711 Ranch

The brand came from an address. L. A. Nordan kept his office in Suite 711 of the Milam Building in San Antonio, and the block 711 went on his stock and ranch gates. Here he raised Santa Gertrudis cattle, buying his first in 1949 and naming a King Ranch bull King, and Columbia sheep, whose fleeces he graded so wool could be sold by telephone. He split the land into 41 pastures, each with water, and rotated stock to rest the grass. His bull Duke took five grand championships in 1957. The land is private, now a subdivision.

What the plaque says

711 Ranch WWI veteran L.A. Nordan (1896-1969) was a successful oil and gas producer in south Texas. In 1949, he and his wife, Pearl (Neugent) Nordan (1896-1994), established the 711 Ranch in Comal County along the Guadalupe River, 18 miles northwest of New Braunfels. The ranch was named after Nordan's downtown San Antonio business address. He was appointed to the Texas State Parks Board in 1951. The Nordans contributed generously to education, the arts, their church, and medical research. Starting in the 1850s, this area was part of the Fischer Store, Rebecca Creek and Cranes Mill settlements. In eight transactions between 1949 and 1966, the Nordans purchased 51 parcels of property rooted in 35 individual land grants awarded between 1837 and 1888 to Republic of Texas patriots, railroads, Mexican Texans, and German and Swiss immigrants. The ranch extended from North Cranes Mill Road west to Devils Hollow and one mile south of the river over 7.5 miles northward. The Nordans created a world-class ranching operation, producing prize-winning Santa Gertrudis cattle and Columbia sheep. They focused on conservation, wildlife preservation and education. They valued their many talented, long-term employees. The ranch owners took care to preserve Ninteenth-century structures and cemeteries located on the sprawling property. From 1961 to 1963, almost 2,000 acres were acquired by the U.S. government for the Canyon Lake Reservoir. In 1999, some 7,180 acres of ranch land was sold and soon became the Mystic Shores subdivision. The contributions of L.A. and Pearl Nordan significantly added to the rich heritage of the area. (2019)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Natural Bridge Caverns — 15 mi
  The largest known cavern in Texas, found in 1960 by four college cavers under a ranch family's land, entered beneath a 60-foot limestone bridge and still growing.
• Gruene Historic District — 17 mi
  A cotton town on the Guadalupe that the boll weevil emptied, rescued in the 1970s by a kayaking architecture student, with a dance hall that says it has never closed.
• Sophienburg Museum and Archives — 18 mi
  The hilltop where Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels raised the Adelsverein's headquarters in 1845, now the museum and archive of the German colony that became New Braunfels.
• Spring Lake and the Meadows Center — 23 mi
  The headsprings of the San Marcos River, among the longest-inhabited places in North America, once an amusement park with a swimming pig and now seen from glass-bottom boats.

More markers nearby

• Julius Bremer Family and Rebecca Creek School — 1.4 mi
• Benedict and Anetta Kaderli Family — 3.1 mi
• Fischer Homestead — 3.8 mi
• Startzville Community — 5.1 mi