You may be wondering why our camp is called "Lost Pines". The 537 acres of the LCRA Lost Pines Scout Reservation are part of a 100,000 acre area of central-eastern Bastrop County which contains a substantial population of loblolly pines. Early settlers referred this area as the “Lost Pines” because it is separated from the pine forest of East Texas by a distance of around 80 miles. These tall pines are possibly the remnant of a larger pine forest along the Colorado River, which shrank during or soon after the Pleistocene, or Ice Age, an epoch stretching from about 1.65 million to 10,000 years ago. Some ancient, possibly geological event such as a moving glacier worked to separate the Lost Pines from their East Texas cousins. In other words, these pines have been “lost” since long before Europeans came to Texas!
Loblollies, a pine species with flaky bark, spiny-tipped cones and long needles in groups of three, are found throughout the southern United States.
