Skyland Camp & Retreats: A Family Tradition for Over a Century

For Skyland Camp Owner and Executive Director Sherry Brown, camp life is more than just her career, it’s her heritage. 

In 1917, Brown’s great grandmother, Susan Courtney Harris (Granny Harris), bought the former Skyland Home Hotel in Clyde, NC with a $3,000 bid at auction. Though women did not have the right to vote at the time, and Harris’ husband had to be contacted to approve her purchase, she was determined that the hotel would not be torn down so that the property could be sold off in parcels. After that, she went about buying up the land that surrounded the hotel, so that her investment would have room to grow. Today, the Skyland Camp spans 85 picturesque acres on Skyland Hill, close to Mount Mitchell and the Nantahala River. The nationally-recognized camp boasts five cabins, and the 8-room hotel has been converted into the camp’s main lodge. 

 “As a kid, I really didn’t appreciate the full meaning of that,” Brown says of her great grandmother’s spirit and forward-thinking. “She was a pioneer for sure.” With a background in real estate, Brown has a great deal of respect for what a savvy business woman her great grandmother was, stating that it’s not just a great family story but also a great real estate story. In the 1970s, the camp was handed down to Bunny Canaday Brown who attended the camp for many years and married Harris’ grandson. In 2003, Bunny Brown retired and passed the camp down to the next woman in line, Sherry Brown. For four generations, the women of the Harris/Brown family have run Skyland Camp, where they all spent their childhood as campers. 

“She wanted to offer an experience for girls that they couldn’t get back home,” Brown says of Harris, citing that there were no sports camps for girls at the time, as there were for boys. “For me, it feels really cool to help women step into their confidence and be together. To continue giving girls that experience is really important.” While keeping with Skyland’s traditions, Brown does admit that she was excited to make a few changes once she took over. She had bulldozers come in to create some more level areas for sports and activities, made some dramatic improvements to the camp’s equestrian center, put in a heated pool, added a hard floor to the tennis courts, and other repairs. 

For Camp Director Shanna Clark, her decision to join the team in 2019 was an easy one. “I fell in love with Skyland and knew that’s where I wanted to go,” she describes. “And I never left.” Clark admits that, at first, she wasn’t sure she would find the all-girl environment appealing. “It meant that the girls saw us pitching the tents, building the fire, doing all the heavy lifting,” she explains of the all-female staff. “We did it all. For us to show that to little girls, and teenage girls — that is so powerful.” Clark adds that she has heard from many former campers about how influential it was to them to have strong female role models, like the ones they found at Skyland.

In addition to being all girls, Skyland Camp is also distinctive from other camps in its size. While most camps host between 250-500 seasonal campers, Skyland keeps its cap around 60. “No one gets lost at Skyland,” Brown says. “We offer a more personalized experience because we’re small. We know all the campers and usually their parents, too. It makes us better able to help them connect.” Clark adds that, even though the camp is divided among the teenagers and grade-school aged campers, all the campers get the opportunity to interact every evening at the Club House Activity in the main lodge. She finds that it promotes not only friendships, but also big-little sister relationships among the girls.

Skyland offers daily activities for campers including archery, horseback riding, musical theatre, swimming, tennis, arts & crafts, hiking, and culinary arts. The camp is a no-technology zone in which the campers must turn in their cell phones upon arrival. Both Brown and Clark agree that the campers respond surprisingly well to this rule, and have even expressed that this rule removes the pressure for them to keep up with social media. “We create an environment where that can happen,” Brown explains. “We love the experience we provide.” Clark adds that she particularly enjoys getting to see the way the campers blossom during their stay. “I love connecting with people,” she says. “And seeing their growth from when they arrive on Skyland Hill to when they leave, and being a part of that.”

As for the next hundred years of Skyland Camp & Retreats, Brown and Clark aren’t missing a beat. They have already added programming for families, older campers, alumni, and people seeking equine facilitated learning retreats. They also offer a Mother Daughter retreat every season for youths and teens. They even plan to rent out the location during the off-season for reunions and weddings. Brown is extremely excited about the new Equine Facilitative Learning program they plan to launch in 2022. “I’m an equestrian. My passion is around riding,” Brown says. “Horses help humans with whatever they’re dealing with. That’s very consistent with Skyland’s overall mission.” Skyland’s motto is: We like to change the world one conversation, one experience, one camper at a time. Brown laughs and says that the equine program will change it to ‘one equestrian camper at a time.’

For a century, Skyland Camp & Retreats has been a haven full of meaningful and inspiring experiences for girls 6-15. Both Brown and Clark are thrilled that, in the future, their beloved camp can bring the same experiences to so many more people. 

For more information on the camp, go to https://skylandcamp.com/

Written by Meg Hale Brunton