Old Buck Ranch

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Out in Bandera County, there's a place called the Old Buck Ranch, and its story starts about as far from Texas as you can get. A man named Judge Edward M.

Ross, a former New Yorker, settled this land in 1867. Now, he wasn't exactly new to the frontier life by then. He'd already fought in the Mexican War, and somewhere in the 1850s he'd been stationed at Camp Verde, the Army's camel post near Bandera.

The Army's camel post. You heard that right. Whatever that chapter looked like for Judge Ross, it left him well acquainted with this particular stretch of Texas hill country.

So in 1867, he put down roots. The house he built wasn't thrown together. It's hand-cut native stone, the kind of construction that says a man intended to stay.

And stay his family did. The ranch passed to his daughter, Kate Ross, wife of Ebenezer Buck, who came from a prominent pioneer family. Kate inherited the ranch in 1901, and the Bucks carried it forward.

Now here's where the story takes a turn worth savoring. In 1920, the Bucks looked at what they had, a fine piece of hill country, good hospitality, good food, and they made a decision. They opened Bandera's first guest ranch.

First one. They offered fine foods and hospitality to folks who came out looking for a taste of ranch life, and they kept at it, kept the doors open and the welcome warm, all the way until their deaths in 1941. A guest ranch that ran for more than two decades, started on land a New Yorker had settled more than half a century before, built from stone cut by hand, passed down through a daughter, and kept alive by a family that knew something about making people feel at home.

That old stone house is still out there in Bandera County, and now you know exactly what happened inside it.

What the marker says

Settled 1867 by former New Yorker, Judge Edward M. Ross, who had fought in Mexican war, then served in 1850's at Camp Verde, Army's camel post near Bandera. House is hand-cut native stone. Daughter Kate Ross, wife of Ebenezer Buck, of a prominent pioneer family, inherited ranch in 1901. Offering fine foods and hospitality, the Bucks in 1920 established this as Bandera's first guest ranch, continuing it until their deaths in 1941. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1966