In 1855 the Comanche tribe that lived around present day Possum Kingdom Lake were forced to leave their land. They were sent to the Brazos River Indian Reservation up river southeast of Graham, Texas off of Hwy16 near the present day Wildcatters Ranch. They lived there for 5 years.

Sometimes the Comanche would leave the reservation to go out on hunting parties. Sometimes with permission, sometimes without. They would often return to the lands they knew best, their homelands. It is there that they would run into conflicts, with the white settlers. This happened one too many times until the settlers formed posses and anti-indian militia to attack the reservations. Skirmishes followed. In 1859, the indians were moved out of the area,  to prevent a successful attack on the indian reservation, and to pacify the settlers. They were moved to a reservation at Fort Sill near Lawton Oklahoma. 

In 1888 a Mr. J. A. Johnson, his wife Florence and 8 children settled the Comanche land along the part of the Brazos River that later became Possum Kingdom Lake. 

The Brazos River Comanchees who were moved to Oklahoma would still return to their homeland from Fort Sill from time to time because of the spiritual bond to the land. On one of these return visits, a Comanche leader met the new landowner,  Mr. Johnson, and  took him up on the highest peak in the area (Johnson's Peak) and explained to him why the land was so important, the spiritual significance of the land, how the river valley below protected his tribe for centuries, fed him, clothed him, and how they had buried their elders their for centuries. The Comanche then asked Mr. Johnson that they only wished that he would take  care of the land. Mr. Johnson agreed.

Many years later, When the Johnsons sold the land to Eugene Constantin, Mr. Johnson took Mr. Constantin up on the Peak, showed him the land, and repeated to him what the Comanche had told him about taking care of the land. Mr. Constantin agreed. Several years later, in 1938,  the construction of the dam was started that created the lake.

Eugene Constantin gave all the land away after his son was killed in WW2. Half to the Dallas YMCA and half to the Dallas Boy Scouts. The remainder leftovers were given to the State. He had only a few basic rules to his gift. The major emphasis was land stewardship and enjoyment by children. He wanted it left alone and enjoyed in as natural state as possible. The YMCA has pushed the boundaries of this agreement a few times and faced alot of opposition to their development plans. Like Johnson before and the Comanches before that, Constantin took the man in charge from the YMCA camp (was it Grady Spruce himself?) and the one in charge of the Boy Scout's camp up to the top of the peak and gave them the "take care of the land speech." 

Eugene Constantin made all his money in oil. He was super rich. Rich enough to where the Eugene Constantin foundation still funds much of the University of Dallas. His foundation has enough money to build and operate a University of Dallas campus in Rome, Italy. 

The Constantin Foundation still exists and is very strong. It gives out millions of dollars to charities here in Dallas. It has many of the strongest Dallasites on its board. They gave a sizeable chunk of money to have the Old Red Courthouse renovated, funded expansions to local hospitals. 

I hope you remember this story the next time you climpb up to Johnson Peak, and survey the view.