"SF State College Camp" from the "1955 Franciscan" yearbook (page 76)

Photographic spread about San Francisco State College camp in the Sierras operation by Recreation professor Victor York. Camp Leonard started as a small 9.2-acre camp in the high Sierra that carried on San Francisco State's core mission of educating future teachers. Biology professor Edna M. Fisher had earlier pioneered in fieldwork instruction when she took small groups of students to do field work at Bixby Canyon (south of Carmel, California) on primitive camp-out field trips in 1948 and 1949 setting the stage for deeper approaches to outdoor education. San Francisco State President J. Paul Leonard negotiated a long-term lease with the U.S. Forest Service in 1949 for land adjoining the north fork of the Yuba River in order to maintain a camp for the training of recreation leaders. Twenty-nine students enrolled in a two-week camp with no formal facilities in 1949 that included Recreation 193 "Field Work in Camping" and Rec. 124/122. The Camp Leadership Program for Recreation Leaders, School Teachers, and Camp Counselors was offered June 10-August 4, 1950. The Recreation Department and Division of Education handled the administration of the camp. Charles B. Cranford was the first Camp Director and Victor York and student Robert Sweeney served as additional staff. The Children's Camp was added to program in 1951. Frederic Burk Foundation for Education took over fiscal control of the facility in 1955. Today this location is home to the San Francisco State's Sierra Nevada Field Campus.