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Description

20 acres in beautiful Terlingua Ranch. The ranch was formerly a ghost town and then purchased in the 1960s by legend race car driver Caroll Shelby and an attorney, Dave Witts. The 20,000 acre Terlingua Ranch has no restrictions; however, please be respectful with your lights. Keep them low and pointed down. This is a “Dark Sky Community” and one of the largest in the US. There are a lot of photographers here as well as astronomers. The community is very close to the residents and is there to help if you ever need anything. There is much to do in the area including: hunting, exploring, off-roading, riding horses, ect. Also, the area is rich in wildlife. You will see wild donkeys, deer, quail, turkey, hogs, and sometimes elk that wander in from the adjoining ranch.

There is a maintained dirt road leading to the property with a legal easement. There is an annual road maintenance fee of approximately $190 and the property taxes are less than $150 a year.

Please read about the rich and interesting history of Terlingua Ranch at the bottom of the listing.

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Nearby Attractions/City

Alpine

Alpinepine makes a central base for exploring area attractions: the Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park, Fort Davis National Historic Site, Davis Mountains State Park with its Indian Lodge, the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and Botanical Gardens, and the McDonald Observatory, perched atop Mt Locke at 6,790 feet. Also worth visiting are Marathon with its iconic Gage Hotel; the historic hotel Limpia of Fort Davis; Marfa with the Chinati Foundation Museum of Minimalist Art; the ghost town of Terlingua and the golf resort of Lajitas; and the River Road, FM 170, a 120-mile scenic route through the majestic Rio Grande Valley between Presidio and the Big Bend parks.

Big Bend National Park

Big Bend National Park is in southwest Texas and includes the entire Chisos mountain range and a large swath of the Chihuahuan Desert. The Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive leads to the ruins of Sam Nail Ranch, now home to desert wildlife. The Santa Elena Canyon, carved by the Rio Grande, features steep limestone cliffs. Langford Hot Springs, near the Mexican border, has pictographs.

Brief History of Terlingua Ranch

In the early sixties racing car legend, Carroll Shelby and an attorney from Dallas, Dave Witts, found themselves owning a small ghost town called Terlingua in Southwest Texas.  The population stood at seven – not including nine goats and two Mexican burros.  Nestled on the Mexican border between the Rio Grand River and Big Bend National Park, the pair hoped to parcel off the surrounding 200,000 acres to hunters and make a few bucks.  But it was a desolate land with nothin’ but rattlesnakes, a few mule deer and a whole lotta armadillos on it.  So instead, several times a year Shelby, Witts and a few of their noted compadres ended up using it to have a good time. They’d load up in Shelby’s DC-3 and fly down to the tiny town to have a some fun hunting, riding dirt bikes and swapping tall tales.

Figuring they had something coming to them as legit owners of a bonafied town, they wasted no time forming a city council, handing out all the choice political positions to their drinking buddies:  Witts elected himself mayor and Shelby named himself Social Director, alternating as the local dog catcher as well.  Automotive artist, Bill Neale, became the director of the Museum of Modern Art and Tom Tierney was elected Chief Justice of the Municipal Court. Other members of the Shelby Rat Pack were doled out esteemed positions as Director of Sanitation, Director of parks and Recreation, Director of Urban Housing, Inspector of Hides and Commodore of the Terlingua Navy. The stories of life at Terlingua are legend; these were good friends; tough, strong men who worked hard and took their partying seriously.  But they also had kind hearts.  They began thinking of how they might do something to benefit the Terlingua community.  While tossing ideas around about putting together a school, Tierney, a P.R. man for Ford Motor Company, asked if Neale could come up with a logo.  On a napkin at a local Dallas watering hole, the rabbit with the sun and three feathers was born and the Terlingua City Council had an official coat of arms. After the Terlingua Ranch logo was created, Shelby told Neale, “You know it would be kinda neat to use this as a racing team logo, too! If you figure out how to do it, we’ll use it on some of the GT350-R models I’m developing.”  Shelby brought the first car to Green Valley Raceway near Dallas on Valentines Day 1965. Ken Miles drove the car, designated 5R002.  It was white with blue stripes and had the new Terlingua Racing Team logo on it.  It was the first ever “R” model Shelby – winning the race that day!