some sites, this included labor in forest nurseries. At others, women produced toys, playground equipment, visual training aids for public schools, or hospital supplies. Sewing equipment allowed the women to craft their own clothing—feed-sack dresses were especially popular—as no official uniforms were provided. In exchange for their labor, women received medical care, room, board, and the same personal allowance as CCC men: $5 per month (though unlike the men, they were not mandated to send money back home).

​While Black women were strictly segregated due to Jim Crow-era laws, they received the same educational opportunities within the system. Native American women received an additional allotment to secure rental housing and often traveled with male family members who left reservations for work, as no exclusive camps were established for them.

​These residential programs typically lasted three to four months. Educational offerings included English, adult literacy, domestic science, hygiene, public health, and economics, alongside vocational training like typing. Recreation was also a core pillar, featuring games, athletics, hikes, music, drama, and handicrafts.

The She-She-She Camps officially closed their doors on October 1, 1937. ​Though short-lived, the camps provided profound relief for the participants who had endured the worst of the Depression. These women found that the structure, the community, and the outdoor work offered a welcome escape from urban deprivation.

​Eleanor Roosevelt had envisioned a permanent, nationwide program for both young men and women devoted to domestic projects like conservation and healthcare. While her grander political vision didn't fully materialize then, the underlying spirit of those camps lives on today in places like Camp Strawderman.

Youth programs outside foster the next generation of environmental stewards. ​This  natural experience remains critical to human well-being, especially for children. The wilderness provides essential sensory experiences, naturally relieves stress and anxiety, improves attention spans, and builds physical health. Whether through a historical New Deal experiment or a century-old summer camp just over the mountain, the woods still hold an unmatched power to teach, heal, and build lasting resilience.