Rancho de las Cabras means “Ranch of the Goats”, and that’s just what it was. Then, as now, the site near present-day Floresville was very remote, but the goats and cattle raised there supported the missionaries and native tribesmen who lived at Mission Espada.

What’s left to see? A few artifacts. Not much in the way of structures (though archaeologists from the University of Texas at San Antonio continue to make discoveries), and National Park Rangers offer a limited number of free tours each year by reservation. The main contribution of the mission ranch was that the cattle raised there eventually became the feral Texas longhorns that formed the basis of Texas ranching in the 1800s. That’s quite a legacy!