Set to become a state park, Powderhorn Ranch is an unspoiled coastal paradise

At my back, a dirt road leads through a leafy tunnel into a thicket of old oaks. It’s cold, damp, and ruggedly beautiful here on Powderhorn Ranch, a sprawling chunk of coastal prairie and wetlands about twenty miles southeast of Port Lavaca that will one day become a state park for all Texans to enjoy. No timeline has been set for the park’s opening, but it’s likely eight to ten years away. The nonprofit Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation partnered with a coalition of conservation groups to buy the 17,351-acre cattle ranch from Tennessee landowner Brad Kelley in 2014. Kelley had purchased it from the family of Leroy G. Denman Sr., who had had it since 1936. About 15,000 acres became the Powderhorn Wildlife Management Area. The last of the remaining 2,000-plus acres were transferred to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in October. Part of the funding for the $50 million project came from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund, established after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill; private donors also pitched in.

The price tag includes $37.7 million for the land, plus about $12 million for habitat restoration and an endowment to fund the park’s long-term maintenance. At the time of the purchase, TPWD officials called it the largest dollar amount ever raised for a conservation land acquisition in Texas. There’s still a long way to go before Powderhorn can open to the public. Parks and Wildlife officials must conduct surveys, hold open meetings to gather input, create a master plan, and identify more funding sources before they begin construction on any facilities. But on this chilly morning in late December, I’m getting a sneak peek from newly appointed superintendent Sarah Affeldt and TPWD regional director Reagan Faught. They arrive just as I’m finishing my tea, and we bundle up and pile into an ATV for the tour. The parkland hugs the shoreline of Matagorda Bay to the east; to the north, it follows the edge of Powderhorn Lake, named in 1832 by a sailor who found a spoon and a powder horn—an animal horn used to hold gunpowder—on its banks. This is one of the largest undeveloped tracts of coastal prairie and wetlands left in the state. “There aren’t many places along the Texas coast that feel as natural and untouched,” Affeldt says. “The history is ranching, but aside from that, it looks very similar to how it looked in the sixteen hundreds, when explorers first came to this area.”