Welcome to Ferncliff -- one of the fastest growing Presbyterian camp and retreat facilities in the country!

Located just 7 miles west of Little Rock on a campus of 1200 acres, Ferncliff offers an array of summer camps and a year round conference center for adults and retreat facilities for youth. Ferncreek retreat house (5 bedrooms, 25 beds, 3½ bathrooms and a full kitchen) is great for small retreats or mission groups.

The property around what is now called Ferncliff Lake was bought in 1921 from Niemeyer Lumber Company by Dr. A.C. Shipp and Mr. E.D. Visart.  Mr. Visart was the Federal Game Warden for Arkansas.  They used it as a summer place for their families.  In 1932 Bill and Helon Williams were guests and conceived of the idea of acquiring the property “for benefit of Arkansas Presbyterians” who had no camp and retreat center of their own.  Bill and Helon had met at a gathering when Presbyterian youth used Petit Jean Mountain for their retreats.  



In 1937 the Williams, along with brother E. Grainger Williams and others, organized the Ferncliff Board of Trustees and purchased the 90 acre property for $35,000.  Additional property was added to make it 360 acres.  After the death of the Williams in 1950, the Ferncliff Board was given the option of buying additional property and expanded the camp to 1592 acres.  “Acting as an arm of the Synod,” the Board raised the money for this expansion.



In the 1960s and 1970s Ferncliff was governed by Synod committees and went through a period of decline and accumulating debt.  As the Synod reorganized, Ferncliff was offered to the Presbytery of Arkansas with its outstanding debt of $200,000.  It was decided to transfer title to the Presbyterian Foundation of Arkansas and Oklahoma.  The Foundation then sold 228 acres in 1976 to the Arkansas 4-H Center in order to retire the debt.   



The Presbytery of Arkansas appointed a Task Force to study and make a proposal relative to Ferncliff’s future.  The group was headed by J. Allen Smith of Second Presbyterian church.  The Long Range Plan was accepted by the Presbytery in 1982 and in 1983 the property was leased by the Foundation to the Ferncliff Board of Trustees for $1 per year for 99 years.



Fred Babb became Ferncliff’s first Director in 1985.  Thanks to an estate gift from W.C. Brown, the Brown Conference Center with 24 rooms and meeting space was completed in 1992 and Ferncliff became a year round operation and financially more self-sustaining.  Mr. Babb retired in 1996 and Rev. David Gill was hired to replace him in 1997.



After the Jonesboro school shooting, in March 1998, Ferncliff offered a series of healing camps for the children of the Westside Middle School.  The camps were very successful and brought national recognition to Ferncliff.  The camps were expanded to add children from other sites like Paducah, Columbine, Bosnia and New York City (after 9/11).  Ferncliff also began offering camps for other special groups like foster children, children of parents in prison, day camps for homeless children, etc.



In 1999 the Presbytery of Arkansas asked Ferncliff to take primary responsibility for the summer camp program.   In 2000 Ferncliff hired Mary Haley as the camp’s first full time Program Director.  It was also in 1999, that Ferncliff started a capital campaign to build a new youth camp.  Over the next years approximately $2.5 million was invested and a new youth camp opened for the summer of 2005.



In 2005 Ferncliff received a $200,000 grant from Presbyterian Women to build a Disaster Assistance Center.  Another grant of $85,000 from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance allowed the building to grow to 10,000 sq ft.  Churches from around the country send Church World Service Gift-of-the-Heart kits for processing and reshipping.  Campers and volunteers continue to assist with the work.



In 2009 Ferncliff was selected to house a program called Solar Under the Sun, a Synod of the Sun mission outreach.  Solar Under the Sun will partner with Living Waters for the World to engage in joint projects of water purification systems, powered by solar energy.   A Solar Mission Training center will be built at Ferncliff in 2010.  Teams of volunteers will be trained on how to install solar energy systems in third world mission projects.