Site of Ranch of the Thurmans of Kickapoo

Kickapoo, the name on this marker, is older than the ranch. The Kickapoo call themselves Kiikaapoa; French explorers met them between lakes Michigan and Erie in the 1640s, and generations of removals later most Kickapoo today have their home at El Nacimiento in Coahuila. A local-history account says springs here drew the nomadic Kickapoo and gave the community school its name. The school was later known as Thurman School, after the family. The ranch stands on private land with no public route.

What the plaque says

Site of Ranch of the Thurmans of Kickapoo In 1882 Joe Thurman and sons Bill, Sam and Jess became first permanent settlers on the west prong of the Nueces River. By 1895 neighbors included the Barksdale, Chapman, Cox, Ellis, Haley, Justice, Parham, Silman, and Tabor Families. A brush arbor sheltered the first church, with Virgil Silman and A.J. Cox as preachers, and first school, with Perry Ellis as teacher. Joe Thurman acted as doctor, dentist, and coffin maker for this ranch community. His family raised fine horses for racing. In 1895 they matched their favorite against the horse of John Nance Garner, later U.S. Vice President. (1972)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kickapoo Cavern State Park — 10.0 mi
  A lightly developed former ranch on the Kinney-Edwards line with twenty caves, a Saturday tour into a 1,400-foot cavern and a summer bat flight from Stuart Bat Cave.
• Devil's Sinkhole State Natural Area — 22 mi
  A 140-foot shaft into a cavern outside Rocksprings, seen only on guided tours from a platform at the rim as some three million bats spiral out on summer evenings.

More markers nearby

• Jess L. Hankins and King P-234 — 17 mi
• Turner-Davis Ranch Headquarters — 21 mi
• Camp Fawcett — 21 mi
• First Baptist Church of Rocksprings — 22 mi