Terrell County Highpoint Trip Report

Date: January 6, 2005
Author: Bob Packard

Neither the Terrell County clerk nor the sheriff's office could tell me how to get hold of the land owner. As it turned out none of the names they suggested for the land owner were correct.

I parked at 8 Mile Road on US 90 west of Sanderson, the county seat. I left a note on my windshield explaining my plans, jumped over the gate at signs reading "Octavia Downie Smith Ranch" and "No Trespassing". Hiked north to ranch house (no one there), then around the east end of a very long earthen dam, then north up a valley east of the valley containing Ninemile Ranch buildings, then north over a pass, then north to another valley southeast of the HP. Climbed the cliffs up to a square cement water tank, then a few yards west to HP.

Good views. Return same way. When I got between the house and the gate, an Hispanic couple approached in two separate vehicles, she in an SUV, he in some sort of service truck. Turned out they were caretakers for the owner. They told me the owner was Denny or Richard Butler of Raymonville, TX which is not far north of McAllen and Brownsville, TX. They didn't complain about my being there. They apparently thought that I had only been to the house to inquire.