Bexar County homeowners accessed to 2 brand-new items of public land last weekend break, consisting of a park on a historic ranch on the South Side that will certainly someday deal outdoor camping and also river accessibility.
The San Antonio River Authority opened up Trueheart Ranch on Sept. 23, in addition to one more 74-acre residential or commercial property on the Medina River southwest of San Antonio. Kristen Hansen, the authority’s replacement supervisor for parks and also entertainment, stated in a declaration that “we invite the community to come explore and experience the natural beauty of these remarkable additions to our city.”
I discovered the ranch fascinating on my browse through last Wednesday. Even with the indicators and also various other enhancements mounted by the river authority prior to its public opening, the long-shuttered farmhouse, the deserted ranch tools and also the disordered fields and also orchards produce a little bit of a creepy ambiance.
The car park near the entry borders the old farmhouse, a two-story framework constructed in the mid-1800s. The land is called after James L. Trueheart, a Virginia-birthed inhabitant that wed Petra de la Garza, the child of huge Mexican landholder José Antonio de la Garza. The land later on passed to a searching and also angling organization, after that a family members of pecan farmers and also herdsmans, a water energy, and also a solar energy business prior to the San Antonio River Authority purchased it in 2015.
Most of the 351-acre residential or commercial property remains near the general public, or a minimum of it was when I went to. The ranch roadways that cause the San Antonio River had actually secured entrances obstructing them. However, the authority’s internet site mentions big plans for the park, consisting of river accessibility factors, angling, numerous camping areas, an outing location, an equestrian trail, recreational vehicle car park, bird enjoying terminals, and also a repair of the Blackland Prairie environment that would certainly have as soon as been discovered at the website. See the river authority’s internet site for even more information on the park’s plan of attack.
Trueheart Ranch
Offers: Hiking, cycling
Location: 14984 Blue Wing Rd., San Antonio, TX 78221
Trail miles: A little over 1 mile of mowed trail
Restrooms: Portable commodes at the park entry
Visitors are presently permitted to stroll right approximately the farmhouse, a white structure that “was said to be the first two-story rock house built on a Texas ranch,” according to the San Antonio Conservation Society. Nearby, site visitors can likewise see a little shack identified “scale house,” in addition to steel entrances and also corrals as soon as made use of for animals.
The river authority has likewise opened up a course that circumnavigates a previous pecan orchard, an approximately mile-long path they called the Acequia Trail. It consists of a course puncturing the circle from northeast to southwest.
I began at a factor downhill from the farmhouse, where pipelines arise from below ground and also cause a vacant concrete container drained pipes by a pair concrete ditches. Nearby stood a wood structure, fifty percent leaning over, bordered with an orange obstacle. Inside, I can see an old, white range and also the residues of bed linens left on the flooring.
The trailhead proceeds past an open entrance with a steel symbol of a longhorn head. On the ground neighboring stood a rock pen that reviewed: “Pecans Planted 1920-22, High Water Mark Sept. 27 — 46, C.A. Goeth & Sons.”
It seemed like an unusual coincidence to be standing there on the precise day of this flooding, 77 years later on. The rainstorm eliminated 4 individuals and also was referred to as one of the most extreme flooding in the city’s background at the time, exceeding the previous document flooding of 1921. I later on discovered this 1948 record from the U.S. Geological Survey that stated that the flooding was mostly focused on the West Side Creeks. The San Antonio River “did little damage through the city” as a result of the Olmos Dam, constructed in the mid-1920s to safeguard wealthier midtown locations from flooding.
Of the component of the river that consists of Trueheart Ranch, the record mentioned that “although extensive flooding occurred downstream of the city, damages were relatively light as the flood plain is not well developed.” Still, the climbing water plainly made sufficient of an influence on the Goeth family members for them to note the high water factor in rock on their residential or commercial property.
Though San Antonio has experienced lots of extreme deluges given that the flooding of 1946, absence of water shows up to have actually taken a higher toll on the pecan orchard given that their growing a century earlier. Only a couple of dead or having a hard time pecans continued to be, their bare branches getting to much over the mesquites and also various other tiny trees that have actually grown around them. On the north side of the Acequia Trail near among both trailheads, I discovered a pair girthy pecans that still looked healthy and balanced.
The Goeth family members purchased the land in 1913 from the San Antonio Hunting and also Fishing Association, which developed the neighboring duck haven called Blue Wing Lake, according to a historic indication at the park. They patched with each other parcels from neighboring residential properties till they had actually accumulated the property almost to the initial 800 acres that de la Garza deeded to his child when she wed Trueheart in 1848. Fred Goeth and also his better half also resided in your home from 1936 till he passed away in 1962.
After that, the residential or commercial property altered hands numerous times, consisting of to the now-defunct energy Bexar Metropolitan Water District. San Antonio-based OCI Solar Power possessed it for 3 years, developing its 573-megawatt Alamo 1 solar plant on greater than 5,000 acres throughout Blue Wing Road from the Trueheart residential or commercial property.
The land has plainly seen lots of usages throughout the years, and also its life as a park is just starting. I’m thrilled to see what winds up occurring with the residential or commercial property and also what brand-new trail miles it may supply as the park remains to be established.
