The History Of Brushy Land

On November 21, 1978 my remarkable father, Dan Stone (1939-2023), bought 226 acres of hilly, wooded land in East Texas that quickly became known as "Brushy Land". Dad was only 39 at the time, and I was just 12 years old. Dad was a kind, generous, and fun-loving mathematician and successful businessman in the technology arena. He loved reading, being outdoors with loved ones, riding dirt bikes in the Rockies, and learning about nature and the universe around him. He owned and greatly enjoyed the land for 45 years until his death at age 84 in 2023. I inherited Brushy Land after he passed.

Not long after Dad bought the land in 1978, he and I and our friends began building stuff, really cool stuff - all designed by my father. And we began riding dirt bikes & 4-wheelers on the land. And watching sunsets. And talking about the stars and galaxies. And just plain having a heckuva lot of fun.

A couple of years after Dad bought the land, he had it designated as a Tree Farm with Anderson County. Having the Timber Exemption lowered the property taxes, but it also meant that we had to periodically have some of our beautiful trees cut down - which Dad & I both loathed. Decades later, Texas began allowing folks with a Timber Exemption to switch to a Wildlife Exemption while keeping the same property tax reduction. Switching to a Wildlife Exemption would mean that trees would no longer have to be cut down, in exchange for doing a few wildlife management practices each year. On July 3, 2024, I had Brushy Land's Timber Exemption officially switched to a Wildlife Exemption.

There are plenty of pictures of Brushy Land on my site - but very few from the early days back in 1978 & 1979. Here are a few from back then.


Brad, Dan & Jason - December 1978 Building the main entrance.

Brad & Jason - December 1978 Jason and I could only work so long before finding a way to play.

Dan Stone - Fall 1979 At the original front entrance.

Don Hale & Dan Stone - Fall 1979 Building "The Kitchen" - the first of many structures.

Don Hale, T.J. Stone & Rosemary Sullivan - Fall 1979 Notice the unfinished "Kitchen" in the background.

Dan Stone - Fall 1979 Dad is admiring the nearly completed Kitchen. A few months later we built "The Lodge" next to the Kitchen.

"The Group" at Brushyland - May 1979.

Thanksgiving 1979 Thanksgiving at Brushyland has become quite the annual tradition. But that first one was cold (39 degrees) and windy. It's amazing the tradition didn't end right there. At that time we had only built The Kitchen, which couldn't hold everyone, so we did not have a roof over our heads as we ate. By the end of the meal, sleet was pelting our Thanksgiving dinner. Good times!


Mema (my grandmother) & our good friend Chuck Mandernach - Thanksgiving 1979

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