The Liberty Union-Thurston Local School District has a thirty acre plot of land donated by E.N. Sands in 1972. The LU-T School Board of Education has full administrative power over the area. The plot consists of nine acres of cropland and twenty one acres of woodlands. In that woodlands, there are six acres of marsh, seven acres of mature woodland, three acres of creek bank, and five acres of wet forest land. In 1992, the LU-T District and Ed Sands entered into a verbal agreement to jointly purchase a 12 acre tract of land that would make the existing land lab contiguous to other school property. However, at the closing Mr. Sands offered to purchase the property and deed it to the district in return for on-going commitment for improvements to the land lab and also using it for educational purposes. There is a shelter house, raised garden beds, prairie grasses and perennial flower beds, and a Sands Memorial at the entrance of the wooded area, which is accessible by an Interactive Path.