Lot 245

The caliche two-track tops a low rise near the center of this tract, and from that crest the green rolls away unbroken until a flat-topped mesa breaks the skyline miles off. That road is what makes 15.91 acres of ranch land for sale on Tortuga Ranch in Duval County usable the day you sign, because a pickup can get into the thick of the thorn on packed white rock instead of fighting it foot by foot. Drive it either direction and the wall of green opens ahead of you, then closes behind.

The land under it rolls, gently. Total fall across the tract measures near 38 ft, and in this stretch of Texas that is plenty, since it lifts the caliche crowns a few feet above the swales, sheds rain instead of holding it against you, and keeps the low pockets a shade greener when August turns everything else gray. You feel the change underfoot before you feel it in your legs. Pale rock and gravel on the tops, darker sandy soil where the runoff gathers, and the mesquite grows heaviest in the pockets where the moisture lingers.

Mesquite and huisache make up most of what grows here, tangled with guajillo, granjeno and prickly pear, and the older limbs carry ball moss and pale lichen that only show on wood left undisturbed a good while. It's thick. Thick is worth money in this country, because it's bedding, it's shade, and it's the reason a whitetail stays on your acreage instead of drifting to the neighbor's. If you want a lane opened or a pad cleared, a dozer will handle it in a day or two, and we'll read the restrictions with you before you pick the spot.

Deer move late here. On a warm mid-September evening with the last pink still on the horizon, a buck in hard horn eased out of the thicket onto the open caliche and stood there in the half dark. This part of the state built its name on quail and whitetail, and the density of the thornscrub on this tract is exactly why. Sit the crest an hour before dark sometime and see what crosses the road in front of you.

There is fence along the south end, carrying nearly all of that stretch and something close to two fifths of the perimeter in total. The rest of the boundary is open wire-wise, so if you intend to hold livestock, budget for posts before you budget for anything else. The recorded survey, not the wire, is what settles where your corners fall, and we'll put the plat in your hands so you can pace the corners yourself.

Tracts on this ranch are surveyed, the restrictions are kept light, and the ranch roads serving this one are on record rather than on a handshake. Ask us how the agricultural valuation is carried after closing, because it's worth knowing before you write a check. Owner financing keeps the entry small: 5% will start it, and we carry the note ourselves.

The best morning to see it is a cool one after a rain, when the caliche is firm and the huisache has real color in it. Bring a canvas shirt, gloves, and more water than you think you'll need. We'll drive you to the crest and let you find that mesa on the skyline for yourself.