My Memorable Vacations at 700 Springs Ranch in Telegraph, Texas

In the early 1970's my husband and I went to 700 Springs Ranch at Telegraph, Texas, a working ranch at that time, on several occasions to rest, relax and to go hunting and fishing along the Llano River. Those were outstanding, memorable vacations. Telegraph is on Highway 377 in Kimble County, Texas, 13 miles southwest of Junction, Texas.

They call Telegraph a ghost town now, with only three residents. When I used to go there on vacations there were 31 residents. We always stopped at Telegraph store to get a cold drink and just to explore. The old store was so rustic we just couldn't pass it up without stopping. As I remember, that was the only thing that let you know that it was supposed to be a town. It was not far from the store to 700 Springs Ranch, but once we got to the ranch there was no leaving until time to go home.

We knew the ranch owner, the ranch manager and his wife and they always greeted us with big smiles. The manager asked me in the first few minutes after we got there if I would cook supper for him. He saw that I had an assistant to get everything together for me and to do the cleanup afterwards. He always wanted a pot roast, pinto beans and my homemade yeast rolls. Once everything was cooking and the bread was rising, we sat in the den area of the main lodge and looked out through the glass sliding doors, over the steep, 200 foot bluff banks of the South Llano River onto pasture land across the river.

The river flows for 4 to 5 miles through the 13,000 acre ranch. About 15 to 20 feet up the bank there are approximately 700 natural springs flowing out of the bluff bank creating a several hundred foot-long stream of water from each spring that flows into the river. The springs feed approximately 20 million gallons of water into the river per day. Along the river in some places we saw caves in the bluff bank that were under overhanging rock outcroppings. Sometimes there were rocks stacked up at the front of the caves and the remains of small fires were seen along with coffee cans that had been used for cooking utensils. The ranch manager said he often saw men walking along the river with knapsacks on their backs and occasionally a goat would be taken for food by the travelers, but they didn't take any of the cattle. It was not unusual to see vehicles from the Immigration Department on the highway.

From our position as we sat and visited in the den, we were looking right down on the wildlife and ranch animals and the flowing river. The scenery was just gorgeous, the air cool and crisp in the late afternoons and the wildlife just starting to move about to feed and to water at the edge of the river. In those days I loved to fish so I enjoyed seeing the occasional fish flounce up out of the perfectly clear water of the river. There was an abundance of trophy deer, flocks of turkeys and an occasional eagle. Binoculars were placed on the tables near us so we could get a close view of anything of interest. There was no way we could leave this area before the sun set and it was too dark to see anything else. By then the food smells were calling us and we were glad to go to the dining room.

I have always been a history buff and the manager liked to tell us about the history of the ranch and Telegraph. He said Telegraph was named for the cedar poles that were cut to support telegraph lines to early United States Army forts east of the town in Telegraph Canyon. He said they were cut from land that had belonged to Governor Coke Stevenson. In 1990 and in 2000 the population of Telegraph was reported to be three. That is why it is called a ghost town now.

There was a shed on the ranch that had been converted to a covered parking place for visitors. We could see a hand-made casket stored on the rafters overhead. We were told that it had been placed there many, many years ago and that a former owner of the ranch had made it to be buried in, but the family didn't use it when he died. I think the casket was placed there by the ranch manager to help him to intrigue his guests with his stories but I was never quite sure of that.

When we visited 700 Springs Ranch in the early 1970s there was not much more than a snowy-figure television reception so we never watched anything when at the lodge, not even the news programs. Once we went to the ranch manager's house to see a special program on television. He had an extremely tall tower for his television and the reception was not very good even with it. I think that with modern technology the reception should be better now. There were other guests at the lodge when we went so we always had good company at night.

The lodge was about a 5,000 square feet rock house built in the 1940's with five bedrooms and four baths. There were fireplaces throughout and, with the cool night-time weather, we always enjoyed the fires. After the long trip, good company and good food, we were ready to curl up and read for a while. I liked to get up really early in the mornings to hunt or fish and we walked for miles every day just to explore. We always made sure we were back inside the compound before dark though.

I am a rock hound and I always find something of interest on the ground when I go out to walk. All rocks interest me and I research most of what I find. I remember a trip we made to Telegraph once when I packed so many rocks into the trunk of the car my husband thought we had something wrong with the car. He stopped on the side of the road to check it out and made me leave some of my rocks by the roadside. It was hard for me to decide which ones to leave.

My husband and I killed trophy deer, feral hogs and turkeys at Telegraph, Texas and caught several kinds of fish from the Llano River. It is one of the best places for hunting and fishing that I know of. We met new friends, saw some spectacular scenery and had memorable vacations there.