The Station has a passion for reaching today’s culture (with an emphasis on youth and families). The Station will promote a chance to spend time outdoors in a healthy and active environment away from the city life. The Station will facilitate this through outdoor activities and year round camps that will impact their lives with the following mantra “forever changed; never the same.”

The Station focuses on using challenging and fun experiences that provide opportunities for people to overcome the 'I could never' mentality. As evident from Richard Louv’s book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, both people and youth are uncomfortable and afraid in the wilderness. The Station utilizes adventure programming principles and methods to put them in constructive experiences that promote cooperation, encouragement, excitement and most of all, success in the outdoors. Overcoming fear and experiencing the exhilaration of success, using outdoor activities, has many parallels with everyday life and will equip them with tools to accomplish the impossible in their lives and in the kingdom of God. By operating at Sierra Meadows Ranch (SMR) and McGee Creek, The Station offers a variety of outdoor activities, including individual sports camps and camps targeted towards organized groups. The Station will also provide activities and camps that focus on family relationships that serve the purposes set forth above and educate the family unit to be comfortable enough to explore the wilderness on their own.

One summer afternoon in 1965, Mammoth wrangler Lou Roeser and some fellow horsemen were on their way back from working at “El Dorado,” a fictional western town constructed along Mammoth Creek for the filming of Steve McQueen’s “Nevada Smith”. Crossing the meadow, the men found themselves in one of those quintessential Mammoth afternoons, where the sky takes on that trademark “Sierra Blue.” As they neared Old Mammoth Road, one of Roeser’s companions remarked about how a beautiful little meadow across the creek from the Hayden Cabin would be a perfect spot to summer some horses in the high country. Roeser nodded his agreement; shortly thereafter, Roeser sought and obtained a special use permit to create Sierra Meadows Ranch (SMR). Roeser’s experience extended to the early days of Mammoth’s recreation-based incarnation—he’d packed and wrangled all over the Eastern Sierra since 1949, and helped Dave McCoy during Mammoth Mountain’s early years. Having seen the result of ten years of growth at Dave McCoy’s Mammoth Mountain, Roeser envisioned Sierra Meadows Ranch as a family-directed resort which would preserve the key aspects of western culture, particularly equestrian skills and western heritage.

At first, the Ranch focused on equestrian services, but the success of the operation and the growing demand for public recreation facilities convinced Roeser to keep the resort open in the winter as a cross country ski resort. Trails were groomed, and the best snow was west towards Mammoth Rock. Guests zipped up and around Sherwin Creek Road. Eventually, the resort obtained two snowmobiling permits also. In addition, Roeser and his wranglers regularly participated in the motion picture and television productions in the Mammoth Lakes area, bringing the phase of the growth of Sierra Meadows Ranch, which Roeser had envisioned while working on Nevada Smith, full circle.

Lou and Marye Roeser sold SMR in 1994 to A&F Ranch Enterprises as a successful year-round resort. Since then, the ranch has changed hands a few times.

In May of 2008, The Station, Inc., a non-profit organization, leased Sierra Meadows Ranch. The founders of the organization are Peter and Rachel Bowman. For over a decade, the Bowmans had dreamed of one day running a camp for youth, families, organizations and churches. For ten years they had the opportunity to minister to youth and college groups at several different churches. They served as youth leaders and then as the college leaders of Impact College Ministry in Simi Valley, CA. They led groups on backpacking trips, snowboard winter camps, and helped organize summer camps for hundreds of youth. Their heart was always to see people “forever changed, never the same”. The Bowmans’ hope was that people would grasp that God has a purpose and destiny for each of their lives. Their dream of starting a camp stemmed from this hope. After years of dreaming and praying that God would open a door for this camp, the Bowmans took a step of faith and put their house up for sale in Simi Valley, CA and moved to Mammoth Lakes, CA believing that this would be the place to establish The Station.

The housing market had taken a dive, and it took 8 months for their house to sell. There were many moments when they thought this dream of starting a camp would never happen, but one day in May, after months of praying, they received 3 offers on their house. This was truly a miracle, because most people at the time were not even receiving one offer. This same month a door opened for an opportunity to lease Sierra Meadows Ranch in Mammoth.

Along with the The Station board of directors, the Bowmans have set a course to invest in the lives of the community and its visitors by creating an incredible and challenging environment for recreation and camps at Sierra Meadows Ranch and the surrounding Mammoth Lakes area. Shortly after signing the lease with SMR, Luke and Danielle Wynen partnered with the Bowmans. Various groups also donated time to help renovate the property to ready it for the winter season. The buildings were painted from red to a beautiful forest green and brown. Summer of 2008 included extensive construction projects and great excitement for the volunteer staff. There were 10 volunteer staff in all that lived in the staff house at SMR.

There has been great hope and dedication to the The Station project, as the founders and staff plan to provide opportunities for individuals and various groups to enjoy Sierra Meadows Ranch and the surrounding great outdoors through camps, equestrian activities, winter recreation and much more. And many lives will be “forever changed, never the same.”