Local businessman Khleber M. Van Zandt organized the Robert E. Lee camp of the United Confederate Veterans in 1889. By 1900 it boasted more than 700 members. The camp received a 25-year charter to create the Confederate Park Association in 1901, then purchased 373 acres near this site for the "recreation, refuge and relief of Confederate soldiers" and their families. Opening events included a picnic for veterans and families on June 20, 1902, and a statewide reunion September 8-12, 1903, with 3,500 attendees. The park thrived as a center for the civic and social activities of Texas Confederate organizations. By 1924 the numbers of surviving veterans had greatly diminished, and the Confederate Park Association voluntarily dissolved when its charter expired in 1926.