Allison Menard Ranch

Allison Ranch today is managed as a mixed cattle and hunting ranch with a central older private headquarters located along the headwaters of San Augustine Draw, a dry tributary to the San Saba River.

The ranch is divided into six pastures and several traps with a distribution of six wells and a number of storage and drinking troughs.  Classic Texas Hill Country with huge century oaks and mesquites, and abundant wildlife within a healthy grassland savannah.

The ranch is characterized by Edwards Plateau hills and valleys with numerous drainages lined with mesquite and oak, as well as wooded banks and grassy draws.  This rolling oak savannah has elevations range from 2,100 to 2,300 feet, with a variety of excellent long views from the hills looking over the fields, pastures, and woodlands on the ranch.  Average rainfall is 24 inches a year providing excellent forage for mixed livestock and abundant wildlife.

Location

The Allison Menard Ranch located 14 miles west of Menard and 8 miles east of historic Fort McKavett, which was established in the mid-1800’s by the 8th Infantry to protect West Texas settlers from Indian raids and became a thriving community in the early 20th century.  This ranch is located 6 miles south of the San Saba River across Beyer Crossing on Bois De Arcade Road, a well- maintained county road.

This is live oak ranch country at its best, located within a well-established ranching community of landowners.  Rolling live oaks mixed with mesquite, and native brush with an extensive native grassland, provide excellent livestock grazing and wildlife habitat.

Habitat and Wildlife

The ranch is predominantly native rangeland and supports mixed grass communities with oak, mesquite, and mixed brush woodlands. It has a good diversity of palatable native grasses, with the predominant grasses being Texas winter grass, mesquite grass, several varieties of grama, bluestem, and a favorable mix of forbs, filaree, wild rye and winter weeds.

The Ranch has a scattered to dense canopy of brush and trees, principally consisting of live oak, shin oak, mesquite, along with agarita, persimmon, plum, pear, ephedra, and lotebush. Winter and spring rains bring an explosion of wildflowers unmatched in Texas.

The ranch is known for its tremendous white-tail deer and Rio Grande turkey population, as well as a few exotics. The ranch is currently enrolled in the Texas Parks and Wildlife Managed Land Deer Program, where you can find over 20 blinds and feeders located throughout the ranch, providing access for exceptional hunting and wildlife management.

The ranch is 90% low fenced, and there are a few Axis deer, as well as several other game and non-game animals including bobcat, javelina, hog, coyote, badger, and armadillo.

Allison Menard Ranch also has tremendous non-game wildlife values, with resident and migrating birds such as neotropical songbirds, hummingbirds, and hawks. Combine this with the incredible wildflower diversity, and you have a photographer’s dream!

Improvements

Allison Menard Ranch has a main headquarters with a usable older hunting camp house and a nearby historic rock barn. A good road system gives access to all the pastures, and older pens and traps provide adequate livestock working facilities.

Water

There are six wells on the ranch, at a depth of 150 feet, with a variety of new and older concrete pilas and drinking troughs.

Minerals

There are no minerals available with this sale.