Lillie Belle Ranch

The Lillie Belle, Ltd Ranch, is a very scenic, well located, long term ownership property located in northwest Burnet County.  Access to the property is provided by paved county road, and the ranch is approximately 15 miles from Lampasas and an equal distance from Burnet.  This Hill Country ranch has been in the same family for over 80 years.

The ranch’s namesake was Lille Belle Moore White Oliver, 1901-1988.  She was a direct descendent of the Huling & Bean Families who helped settle Lampasas County.  Lillie Belle & her first husband, Jack White, owned or operated several large ranches in northwest Burnet & Lampasas Counties.  Jack & Lillie Belle purchased this property in the 1930’s.  After Jack’s death in 1941, Lillie Belle continued to operate the ranch by herself, and later with her second husband, Kyle Oliver, from 1946 until 1961.

Lillie Belle raised two nieces.  One niece, Lillian Carol Moore, married Waymon Davis in 1955 and moved to Lampasas in 1961 to take over operation of the ranch.  They raised their family here and Waymon and his youngest son, Ronny, have continually operated the ranch ever since.

The ranch has been managed for livestock production with whitetail deer hunting being an important part of the management for many years.  This property is located at the juncture of two of the largest ranch holdings in the area, being joined by a 21,000 acre ranch along the west and a portion of the north boundary, and a 10,000 acre ranch along the south boundary.  The ranch is loaded with wildlife that are native to the area including whitetail deer, turkey, bobcats and varmints of all kinds.  Non-native species including Blackbuck antelope and feral hogs are commonly viewed on the ranch.  Axis deer and Aoudad are also seen on occasion.  Hunting income brings in approximately $10 per acre for a “season only” lease.  For fishermen, the many earthen ponds on the ranch provided excellent opportunities.

The terrain is rolling and diverse with elevations ranging from 1,450 feet to 1,570 feet.  The ranch is predominately rolling live oak savannah with large live oak trees throughout.  There are also small areas of post oak and cedar adding to the diversity of the ranch.  The property has numerous earthen ponds, some of which are spring fed except during the extremely dry part of the year.  A deep draw forms on a portion of the ranch.  This scenic feature is the beginning of what later becomes the North Fork of Morgan Creek, which flows into Lake Buchanan some 6.5 miles to the south.  The brush and tree cover is scattered to fairly dense in places with a desirable blend of fairly open country transitioning to areas with moderate to fairly dense cover, offering outstanding habitat for wildlife, but still maintaining good grass cover.  The ranch has a good mixture of palatable native grasses, with the predominate grasses being Texas Winter Grass, Mesquite Grass, Bermuda Grass, several varieties of Grama, Bluestem and a favorable mix of Forbs.  Soils are stony clay and loamy soils underlain by limestone.  The ranch is fenced and cross fenced into four pastures with barbed wire and net wire fencing.  There is approximately 0.75 miles of high fencing along a portion of the perimeter.

The ranch is considered to be well watered with livestock and wildlife water provided by earthen ponds in each of the pastures and a water well with storage.  The water is piped to troughs that provide additional water to three of the four pastures.  Other water features include several seasonal springs.

Structural improvements on the ranch are modest and consist of a hunting cabin with electricity and water.

Annual precipitation is approximately 34 inches, and most of the rainfall occurs during the growing season.  The annual property taxes for 2016 were approximately $2,500 or $1.50 per acre.

This outstanding Hill Country ranch is located in a sought-after area being less than an hour’s drive from Austin and approximately 2 hours from San Antonio.  One quarter (25%) of the minerals currently owned will convey.  It is believed that a majority of the minerals are owned by the sellers.

The ranch is priced to sell at $2,800 per acre ($4,642,400).