Lot 31

The county road runs pale and straight through the thorn brush, and the turn for 44 Ranch South arrives before the brush ever thins. Make the turn. Caliche crunches under the tires, lanes cut through the chaparral peel off east and west in a loose grid, and here and there a camp cover catches the midday light where other folks are getting started on ground of their own. Tract 31 sits in that grid, 10.09 acres of ranch land for sale in Duval County, Texas, brush thick enough to hold deer and a lane cut in before you ever sign a thing.

That lane is the first thing worth your attention. Close to 790 ft of caliche ranch road lies on this tract, reaching the north part of it, which means you can pull a truck in, drop the tailgate and set a camp chair on your own acreage the same afternoon the deal closes. No dozer. No clearing crew, no season lost getting yourself to the middle of ten acres of chaparral. The surface is pale caliche and loose gravel, firm underfoot when the rest of the tract is grabbing at your pant legs, and a lane cut through brush this thick works two ways: a still-hunting route at first light, and the way you get a deer out after dark.

The lay of the ground is gentle, roughly 22 ft of fall from the upper end to the lower, and you'll feel it in your legs more than you'll see it in your eyes. From the upper end the scrub drops away in olive and ash colored waves. Cenizo and blackbrush knit up tight in patches, chest to shoulder, with sandy gravel and short grass opening where the sun gets all the way to the dirt floor and a yucca spiking up every so often. Ten acres of this will eat a whole morning if you cover it honestly. That density is exactly why deer hold on modest acreage in this part of Texas, and why the quail and dove reputation here was earned on the ground rather than advertised.

This is brush country inland from the coast, flat enough that weather announces itself a long way off. August thunderheads stack up tall and white over the flats. Late in the afternoon the light turns the pale leaves of the cenizo almost silver, and the far line of brush goes blue. The rails pushed through this county in 1879, a narrow gauge line that opened the port of Corpus Christi to ranchers here and kept going on to Laredo, and the towns it built are still where you'll buy fuel, ice and a tank of gas on the way in. Ground that has paid its way that long makes a sensible first buy.

Ownership stays plain on purpose. The tract is surveyed, the way in is written in the deed rather than borrowed on a neighbor's goodwill, and the rules on this ranch are short ones, aimed at keeping heavy outfits off the property while leaving your own plans alone. We finance it ourselves, and 5% is enough to get started, so you're dealing with the people who own the ranch instead of a loan committee three states away. Anything you want confirmed about the plat, the rules, or what runs where, ask and we'll put the documents in your hand.

Plan your visit for the cool months, October through February, when long sleeves and heavy footwear make the brush tolerable and tracks read clean in the sandy stretches. Bring leather gloves and a set of pliers for the thorns. We'll drive the ranch road in from the north with you, then pace the lines so you can see where your corners fall and where the neighbor's start, and you can take your time picking the spot where the camp goes.