Welcome to the
official website of the
WATTERSON RANCH

 
A BIT ABOUT US:
The Watterson Ranch is a 5th generation, family owned and operated working cattle ranch located in Bastrop County, the heart of Central Texas. Once a way station stop for the stagecoach travelling from Austin to Port Arthur, the Watterson Ranch is rich in local history, character and beauty and the proud recipient of a 100 year Heritage Plaque from the State of Texas for having been  in one family for over 100 years.

Under current management of Scott and Trina Miller, the cattle operation and equine branches respectively, take great pride in preserving the rich history and legacy of the Watterson Ranch for generations to come.  As they remain true to traditional roots and values, the Miller's work hard to meet the modern standards and demands of 21st century ranching.  That's a tall order to fill in 2008, but they humbly plug along.

Scott and Trina live and work on the ranch with their 2 daughters, Callie & Cate and are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their 3rd child this summer -- IT'S A BOY!  YEE HAW!

 
THE HISTORY BEHIND WATTERSON, TX:
WATTERSON  is located in southern Bastrop County about nine miles south of the town of Bastrop, on an old road between Bastrop and Red Rock. Named for pioneer Charles Coffin Watterson, who with his wife, Martha, settled in the area about 1852 and began farming and stock raising. Samuel and Caroline Wolfenbarger were also among the community's early settlers, most of whom depended on farming and stock raising for a living.

A post office with the name Live Oaks was established in 1878 with Charles Coffin Watterson as postmaster.  In 1891 the town was renamed in his honor. In 1896 the community had a population of 100, a Methodist Church, a gristmill and gin and general store.  Students attended the Lentz Branch and Hilbig schools, which combined to form the Watterson School House in 1900.  The post office closed in 1904, and the Watterson School House was consolidated with the Eight Live Oaks School's in 1927.
 
In the 1930s Watterson still had a community club and Methodist Church. By 1962 many of the large farms had been broken up, but Watterson remained a farming community made up in large part of descendants of the early settlers. Though no population figures appear for it in any twentieth-century Texas Almanac, in the mid-1980s Watterson continued to be listed as a community in Cities and Towns of Texas and to appear on county highway maps.

**The above history of Watterson, Texas was taken from The Handbook of Texas Online.**

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Bill Moore, Bastrop County, 1691-1900 (Wichita Falls: Nortex, 1977).
 D. L. Vest, Watterson Folk of Bastrop County (Waco: Texian Press, 1963).
 D. L. Vest, Watterson, A Texas Rural Community (M.A. thesis, St. Mary's University, 1946).