Y.O. Ranch

The ranch's exotic game belongs to a Texas practice that began in the 1930s. The King Ranch's nilgai antelope, bought from the San Diego Zoo between 1930 and 1941, were perhaps the earliest releases; blackbuck, axis, sika and sambar deer followed that decade, and mouflon sheep, eland and red deer from the late 1930s through the 1950s. A 1963 state census counted thirteen species and 13,000 animals; the 1984 survey found about seventy-five species and 120,000. Fifty-five percent live on the Edwards Plateau, and about 70 percent are kept behind game-proof fences.

What the plaque says

Y.O. Ranch Charles Armand Schreiner (1838-1927), a native of Alsace-Lorraine, immigrated to Texas with his family in 1852. He joined the Texas Rangers at age fifteen, and in 1856 entered the cattle business at Turtle Creek in Kerr County. He left to serve in the Third Texas Infantry during the Civil War, and returned to Kerr County in 1865. Moving to Kerrville in 1869, he opened a successful mercantile business. The threat of Indian raids in the area soon prompted the formation of the Kerrville Mounted Rifles, and Schreiner was appointed Captain by Governor Richard Coke in 1875. In 1880 he bought the Taylor-Clements Ranch and its Y.O. brand. Texas longhorn cattle became Captain Schreiner's primary concern, and over 300,000 head were driven from this area to Kansas railheads. Because of Schreiner's venture in raising sheep and goats, Kerrville was known as the "Mohair Center of the World". The last cattle drive from the ranch was held in 1941, the stock being moved to Kerrville for shipment to Fort Worth. The Y.O. Ranch has also become known throughout the world for its Texas longhorn cattle and its native and exotic wildlife conservation programs. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lost Maples State Natural Area — 21 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 — 0.4 mi
• Sunset Cemetery — 16 mi
• Hunt Japonica Cemetery — 16 mi
• The Dowdy Tragedy of 1878 — 16 mi