Josey Boy Scout Lodge

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Way back in 1933, a man named Robert A. Josey opened his wallet for his hometown.

Now Josey was an oilman, and he was a Huntsville native, which means he knew exactly what that town needed and he had the means to do something about it. He put up the funding to build a log lodge, the kind of structure that feels like it grew right up out of the East Texas ground, because honestly, it just about did. But one man's generosity, impressive as it was, wasn't quite enough to raise the whole thing.

So they went looking for more, and they found it in the federal government's Civil Works Administration. That's the CWA, putting Depression-era ambition to work in Walker County. And then Gibbs Brothers and Company stepped in and donated the logs and the rock.

The logs, the rock. The bones of the building itself, given freely. By 1934, the lodge was dedicated and ready to stand its ground.

Now let me tell you what they built. Five rooms framed in native pine logs. Three fireplaces dressed in petrified stone hearths and mantles.

Petrified stone. Stone so old it had turned to something harder than stone. That's not decoration, that's a statement.

Since those doors opened, the Josey Boy Scout Lodge has hosted countless community meetings and programs for the Boy Scout programs of the Huntsville area, and it's still doing exactly that today. Some buildings age. Some buildings just keep working.

This one kept working.

What the marker says

Oilman and Huntsville native Robert A. Josey donated funding for the construction of this log structure in 1933. Additional funding was obtained from the federal government's Civil Works Administration (CWA), and Gibbs Brothers and Company donated the logs and rock for the lodge; the building was dedicated in 1934. The structure's native pine logs form five rooms, and petrified stone hearths and mantles adorn its three fireplaces. The lodge has hosted countless community meetings and programs and continues today to serve the Boy Scout programs of the Huntsville area. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2010