About - How it Began
A place reveals itself to those willing to look.
Ruffwood was not built. It was uncovered.
In 2014, 72 acres of overgrown Georgia woodland changed hands, on the day of the Shady Dale Rodeo. The property was not beautiful. It was not ready. It did not look like anything in particular. But it looked like land — and that was the whole point. What happened over the next decade was not a renovation. It was a revelation. Acre by acre, weekend by weekend, a vision emerged that no one could have drawn on the day of closing.
The property came with a hunting camp that smelled of decades of disuse, a 30-foot well, a septic system beyond saving, and a pavilion near the pond that you couldn't see from the house — because of the overgrowth. From the pavilion, you couldn't see the pond forty feet away — because of the overgrowth. From the main structure, you couldn't see the trunk of the largest tree on the property, a 300-year-old specimen fifty feet from the door — because of the overgrowth.
The land had been harvested of its straight timber years before, the stumps left behind. Sweet gums had volunteered themselves into the gaps. Ticks had taken the pastures. The woods were dense enough to hide everything.
The tools available were a push mower, a wheelbarrow, a ten-year-old Stihl weed wacker, and a lot of good garden tools. To say the preparation was insufficient was a significant understatement.
But then something happened. The land began to speak.
The Beginning
Total land acquired — overgrown woodland, open pasture, a pond, and a creek
72 acres
1820
The hunting lodge was an 1820 Shady Dale schoolhouse, relocated to the property in the 1940s
Age of the largest tree on the property — hidden from the house by overgrowth until it was cleared
300 yrs
Age of the Stihl weed wacker, still in service today
10 yrs
90%
Weekends spent at Ruffwood during the first 12 years of ownership
Property transferred to Ruffwood Farm, LLC — the event destination vision officially begins
2023