West Texas ~ Cathedral Mountain Road
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West Texas ~ Cathedral Mountain Road
South of Alpine off the road to Big Bend NP
CATHEDRAL MOUNTAIN (Brewster County)
Cathedral Mountain is twelve miles south of Alpine in northwestern Brewster County (at 30°11′ N, 103°40′ W). With an elevation of 6,868 feet above sea level, it rises 1,900 feet above State Highway 118, four miles east. Cathedral Mountain is an intrusive mass of igneous rock that has been exposed by erosion. Its shallow, stony soils support Douglas fir, aspen, Arizona cypress, maple, ponderosa pine, and madrone.
(https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/rjc17)
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West Texas ~ Cathedral Mountain Ranch
Location
Cathedral Mountain Ranch, named after the iconic 6,868-foot mountain peak located on and towering over the ranch is only 14 miles south of Alpine fronting on Highway 118 and only 30 minutes to the Alpine Airport. This ranch is the most live water ranch in West Texas with over 5 miles of spring fed Calamity Creek. Close to Alpine, Marfa, and Ft Davis the ranch is also at the gateway to the Big Bend Country with its over 1,000,000 acres of parks and public lands and is an hour’s drive north of Lajitas and Terlingua and their outdoor adventures and amenities. With elevations between 4,800 and 6,868 feet you are in one of the best year-round climates in the state and arguably the entire country.
Acreage
10,000 +/- acres in Brewster County.
Description
Cathedral Mountain is a landmark seen all over the three counties of Far West Texas. Famous as a historic cattle ranch, the wooded slopes of the mountains, rolling grassy hills, and the flowing creek and springs sets this ranch apart from any other property in the Trans Pecos. A well-maintained dead-end road runs through the northern edge of the ranch creating easy access to the various pastures, lakes, improvements and to a few neighboring ranches to the west. This is a working ranch with excellent pens, barns, and improvements with an owner’s log home, foreman’s house and several other living quarters. At one time years ago, this ranch was run as a guest ranch and has the potential to be another Cibolo Creek but at a higher cooler elevation with more water. Calamity Creek is spring fed and due to natural rock outcrops and an excellent damn site creates a huge clear 10-acre deep lake. This stocked lake has a natural rock spillway that flows water to the creek below where there are several other excellent damn sites for more impounded waters. The lake has little variation due to the spring contribution from above and is an excellent lake for bass and catfish. This is high Chihuahuan Desert grasslands and riparian woodlands studded with interesting outcrops of rocks and large trees, creating a scenic wonderland. There is a road network over the ranch crossing Calamity Creek, L-H Draw and their various tributaries with adjacent meadows meandering around prominent hills with landscape views of area mountains including its name sake Cathedral Mountain.
Habitat
Cathedral Mountain Ranch is dominated by mile-high grasslands of Cane Bluestem, Blue Gramma, and Sideoats Gramma with rhyolite palisades mountains studded with Juniper, Emory and Grey Oaks. Excellent grasses and Chihuahuan Desert plants provide habitat for the native animals, livestock and the people who live there. Calamity Creek has numerous stands of large Emory Oaks, Cottonwoods, Arizona Ash, Desert Willow, and other riparian vegetation including Madrone. This diversity of plants especially near and around the springs and riparian areas are unequaled in the Trans Pecos Region. This is historic ranching country and represents some of the best cow/calf range in West Texas.
Wildlife
Because of the diverse habitat with springs, creeks, boulders, trees, grasses, and mountains there is an abundance of game and non-game animals and wildlife on Cathedral Mountain Ranch. This is big mule deer and whitetail deer country with lots of blue quail, mourning dove, and Rio Grande turkey, making this a hunter’s paradise. There are also smaller animal and bird species found here like javelina, fox, ringtail, mountain lion, hawks, hummingbirds, Montezuma quail, and a variety of neotropical songbirds. Native trees, brush, and grasses provide excellent habitat for these species and many native birds and other non-game animals. Wooded wet canyons and lush grasslands provide excellent habitat for migratory songbirds. The lakes are not only excellent fishing opportunities they are also loaded with wintering ducks.
Improvements
The Ranch has a 3,000 sf owners Lodge set up facing south framing Cathedral Mountain and the spring lake running downstream into the large rock lake. The lodge has 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 4 lofts, a great room and game room. A porch runs down the entire south side of the home with a huge deck creating excellent entertaining and a viewing platform for the ranch.
At the entrance is a 3-bedroom 2 bath foreman’s home set in a private valley with a large shop, outbuildings, and a rodeo arena. There are new all steel pipe shipping pens with scales that are easy to access and a dream to work. Additionally, further interior on the ranch is the historic cedar log pens, workers home and the old Brown guest house complex. This is the location of the Cathedral Mountain Lodge which burned in 1956 but was a dude ranch for many folks all over the state for decades. The adobe back row houses remain next to a current workers home creating a courtyard that could be remodeled into a very nice entertaining and living area. The past owners retained a 1-ac old historic home site that is located on the north property boundary just beyond the Brown Headquarters.
Water
Cathedral Mountain Ranch has abundant groundwater and a live creek called Calamity Creek running for over 5 miles through the middle of the ranch as well as several year-round springs and lakes. L-H Draw a tributary to Calamity Creek runs through the ranch and has live water for over 2 miles to the beautiful confluence of Calamity. There is an already engineered additional dam site on Calamity in a natural canyon that can add another huge water feature to the ranch. There are 4 wells on the Ranch but with the live creeks, springs, lakes and tanks water is abundant all over the ranch.
( kinglandwater.com/properties/cathedral-mountain-ranch/ )
