First Murr Ranch

The Murrs were discharged at a post founded as Camp San Saba on March 14, 1852, near the source of the San Saba River, on a site Lt. William H. C. Whiting had recommended for the upper road to El Paso. Companies of the Eighth Infantry built it of local stone and lumber, and by February 1853 it was Fort McKavett, probably for Capt. Henry McKavett, killed at Monterrey in 1846. Abandoned in 1859, it briefly held Union prisoners of war in 1862 before Capt. Eugene B. Beaumont's Fourth Cavalry company reopened it on April 1, 1868.

What the plaque says

First Murr Ranch HENRY AND ADAM MURR, BORN IN LANCASTER COUNTY, PA. SONS OF MR. AND MRS. JOHN MURR, SERVED 1866-1882 AND 1877-1882, RESPECTIVELY, IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY. AFTER HIS HONORABLE DISCHARGE AT FORT McKAVETT (28 MI NW), HENRY SETTLED HERE ON BEAR CREEK;IN 2 MONTHS ADAM, ALSO HONORABLY DISCHARGED AT FORT McKAVETT, JOINED HIM. HENRY IN 1895 AND ADAM IN 1901 BOUGHT LAND ON EAST COPPERAS CREEK, FOUNDING MURR COMMUNITY. THEY ALSO HAD OTHER BUSINESS INTERESTS. BOTH MEN CONTRIBUTED GREATLY TO THE RANCHING INDUSTRY IN KIMBLE COUNTY. DESCENDANTS OWN AND OPERATE MURR RANCHES. (1972)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kimble County Historical Museum — 8.4 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 — 23 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

• Bear Creek Settlement — 0.9 mi
• Morales Ranch — 0.9 mi
• Old Bear Creek Texas Ranger Camp — 5.5 mi
• First Court in Kimble County — 7.9 mi