Old Bear Creek Texas Ranger Camp

The Rangers watched the upper course of a river with two spring-fed heads: the North Llano rises in west central Sutton County and the South Llano in northwestern Edwards County. Joined, the river flows about 100 miles east across Kimble, Mason and Llano counties to the Colorado at Lake Lyndon B. Johnson. Spanish explorers called it the Rio de los Chanes or Rio de los Sanas, possibly for the Sana Indians. It runs with a constant flow over limestone through rolling Hill Country, and in the early 1990s most of the land along it was still undeveloped.

What the plaque says

Old Bear Creek Texas Ranger Camp Established October 1877 as patrol base for Co. E, Frontier Battalion, Texas Rangers, on the lookout for Indians and outlaws along the Llano River. Area was popular refuge for cattle and horse thieves, murderers, mail robbers-- and within a few weeks many were captured by the unit of 30 men commanded by Lt. N. O. Reynolds. The Rangers in 1878 helped fight off one of the last Indian raids in the area. Ranger protection given from this camp (used until mid-1880s) opened the way for peaceful settlement in Kimble and nearby counties. (1966)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kimble County Historical Museum — 3.1 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 — 27 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.

More markers nearby

• The Killing of Sam Speer — 3.2 mi
• First Court in Kimble County — 3.2 mi
• Isaac Kountz — 3.6 mi
• Captain William Walter Taylor — 3.6 mi