Bear Creek Settlement

After the Civil War, settlements sprang up along the Johnson Fork of the Llano, on Copperas Creek and in the valleys of the James River. The county's first store opened at the Johnson Fork in 1873, stocked with goods freighted by ox wagon from Kerrville. Settlers in the Big and Little Saline valleys had arrived in the late 1850s and early 1860s, and until 1880 most newcomers came from the upper Southern states. The county counted only seventy-two people in 1870, then 1,343 in 1880 and 2,243 by 1890.

What the plaque says

Bear Creek Settlement Started in 1850s by rancher Raleigh Gentry, who built a 2-room log house and cleared a small farm, but in 1862 sold out to cattlemen Rance Moore. 1860s settlers included Wm. and Lane Gibson, Charlie Jones, John New, A. J. Nixon, Billie Waites. Others came in 1870s after raids by Indians and outlaws were ended. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kimble County Historical Museum — 7.5 mi
  A free county museum in Junction, the town at the meeting of the North and South Llano, with the papers, photographs and tools of a ranching county.
• Fort McKavett State Historic Site — 22 mi
  The post Sherman called the prettiest in Texas, home to soldiers of all four Buffalo Soldier regiments and then to a town that lived in its buildings until 1973.
• Presidio de San Saba — 24 mi
  The ruins of the largest Spanish presidio in Texas, built in 1757 to guard a mission to the Lipan Apache, where the Comanche and their allies first turned back Spain's frontier.

More markers nearby

• First Murr Ranch — 0.9 mi
• Morales Ranch — 1.8 mi
• Old Bear Creek Texas Ranger Camp — 4.7 mi
• First Court in Kimble County — 7.1 mi