The private road just off State Highway 16, about halfway between Helotes and Bandera, goes up hills and around bends for several miles before reaching its destination.
“All of a sudden, you’re enveloped in this incredible, sort of mishmash of mountains and ranges and it’s private and you can’t see anybody from where you are and nobody can see you,” said Bernard Uechtritz.
The international real estate advisor and owner of Icon Global Group in Dallas said that kind of privacy is what makes the northern Bexar County ranch he is representing for sale really special.
And the listing price for Mt. Solitude Ranch reflects that. Put up for sale last year, the price for the 3,630-acre ranch owned for a century by a single family was recently made public: $80 million, or $22,000 per acre.
In 2022, the average price of an acre of land in Texas is $4,000 per acre, according to the Texas A&M University Real Estate Research Center, though prices swing widely between regions like the Panhandle and the Hill Country.
Mt. Solitude is one of the most expensive Texas ranches Uechtritz has marketed, he said. The 30-year real estate veteran withheld a listing price until now in order to gauge buyer interest.
“We wanted to see what the market reaction was to such an unusual piece of property,” Uechtritz said.
Dullnig Ranch Sales recently announced the sale of the Less Ranch, a 2,269-acre, family-owned property in Boerne that was listed for $55 million. Both ranches went on the market at about the same time, said Robert Dullnig, broker associate.
“It’s really rare to see two properties of that magnitude, that proximity, that history, both put on [the market] at the same time,” he said. “I don’t know when the last time that has happened in the San Antonio area.”
Owned by the Thomson family, Mt. Solitude features a series of lakes and dams connected by a creek that spills into a large lake that can be seen from the front porch of the family compound.
Historic structures built in the 1850s by early German settlers remain on the ranch along with the Heimsath family cemetery.
The hilltops on the ranch are some of the highest points in the county, said landowner Derick Thomson in a promotional video. All of that makes it a very unique piece of property.
“Given its close proximity to San Antonio, no other property has the size, scope and history that it has,” Thomson said.
Thomson grew up spending time at the ranch and is a descendent of R.L. White, who started assembling the land and building its structures in 1928.
White made his fortunes from the paving company he established and a process he developed to manufacture a cold-mix paving material sold during the Great Depression, according to a state historic marker.
“The ranch reflects White’s desire to impress his guests with Texas rustic-style architecture on a grand scale,” states the marker.
While development is steadily pushing closer to the ranch, the land still offers sweeping views of the adjacent Rancho Sierra to the northeast, which is owned by the General Land Office. The Albert and Bessie Kronkosky State Natural Area is located to the north.
The Thomson family wants to sell the property for the same reason many similar property owners who have inherited land do, Uechtritz said of his clients.
“More often than not, the family becomes so big and spread across the country or even the world and get to a point where there are not enough days in the calendar for all the various heirs and beneficiaries and members of that extended family to actually enjoy the ranch,” he said. “So it becomes harder and harder to share and to manage.”
Despite that, Thomson said in a marketing video recording that he is jealous of whoever ends up with the property.
Uechtritz said interest in the ranch has come from both individuals and the development sector.
The ranch is 34 miles from downtown San Antonio and 13 miles from Boerne.
There are not many properties of that size that are accessible from a major city, and that makes Mt. Solitude Ranch appealing for development, he said — though that’s not his preference.
“I’m not a development guy. I like to see things preserved,” Uechtritz said.
The sale of Mt. Solitude is not related to the land rush that began during the COVID pandemic, he said, when both sales and prices for rural land shot up, according to data from the Real Estate Center.
Ranches like that are a long-term investment for legacy families who can afford to pay cash and enjoy the property for recreation, Uechtritz said. “Or in the case of development, for big developers buying up land like this because they’re looking three or four real estate cycles out from now.”
Thomson said he is excited for the future ranch owner: “It is the memories that you make. You really can’t put a price on it.”
