Brushyland's 30th Birthday
Nov. 1978 - Nov. 2008

On November 21, 1978 my remarkable father, Dan Stone (1939-2023), bought roughly 230 acres of hilly, wooded land in East Texas that has become known as "Brushy Land". Dad was only 39 at the time, and I was just 12 years old. This particular page was written back when "Brushy Land" turned 30 in 2008, but Dad owned and greatly enjoyed the land for 45 years until his death in 2023.

Not long after buying the property, Dad and our friends began building stuff, really cool stuff - all designed by my father. And we began riding dirt bikes & 4-wheelers there. And watching sunsets. And having more fun than folks should be allowed to have. Thanks for 30 years of joy, Dad.

Click here to read an essay I wrote about Brushy Land's 30th birthday - I read it at Thanksgiving 2008. There are plenty of pictures of Brushy Land on my site - but very few from the early days in the late 1970's. So to commemorate the wonderful decision my dad made 30 years ago to buy the land, here are a few pictures from early on.


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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