The sprawling ranch has been in the same family’s ownership since the early 1900s and has a rich history.
By Janet Miranda, Trending News Reporter Chron.com July 7, 2024
A sprawling 420-acre ranch that’s been owned and operated by the same family since the early 1900s just hit the market for the first time in generations. The property was put on sale for $11.9 million by Kate Gibson and Tallon Martin of Republic Ranches.
Shipp Lake Ranch, located just south of Smithville, Texas, and 48 miles from Austin, has an incredible 100-acre oxbow lake that spans the length of the property. In fact, if you’ve ever taken HYW 71 on the drive up to Austin, you’ve passed that very same lake. The body of water is one of the defining features of this property, and “one of the largest private lakes in Texas,” according to Sallie Skelley Blalock, one of four siblings who owns the ranch.
The property has been passed matrilineality from Blalock’s grandmother to her mother, and now to her and her two sisters and one brother. Blalock, 78, said she has fond memories of learning how to water ski on the lake and of teaching her grandchildren how to drive on the ranch. But her fondest memories come from her time hosting parties on the property, from when her parents threw events for big football games, to the most recent family reunion, when her city-hailing grandkids saw an armadillo for the first time.
The kids “just couldn’t believe it!” Blalock said.
The property has been a working cattle ranch for many years, and still is, with Blalock’s brother and sister-in-law leasing some of its land for their cattle business. The land contains two houses, including one renovated in 2018. On the east side of the lake, there are mature hardwoods, and a productive 18-acre hay field, while on the west side, there’s a mix of open pasture, scattered live oaks, pecan trees, and a mesquite bush, per the listing.
But what’s really special, is the migratory waterfowl that make appearances twice a year on the ranch’s grounds, Blalock said. The lake, first named Oxbow Lake, then Shipps Lake, has been on the path of migratory birds for millennia, where you can see exotic birds like American White Pelicans, White Ibis, Roseate Spoonbills, Tri-color herons, Great Blue Herons, and Snowy Egrets. There’s also a large variety of ducks, so many that for years duck blinds were once common along the lake’s shore, Blacklock said.
For raptor bird lovers, Blalock’s family has also spotted Red Tailed, Red Shouldered, and Cooper hawks with a few Osprey and Bald Eagles in the area.
The family has deep ties to some of the founders of nearby Smithville, through John Camp Yerger and his son-in-law John W. Hill, who moved to Alum Creek in 1850 to open a dry goods store and build a colonial-style home. When the Taylor, Bastrop & Houston Railroad came into what’s now Smithsville, the dry goods store and house were moved board by board to a full city block of the town in 1887. The home stayed in the family until it was sold three years ago. The recently rebuilt home at 401 Main St. remains one of the town’s “benchmark properties.”
The quintessential small Texas town attracts numerous tourists who seek a taste of small-town life or a break from the city to connect with nature, with Buescher State Park nearby. It’s also an attractive location for filmmakers.
“Smithville has been featured in many movies,” Blalock said. “This is the original setting of Hope Floats, the movie starring Sandra Bullock.”
https://www.chron.com/homes/article/shipp-lake-ranch-texas-19552049.php