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On the Road from Birmingham to Memphis

Nelson Vinson bought his first piece of earth – 80 acres – for $500 in the 1940s.  Three years later, he sold it for a profit – and he has regretted it ever since.  That is how much Nelson treasures the land.

In the sixty three years since that first purchase, Nelson acquired more than 4,000 acres.  The patchwork of small acreages he owns and nurtures today serves as mile-markers on the road of life led by the 86-year-old Alabama native.

It was 1956 when Nelson first starting farming trees.  He bought 127 acres and planted 1,000 trees per acre without losing many seedlings – a point of enormous pride.  More than a half century later, sowing the land with new trees remains personally and professionally rewarding to him.  Nelson knows his land like most people know their backyard.  He points out the trees he planted from the ones that sprouted naturally – a remarkable ability especially given the size of his property.

All the land holds a memory.  Every milepost on the the road that cuts through his property - from Birmingham to Memphis - has a story.  Nelson remembers when his forests were just treeless flatlands used for row crops nearly three-quarters of a century ago.  He thinks of his mother-in-law on a patch of land that was great for hunting squirrel; she cooked up the best squirrel.  Another patch of land reminds him of the bootleggers whose business thrived until the new sheriff was elected.

The love of his life, Terry, shares his passion for land.  They have been married for more than fifty eight years. He jokes that she loaned him the money to buy his first piece of land and only charged him 6 percent interest!  Some years later, they unknowingly bid against each other at a land auction from opposite sides of a courthouse.  Terry won but they laugh about it together.

For Nelson, the land is a great investment - “the best place to keep your money,” he says.  His land is managed to generate an income, so the value continues to grow even as the family earns a living from it.  In fact, the Vinsons earned more money from managing land than from Nelson’s successful law practice.  That is why he raised his to kids to “go hungry but never sell your land,” a life principle that is being passed to the next generation of Vinsons.  Nelson knows that when you take care of the land, the land will take care of you and your family, especially through the toughest of economic times.

The world has changed since the Vinsons started buying land, but thanks to their stewardship, their land remains untouched by development.  As long as the forests are used to produce paper products used by millions of families like the Vinsons, the land will remain a lush natural landscape.