Holly Lake Ranch is a community of people with varied interests but a common love for a remote piece of God's creation. 

Many of those who moved here have completed their jobs and moved on, and many who bought property and enjoyed their place for a while are no longer here. 

Sometimes continuity seems to be lacking, but somehow someone always steps into the gap and Holly Lake survives and prospers. 

So it is with gratitude to those in Holly Lake's past, present and future that Jack Wilson wrote this brief history.

Indians had lived and hunted among the big trees in this part of East Texas, and white settlers were making their homes here while Texas was still a republic. 

C. E. Liles tells of riding horseback through towering pines from Gilmer to Mineola in the early part of this century without having to open a gate or cross a fence. Wild game and fish were plentiful.

D. B. Clontis, a cotton buyer from Central Texas, moved to this area and began purchasing land along Big Sandy Creek in Wood County. 

This was the real beginning of Holly Lake Ranch.

In the depression and war years, D. Clontis farmed his best "cash crop" from his 2700 acre wilderness ranch to be the sale of hunting and fishing rights. Holly Creek was dammed to make Holly Lake, and small cabins were built at the lake and along Big Sandy Creek to take care of sportsmen. 

This ended in 1964 when Clontis sold out to E. G. Rodman, an oil producer from West Texas.