The Browns of East Canaan celebrate semicentennial of family farm turned campground

By Colleen Gundlach

There was an air of excitement, friendship and festivity on August 16 in East Canaan as Lone Oak Campsites celebrated its 50th anniversary by throwing an all-day party for the people who have been a part of the business over the years. With more than 45 families who have been camping at Lone Oak for 20 years or more, there were lots of good times and happy memories shared.

The day was a 60Æs-themed Woodstock celebration, with many participants dressed in bellbottoms, tie-dyed shirts, long vests and flower headbands dancing in the outdoors to live music. There were carnival games for the children, a 60Æs costume contest, swimming, and lots of singing.

As the day wound down, more than 700 people lined up for a special barbecue prepared by the Lone Oak staff and volunteers. A menu of steak, hot dogs, hamburgers, salad, roasted corn on the cob, baked potatoes and lots of desserts was served in huge tents at the top of the recreation field while music from the band floated from the bottom of the hill.

At sunset, hundreds of people spread out on blankets and lawn chairs to watch an amazing fireworks display that lit up the sky for more than a half hour, a fitting finale to an exciting day.

Jacolyn Brown, one of the owners of Lone Oak, was very pleased with the outcome of the event. “It was a wonderful weekend and the campers seemed to be in a euphoric mood,” she said. “It was great to see some families we had not seen in 15 years. The volunteers and staff did a phenomenal job to make the weekend most memorable.”

The campers in attendance would not have recognized the property if they had seen it 50 years ago, when it was started by Abraham (Bucky) Brown, an East Canaan farmer with foresight. Family farms in the 1960’s were beginning to decline and many were selling out to large corporations. After talking with other farmers and reading trade journals, Bucky decided that his farmland could be put to better use. So, in 1964, he converted part of his cornfield into campsites, and Lone Oak Campsites was born.

The transition was not an easy one. Brown had no experience running a campground, and even less money with which to run it, but he learned as he went along. Late in 1963, he began clearing the land and the following year his first campers came.

Bucky soon gained a reputation for being a fun-loving and accommodating host. When campers asked for a place to swim, he sold pumpkins from his farm to raise funds to buy an excavator for digging a pond. When the customers in trailers began to outnumber those in tents, and Brown realized they needed sewer hookups, he dug the fields and installed the sewers.

For three years, Bucky ran the campground during the day and went home in the evening to milk the cows and tend to farm matters. The hard work finally paid off, though, and in 1967, Bucky the farmer sold his cows and became Bucky the full-time campground owner.

Since then, Brown and his sons, Peter and Barry, have added a recreation hall with a lounge, full-service bathrooms with showers, a hot tub, lodges and rental units and a store called Chipmunk Market, complete with a snack bar, famous for its loaded fries and soft-serve ice cream cones.

Lone Oak is now run by a second and third generation of Browns. Bucky retired in 1993 and handed the reins over to his sons, Peter and Barry, who, along with Barry’s wife Jacolyn and their son Alex, and Peter’s son, Cooper, operate the business. With more than 450 sites today, Lone Oak lives up to its slogan of “Quality Recreation Through Family Camping.” Many of the people who visit the campground now used to come with their parents years ago. “When the kids reach their teenage years they sometimes don’t want to come camping with their parents anymore,” says Jacolyn Brown. “But we find that once these teenagers become adults, they are back here with their spouses and their own kids.”

Lone Oak is a true family saga, and a legacy for not only the Browns, but for all of the people they have welcomed to their farm-turned-campground over the years. It is a place where memories are made and lifetime friendships forged. The lone oak tree for which the business is named still stands on Brown’s Lane, near the original cow barns where Bucky’s vision was born.

Photo by Cherie Lopes.