Granado Mountain

The peak belongs to the Davis Mountains, sometimes called the Texas Alps, which run sixty miles in a V with its point at Fort Davis. The range was built by violent volcanism some thirty-five million years ago, from horizontal layers of rock erupted by two main centers, the Paisano Volcano west of Alpine and the Buckhorn Caldera northwest of Fort Davis. The mountains force westerly winds to rise, cooling the air until its moisture falls as rain, so they carry yellow and limber pine, dwarf gray oak, Texas oak and black cherry that the desert lowlands around them lack.

What the plaque says

Granado Mountain The 6,076-foot high peak traditionally known as Granado Mountain or La Granada was named for Trinidad Granado (1868-1958), a rancher whose ranch was at the base of the mountain. The original owner was Belgian-born founding settler Anton Diedrick Dutchover who acquired the tract and mountain from the State of Texas in 1876. Dutchover served with Texas troops in the Mexican War and was employed at Fort Davis as a civilian stock herder. Trinidad Granado married Dutchover's third daughter, Dorothea (1872-1943), in 1890 and created the ranch on land he purchased in 1910, six years after Dutchover's death. In 1964, Governor John Connally, through a gubernatorial proclamation, renamed the mountain Barry Scobee Mountain. (2015)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Davis National Historic Site — 1.2 mi
  A frontier post of 1854 to 1891 on the San Antonio-El Paso Road, garrisoned after the Civil War by Black regiments, with its buildings restored to their 1880 look.
• Davis Mountains State Park & Indian Lodge — 3.5 mi
  A 1933 Civilian Conservation Corps park above Fort Davis, with the CCC's Skyline Drive, the white adobe Indian Lodge and a trail down to the old fort.
• Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and Botanical Gardens — 5.7 mi
  The Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute's grounds south of Fort Davis, with an 18-acre botanical garden, a cactus museum and trails into the desert foothills.
• McDonald Observatory — 9.6 mi
  The University of Texas observatory on Mount Locke, founded with a Paris, Texas banker's fortune, with star parties three nights a week under some of the darkest skies in the country.

More markers nearby

• Barry Scobee Mountain — steps away
• St. Joseph Catholic Church — 1.2 mi
• Fort Davis — 1.2 mi
• San Antonio-El Paso Road — 1.4 mi