Big Country Baptist Assembly

The town beside the camp is named for Frederick Lueders, a soldier of the Texas Revolution whose land allotment included the townsite. M. McDaniel farmed here from 1877 and W. J. Herrington settled nearby in 1889, but the town dates from 1899, when the Webb and Hill Land and Cattle Company sponsored a colony. The Texas Central arrived in 1900 and a post office in 1902, and early businesses included gins and stone quarries. Floods on the Clear Fork damaged the city park in 1932 and 1957 but spared the town, which incorporated in 1940.

What the plaque says

Modern Christian camping records go back to the late 1700s, but the focus on camping for youth started in west Texas in 1898 on the clear fork of the Brazos River. The Baptist Young People's Union of Haskell, Albany, Anson and Abilene met here for a season of physical and spiritual refreshment in the summer of 1898 and voted to create a permanent organization under the name the West Texas Union. In 1933, the name changed to Lueders Baptist Encampment and, in 1973, the group was renamed the Big Country Baptist Assembly. In 1923, 31.6 acres were purchased from S. Webb and L.H. Hill who were land developers of the town of Lueders. On July 14-23, 1925, some 10,000 campers pitched tents there for a time of Christian fellowship. Many believe that the Big Country Baptist Assembly is an original type of Christian camp now known as "Christian Youth Camp." Five associations made up of 168 churches of the Southern Baptist Convention presently own the Big Country Baptist Assembly. The site celebrated its 100-year anniversary in 1998. The campgrounds have changed drastically since the late 1800s as rope swings, swimming in the river and sack races have been replaced by a pool, zip line and many other activities. Tents and cots have been replaced by three bunkhouses, motel-type facilities and a dining hall. Many past campers, pastors and managers reminisce about their time at the camp and the lasting impact that it had on their lives. The longevity of Big Country Baptist assembly represents Texas religious heritage and still promotes evangelism, missions, Christian education, wholesome recreation and Christian fellowship while continuing their strong heritage. (2014)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Phantom Hill — 12 mi
  A field of lone stone chimneys north of Abilene, left by the fire after the Army left in 1854, later a stage stop and a buffalo-hide town of more than 500 people.
• Old Jail Art Center — 19 mi
  An art museum in Albany's 1878 stone jail, where the masons carved their initials to be sure of pay, now holding Chinese tomb figures and works by Picasso and Klee.
• Fort Griffin State Historic Site — 24 mi
  The ruins of an 1867 cavalry post on a plateau above the Clear Fork of the Brazos, judged unfit for habitation and used nine more years, now home to the official state longhorn herd.
• Frontier Texas! — 25 mi
  Abilene's multimedia museum of the frontier as the settlers told it, beside the Texas and Pacific tracks the town was built on, and the official visitor center for the Texas Forts Trail.

More markers nearby

• Bud Matthews Switch of the Texas Central Railway — 6.7 mi
• Bethel Lutheran Church — 7.2 mi
• Spring Creek Cemetery — 9.5 mi
• Fort Phantom Hill — 12 mi