The "Chaparral"

Chaparral is a borrowed word with two lives. It comes from the Spanish chaparro, a scrub oak, and so names a place thick with low oaks. The greater roadrunner is also known as the chaparral cock, a long-legged bird that spends most of its time on the ground and can hold 18 to 20 miles an hour, often along roads and dry riverbeds. That suits a ranch once on a military road. Oak, juniper and mesquite are among the county's trees. The ranch is private land and no route is given.

What the plaque says

The "Chaparral" Built about 1895 by J.P. Taylor, from England. Then on the Fort McKavett - Fort Clark Road. In 1907 E.E. and Mary Sproul Morriss, early settlers, bought Taylor's acreage and patented more land. Ranch became social center. "Chaparral" refers to roadrunners and Dwarf Oaks, both numerous here. (1969)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kimble County Historical Museum — 24 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.
• Devil's Sinkhole State Natural Area — 25 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.
• Lost Maples State Natural Area — 27 mi
  A canyon of the upper Sabinal where a relict stand of bigtooth maples turns color each autumn, a sight that drew crowds up a gravel road long before there was a park.

More markers nearby

• Divide School — 12 mi
• Y.O. Ranch — 13 mi
• Telegraph Store and Post Office — 13 mi
• Wooten Cemetery — 16 mi