Our Community
Lakewood Forest 1 subdivision is in beautiful Kingsland, TX on Lake LBJ located in the Texas Hill Country, about an hour NW of Austin. Lakewood Forest 1 was created in 1957 and has 127 lots spread across 62 owners. The community has two parks, two boat docks and a boat ramp for the owners and guests of Lakewood Forest 1. We are a community of summer homes and full time residents. Many of the lots and houses are on the open waterfront of Lake LBJ on the Llano River arm of the lake. It is some of the most prime waterskiing and wakeboarding water in the Highland Lakes area.
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Our History Lula Haywood and her sisters, Pearl and Edna, inherited the Haywood Ranch upon the death of their parents. They owned five thousand acres of beautiful Hill Country land that stretched along both sides of the Llano River arm as it ran through Kingsland. The Haywood ranch covered the areas extending from Big Sandy Creek to present day Sunrise Beach and Highway 29. Their homestead was later owned by President Lyndon B. Johnson and it served as his lake house. When he was a young man, Jim Moore, one of our Lakewood Forest 1 neighbors, used to run cattle for Lula Haywood. After a long, hard day of work, Jim and Ms Haywood’s foreman would share a meal with her in that house. Unlike the full river that we now enjoy, at that time the Llano River wasn’t much more than a trickling stream. Many times Jim crossed that stream on horseback and according to him—“The water was just knee high on the horse and you had to be careful not to get stuck in quicksand. Also, cars used to get stuck trying to drive across the riverbed just about in the area near the park (the one on Antler Run). When Lula Haywood, the last of the three sisters, died, her will specified that all of the land would go to the Christian Church and Haywood Christian Camp was founded. Eventually, Haywood Camp began to sell off parts of the original ranch and J. Forest Ross bought the land that we now enjoy as the Lakewood Forest I community. Wirtz Dam was completed in 1951 and the reservoir known as Granite Shoals Lake was formed. This reservoir lake was a part of the ongoing Highland Lakes Project. In 1961, the “Queen of Kingsland” ferry was dedicated. It was capable of transporting eight cars at a time and was in operation until construction on the 2900 bridge began in 1968 (Queen of Kingsland). To honor Lyndon B. Johnson for his service as a Congressman, as a Senator and for his dedication to the Highland Lakes Project, Granite Shoals Lake was renamed Lake Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. In January, 1961, the plat map and warranty deed creating Lakewood Forest 1 was recorded in Llano County and Forest Ross began to sell the lots in the subdivision. The lake house currently owned by Jim and Bobbie Moore’s daughter, Vicki Moore and husband, Stefano Scarmana (Lot 21 at 207 Antler Run) was the original office for the Ross Development Co. Mr. Ross used to have goats on the property to keep the yard “mowed”.
In 1978, Ross deeded to the Lakewood Forest 1 Property Owners Association the rights to the” streets and parks”. The Articles of Incorporation for the HOA, a Texas Non-Profit Corporation, were approved in February, 1979. The original president of the Association was Fred Sauer and Julia Johnson was the first Secretary-Treasurer. Under the watchful eye of Packsaddle Mountain our area has changed from one of active, working cattle ranches to an active community enjoying the gifts of beauty, recreation and relaxation offered by Lake LBJ and appreciated by all those living in Lakewood Forest 1. Some additional history of Kingsland and the are is an article written by John Hallowell, “Land Fit for a King” in Texas Hill Country Magazine in the Fall 2009 issue. |
