Lindsay Ranch

One of our most favorite people, Deloris Lindsay, runs the Lindsay Ranch Guesthouses, located outside of Mason, Texas. Mrs. Lindsay and her late husband, Alva Clay Lindsay, have ancestors whose presence stretches far back into Texas history. The Lindsay Ranch was established in 1858 and has been in the family ever since. Today, it is still a real working ranch, raising cattle and sheep.

Mrs. Lindsay opens the ranch during parts of the year for rock hunters, who have access to 700+ acres of beautiful Texas Hill Country land that is covered in a wide variety of volcanic, metamorphic, and sedimentary rock. For a modest fee one can spend all day digging and searching for quartz, Native American artifacts, and gemstones–and you get to keep anything you find! The Lindsay Ranch is one of the few places in Texas where one can find topaz.

There are two cabins available for rent from February through September: the Cabin on Comanche Creek, and the Mason Mountain Manor.

We enjoy visiting in late-Winter or early-Spring. For those of you who don’t know how the seasons work in the southern half of Texas, Spring begins in late-February and is in full swing by the end of March. Mid- to late-March is when the bluebonnets and other wildflowers begin to appear. It’s one of the best times in Texas, in my opinion, because of the generally cool temperatures and beautiful colors.

We have also visited during the Summer, including our first visit to go rock hunting with our older son, Bryan, back in 2007. It gets very hot on the ranch. Definitely bring plenty of water with you if you go rock hunting in the heat!

The ranch has several dirt roads and trails that cover the 700-acre front section and the 300-acre back section. The main roads are well-maintained by Mrs. Lindsay’s son, Clay H. There are also rougher roads that access remote sections of the ranch. Most of these are passable for 2-wheel vehicles with good ground clearance.

Guests staying at the Mason Mountain Manor must pass through two gates and across a right-of-way through another property to reach the back section. The Manor is located at the base of Mason Mountain.

The cabin is a great place for family and friends to gather to visit, relax, and enjoy the countryside. It is somewhat rustic, but very comfortable. It has electricity, running water, heating, and air conditioning. Being over two miles from the entrance to the ranch, it feels very isolated and private.

Mason Mountain Manor was built from materials salvaged from a World War II barracks that was once located near Post, Texas, and parts from a home originally built in 1925–good, solid timbers from a time when such was available.

A road leads around the west side of Mason Mountain, and another road leads up to the top of the mountain. There are several places along the top of the mountain that offer views of the land to the east and south.

The Lindsay Ranch sits within the Llano Uplift, a region of volcanic rock that was formed by several events that occurred more than a billion years ago. The uplift was later covered by sedimentary rocks, including the limestone of the Edwards Plateau. Much of the limestone has eroded away, leaving the granite of the Llano Uplift exposed. The chemical elements that make up topaz are contained within the granite, with crystals forming within cavities called vugs. Over the eons, topaz crystals have washed out of the rock and into the surrounding soil and streambeds. Topaz was once more common on the surface, but now is typically found by sifting streambed gravels and by digging into the soil.

The east and west forks of Comanche Creek run through the ranch. Both are good places for rock hunting. The western fork is usually dry, except immediately after a heavy rain.

Below are a few rocks and artifacts that we have collected from the ranch.

We collected several large rocks to decorate our flower bed.

But there’s more to the ranch than rocks! There is also a wide variety of plant species. Some of our favorites are the cacti.

Aside from cacti, there is other abundant plant and animal life across the ranch, including deer, turkey, raccoons, lots of birds, snakes, and insects. We are certain that we heard a mountain lion in the distance one night. Oh, and there are cows. Lots and lots of cows.

Despite the number of photos in this post, I find that we take very few pictures while visiting the Lindsay Ranch. This is in large part due to the fact that when we are there, we are either busy doing something fun or just relaxing. I suppose that’s a good thing. So, if you want to see more of the ranch, you’ll have to go visit!

Here are some more landscape images from various parts of the ranch.

Patrick was an amazing child. He saw the world in the unique ways that kids do, but also had interesting insights. His first favorite color was yellow. We would ask him from time-to-time what his favorite color was, and he stuck with yellow for a few years. He briefly dabbled in orange, and had a fascination with red. But one day, when he was about five, we asked him what his favorite color was and he answered, “Rainbow! Because it has all of the colors!”

So, “rainbow” color was his thing.

After he passed, something unusual began to happen. We and our friends and family started seeing rainbows EVERYWHERE. Now, maybe it’s because we look for them more, but honestly, they show up in the strangest places sometimes.

Take, for instance, an incident that occurred during one of our visits to the Lindsay Ranch. It was March 14, 2019, the one-year anniversary of the wreck. The sky in Central Texas was crystal clear. The air was cool and dry. It was beautiful weather to be out and exploring. Kristi asked me, “Do you think we’ll see a rainbow today?” I answered, “I guess not. The weather just isn’t right for rainbows.”

We went to a grocery store in Mason, and on our way out I happened to look up and saw a few scattered cirrus clouds (I think the proper name is cirrus intortus). But that wasn’t the interesting part! There was a sun halo in the cloud that was directly overhead!

So, weather forecasts and conditions apparently have no effect on whether Patrick sends us a rainbow. We see these sort of things–sun halos, moon halos, sundogs, iridescent clouds, and actual rainbows–quite often. Not every day, and not always on significant days, but often.

Patrick would sometimes describe extraordinary things like rainbows as “beautiful and epic.” I think incidents like seeing these rainbows are Patrick’s way of telling us that he is OK, and that we should do our best to do “beautiful and epic” things with our lives.

No discussion of the Lindsay Ranch or Mrs. Lindsay would be complete without mentioning her book. Full disclosure, I did the typesetting, but Mrs. Lindsay and her sources did all of the real work.

Good Times, Clay Lindsay: A Good Man from Mason, Texas chronicles the history of the Lindsay family and their ancestors from shortly before their arrival in Texas starting in the 1830s to the present day. If you are interested in history, this book nearly has it all, at least from a Texas perspective. Early settlement of the Texas frontier, the Texas Revolution, the early cattle industry, Old West outlaws, Indian attacks, feuds, the World Wars, the Merchant Marines, and even how to insult your fellow players during a game of pitch are just some of the topics covered. The book is 420 pages and includes many pictures and a comprehensive index for making research and reference easier. And as if that isn’t enough, Mrs. Lindsay is donating all of the proceeds from the book to the Friends of the Mason County Courthouse to help fund reconstruction of the courthouse after the February 4, 2021 fire.

There is a lot more that I could say about the Lindsay Ranch, but as I stated above, it is best to just go visit and see for yourself. And if you are wondering, the answer is, “No, we have not found any topaz.” But, as always, we have a good feeling about finding some on our next visit!