Vicinity of Bradbury Settlement

The settlers found broken, rolling plains between 1,400 and 2,400 feet, with shallow stony clays on the hills, sandy loams on the upland plains and clay loams in the valleys. The Llano River and the forks of the James are its main streams. Rain averages 22.33 inches a year, temperatures run from a January average low of 33 degrees to a July high of 97, and the growing season lasts 213 days. Live oak, shin oak, pecan, walnut and cedar grow among mesquite and sedge grasses, and the wildlife includes deer, javelinas, rabbits, roadrunners and rattlesnakes.

What the plaque says

Vicinity of Bradbury Settlement (2 mi. above forks of N. and S. Llano rivers) One of earliest Kimble County communities. Opened by James Bradbury, Sr., a frontiersman. Between 1850 and 1864 he moved here from Williamson County with six children, after death of his wife. He erected several picket or log buildings, and had blacksmith shop for repairing guns and tools.Main business was ranching. Diet included fish, game, honey and bear meat cured as bacon. Five other men (some with families) lived nearby. Bradbury was killed in 1872 in an Indian fight. In 1875 his land was bought and occupied by Dr. E.K. Kountz and family. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kimble County Historical Museum — 1.1 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.
• Eckert James River Bat Cave Preserve — 27 mi
  A limestone cave on the James River where about four million Mexican free-tailed bats raise their young each summer, kept open to visitors by a family's gift.
• Fort McKavett State Historic Site — 31 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

• Captain William Walter Taylor — steps away
• Isaac Kountz — 0.3 mi
• Coach Bear Bryant and the Junction Boys — 0.7 mi
• College Street Church of Christ — 0.8 mi