Rancho de las Cabras

Mission Espada’s first cattle and livestock were brought from missions far to the south along the Rio Grande, and as the herds prospered and multiplied in grazing fields near the mission along the San Antonio River, missionaries acquired a remote tract in the early 1760s for ranching operations. Known as Rancho de las Cabras, or Goat Ranch, the site lay thirty miles southeast near today’s Floresville, where herders and their families lived at the isolated ranch. By 1772 it held 1,200 cattle, 2,700 sheep, 716 horses, as well as goats, pigs, oxen, mules, burros, and chickens. The ranch prospered until Mission Espada was secularized beginning in 1793 and its lands were distributed to residents. The site then deteriorated and during the 1800s and 1900s was used for storage and grazing and by hunters and scavengers. Recognized for its important role in mission life, Rancho de las Cabras was acquired by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in 1982 and in 1993 became part of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park.

San Antonio, Texas · United States