By Steve Plutt, Special to the Courier

In celebration of Colorado’s 150th birthday and the United States’ 250th, local historian Steve Plutt and the Ute Pass Historical Society have written a series of stories to bring the area’s colorful history to life.

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Camp Wa-Na-Ka was a girls camp just 2 ½ miles north of downtown Woodland Park. Its 250 acres were situated immediately adjacent to the Paint Pony Ranch development, on the Deckers Highway. Camp Wa-Na-Ka was built and operated by Mr. & Mrs. Bernard English of Ft. Worth, Texas although the single driving force and director was Mrs. English, better known as “Sunny”.

Sunny was born July 16, 1912 in Montgomery, Ala. but had lived in Ft. Worth since 1937. At the age of 9, her personality and nature were so radiant and cheerful that the camp counselors in North Carolina gave her that nickname which would stay with her for the rest of her life. As a young woman, she was a counselor at Camp Audubon in the mountains west of Boulder, just outside of Ward, Colorado. She later was the director there.

A lifelong love of the outdoors, sparked by her own childhood experiences as a camper, is what drove her to dedicate herself to inspiring future generations of children with the same sense of wonder and awe. The English’s bought their Woodland Park property from L.E. Maag (uncle of Fern Hammer, great uncle of Connie Hammer Carpenter) in the fall of 1950 and opened Camp Wa-Na-Ka in June of 1952.

The camp held two, four-week “sessions” per summer. That first year they began with 60 girls between the ages of 8 and 18. Despite her fondness for the outdoors, Sunny was known for her impeccable taste and poise, always looking polished and well put together.

Her concern for the well-being of young girls was evident at all times and her summer camp was more of a “finishing camp”, or a “white gloves kind of thing” for girls rather than the typical 1950s camps. As it often turned out, the girls at Camp Wa-Na-Ka were frequently Texas debutante’s or would be so designated as soon as they became of age.

At her Ft. Worth home, Sunny would host a springtime swim party for girls planning to attend Wa-Na-Ka. She would also hold reunion parties at her home for dozens of girls that attended the camp. One of the most popular activities at the camp was learning to ice skate at the Broadmoor Ice Arena twice a week. Also popular were the swimming classes held at the camp’s own swimming pool (the first two years, then filled in and held at Paint Pony), the horsemanship classes (the horses were provided by Paint Pony Stables operated by Howard Stull and Jerry Mills, later the camp bought 14 of its own horses), drama classes, the camp melodrama and the art classes. Both the drama and art class were taught by renowned professionals. Other activities offered to the girls were the opera up at Central City, chuckwagon dinners down at Garden of the Gods and, of course, visits to Cripple Creek.

Besides serving as president of the American Camping Association, Sunny was also very civic minded. She held various offices in the Woman’s Club of Fort Worth, the Fort Worth Garden Club, the Fort Worth Lecture Foundation and president of the Bible Section of the Junior Woman’s Club. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and a longtime member of First United Methodist Church of Ft. Worth. She was councilor of the senior high department at the First Methodist Church. The English’s belonged to prestigious country clubs, such as the Fort Worth Petroleum Club, Ridglea Country Club and the Garden of the Gods Club in Colorado Springs.

Camp Wa-Na-Ka closed in 1972 when it was sold to local land developers Richard Cox, Ron O’Dell and Fred Mills. The planned 250 acre development would consist of 350 homes and was named “Sunnywood” in honor of Mrs. English.

Quinelle “Sunny” English died on August 9, 2005 and is interred at Greenwood Memorial Park and Mausoleum in Fort Worth, Texas.

Sunny’s daughter Lovelyn and her husband Pat Hughes became involved in the day to day operation of the camp in 1957. According to Lovelyn, her mom was persuaded to start her own camp by a Fort Worth friend, Mr. Bill Allen. In 1946, Bill and his wife Dorothy created, owned and operated the Blue Mountain Ranch for youth in Florissant, Colorado which is still family operated today by their daughter, Suzie Graf.

Lovelyn said Sunny researched and found that the phrase “Wa-Na-Ka” meant “Sun in the Woods” or “Sunnywood” and that is how the camp was named. I knew Lovelyn and she certainly was a warm and beautiful woman, who passed away on May 4, 2023.

The subdivision, “Sunnywood Manor” is filled with homes today, but if you look around a little, remnants of Wa-Na-Ka are still visible.