Editor’s note: This story was published before the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, reportedly at Cibolo Creek Ranch. It appears below and in the Feb. 14 American-Statesman Travel section as originally written.
The gate to Cibolo Creek Ranch, located along a windswept stretch of two-lane highway where roadrunners and jack rabbits outnumber passing cars, might feel like the middle of nowhere.
It’s not.
That comes 20 minutes later, after you’ve twisted your way down the gravel road, crested a hill that gives you a glorious view of the surrounding mountains and crunched to a halt in front of the 3-foot-thick adobe walls of a fort built in the 1850s.
John Poindexter, a Houston businessman and multimillionaire, didn’t go looking for an old fort to convert into a lodge when he bought this property in the early 1990s. He wanted a ranch and liked this one’s terrain, climate, scenery and highway proximity. When he started to restore the three crumbling forts on it, he realized it would cost so much he’d have to turn it into a business venture.
“I never imagined we’d be in the hospitality business,” he says.
Cibolo Creek Ranch opened as an exclusive resort with six rooms in 1995. Poindexter did it right, restoring the structure with adobe made with local mud, painting it in traditional colors and turning it into a respite like no other in Big Bend. It’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Today, 33 rooms are scattered among the three fort sites. Some visitors arrive by private plane, landing at the property’s own 5,300-foot asphalt airstrip. Guests have included Mick Jagger, Tommy Lee Jones and Julia Roberts.
Poindexter says he thinks often about the people who settled this land. West Texas cattle baron Milton Faver built the forts to fend off attacks by Apaches, Comanches and bandits, channeled spring water into canals to irrigate fields and grew enough peaches to make his own peach brandy. He’s buried here, in a glistening white adobe tomb at the top of a small hill behind the main fort.
“It makes me very respectful of the kind of life they’ve lived, that they subsisted under such adverse circumstances,” Poindexter says. “We drive in on highways, use the air conditioner if it’s warm or heater if it’s cold, and arrive at a nice place where we’re well taken care of.”
The front gate stands 32 miles south of Marfa and 15 miles north of the Mexican border, and part of the property abuts Big Bend Ranch State Park. It takes about 7 1/2 hours to drive there from Austin. (Tack on an additional 10 minutes to find the office, which is not well marked.)
Guests can stay in refurbished rooms in the original fort, but I stayed in the adjacent newer wing, which blends right in. Daybeds, perfect for napping, are lined up along a porch in front, and hammocks are tucked in hidy-holes around the resort. Southwest-themed hardcover books are stacked on bookcases within reach.
We arrived just in time for an exploratory stroll before the sun set in typically gaudy West Texas style. The watchtowers of the main fort serve as pocket museums filled with projectile points found on the land, old photos and antique guns.
By day, guests can explore the 30,000 acres by horse, ATV or mountain bike. You won’t find TVs or telephones in the rooms, but you will get free Internet access, fine sheets, down pillows and fluffy comforters. The “heated” pool wasn’t warm during our January visit, but a hot tub percolated away. A telescope on the stone patio stands ready to search the skies, and staffers will fire up the fire pit upon request.
Poindexter says he hopes clients learn a little about the area during their stay.
“I want them to have an appreciation for Hispanic culture and for the challenges of early life in our environment,” he says. “(I want them) to learn something about Texas and Mexican history and to experience the kind of hospitality and innate generosity that characterizes the Mexican and gringo elements of the population in the Big Bend.”
Guests dine together at long tables in a room that overlooks a small lake. Two other couples from Texas and a gallery consultant from New York were the only other visitors during our stay. We ate quail, roasted potatoes and green beans, with cake for dessert, then I sneaked off to read books while the others stayed up late talking.
I unwrapped the blankets well before sunrise, though, and stepped outside, where I startled some bats and gazed up at a bazillion stars. The only place I’ve seen more? While backpacking at Glacier National Park.
And that’s what makes this place special. The unspooling vistas, the hooting of the owls and the stab of a cactus on your shin when you hike up a hillside and encounter half a dozen horses clip-clopping out of a canyon remind you you’re just a blip in a much larger universe.
It’s nice to feel that insignificance now and then.
IF YOU GO
Cibolo Creek Ranch is located 32 miles south of Marfa on U.S. Highway 67. Rooms start at $350; a suite costs $800 a night. 432-229-3737, cibolocreekranch.com
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