Casa Piedra Road , Redford, TX 79846 (Presidio County)

Size: 173 Acres

Plata Ranch

Plata Ranch is very accessible with more than a mile of frontage on paved Casa Piedra Road on the east, as well as a mile of the creek bank of Cottonwood-lined Alamito Creek to the west. There is a restored compound with new underground electrical service and a new 100 gal/minute well. This property was once irrigated gardens and cropland and has tremendous potential for orchards, vineyards, and other garden products. Older wells, water from the railroad, several hand-dug wells, and the new water well provide tremendous opportunity here with shallow, free flowing, and abundant water located all over the ranch. Rich soils are ready to be designed into a verdant oasis.

Located in the transition zone between the Marfa Grasslands and the lower Chihuahuan Desert, the ranch has excellent views of area mountains, and surrounding landscapes including Davis, Chinati, San Jacinto, French, and Cienega Mountains, as well as views all the way into Mexico into the Sierra Ricas. Native grasses and mixed shrubs provide excellent habitat for native wildlife and forage for livestock. The Headquarters has views of the gallery Cottonwood forest which strings out for a mile to the west along the banks of Alamito Creek, providing a stunning western landscape.

Improvements

The headquarters have been revitalized and remodeled into a beautiful simple compound with all the amenities one needs to enjoy this retreat.

Frame House

600 sq/ft remodeled with large front and back porches

Kitchen, full bath, and office or bedroom

Pantry

New septic in 2013

200 Amp buried electric service

New 100 gal/minute well

Irrigated olive trees and other landscaping

Adobe House

900 square feet, remodeled with new wiring and insulation

1 bedroom, 1 bath

Other room with sink and propane could be new kitchen

New windows

Shop/Barn

Metal Shop is 15x28 with electricity and concrete floors recently built.

Adjoining Barn 15x30 front half tack room with concrete floor, back storage and feed.

Horse stalls with shed off of the back with turn-out area.

Covered Storage

75x15 Covered Storage

Ponds

New pond at HQ, fed by poly pipe from Railroad

Year-round stocked pond from overflow ditch on south end of ranch with marsh

Habitat

Plata Ranch is located within the Alamito Creek watershed in Presidio County, which originates in the Davis Mountains to the north and joins into Cienega Creek to the southwest, eventually meeting the Rio Grande River near Presidio, Texas. The large drainage or valley has tremendous surface and groundwater resources, providing a corridor of habitat for migrating animals. Sideoats grama, cane bluestem, tabosa, blue grama and giant sacaton are typical grasses found on the ranch, as well as brush and woody species like mesquite, creosote, agarita, sumac, desert willow, white brush, and four wing saltbush.

Wildlife

Mule deer, javelina, fox, blue quail, and dove populations are tremendous. The year-round water features makes for an excellent wildlife refuge. For bird-watching interests, many of the migrating species appear during the fall and spring seasons. Winter birds are abundant for northern species as well, such as migrating waterfowl, hawks and eagles. Native brush, marshland, ponds, and grasses provide excellent habitat for game species, as well as many native birds and other non-game animals. The older pond to the south has been stocked with fish.

Water

100 gal per minute new water well with submersible pump at HQ

Old well producing 2-5 gal per min as backup

Polypipe spring overflow from Railroad to new pond

Overflow ditch from Railroad pond with culvert under road provides water to big pond

Several old hand-dug wells

35 ac/ft. Adjudicated Water Rights from Alamito Creek with diversion location. Can irrigate 50 acres on the ranch for agricultural purposes.

Minerals

Seller will convey all minerals owned

Directions

Plata Ranch, located 30 miles south of Marfa and fronting on paved Casa Piedra Road or FM 169, is a jewel embedded in a scenic landscape of large ranches at the gateway to Big Bend Ranch, located further to the south. Amenities of Marfa are just a 30-minute drive along paved scenic paved road. Platas history began with some of the earliest Spanish Settlements in Texas in the late 1700s on the banks of Alamito Creek and was a vibrant western outpost with abundance of water, growing vegetables and orchards for the mines at Shafter to the west. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway is across Casa Piedra Road where a historic artesian well still flows today into a water storage tank. This then overflows across the road onto Plata Ranch in two diversions, supplying water for two year-round ponds on the ranch. This abundance of water is what sets this ranch apart.