Fair Oaks Ranch

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Fair Oaks Ranch is a Hill Country community located in northern Bexar County just off Interstate 10 and adjacent to Camp Bullis Military Reservation. The city is approximately 22 miles northwest of San Antonio and 7 miles southeast of Boerne, and its limits also stretch into neighboring Comal and Kendall counties. During the 1930s Ralph E. Fair, Sr., a successful oilman and rancher, purchased several land tracts that became the 5000-acre Fair Oaks Ranch. He originally focused his efforts on raising racehorses, but in the 1940s Fair began cattle ranching and developed his own Hereford strain. His pioneering work in a bovine artificial insemination program and promotion of superior show cattle garnered international attention and brought prospective cattle buyers from all over the world.

After the deaths of Fair and his wife in the late 1960s, family heirs opened sections of the ranch for development, and a land office sold ranchettes of 5 acres and 10 to 12 acres. During the 1970s expansion continued, and a homeowner's association was formed in 1975 with Boots Gaubatz as president. In 1977 a tennis club was constructed, and in 1978 builders expanded on the original Ralph Fair home to create the Fair Oaks Ranch Golf and Country Club. By the mid-1980s residents explored the option to form a city. Due to state restrictions regarding population density, two cities, Fair Oaks North and Fair Oaks South, were incorporated, with Gaubatz serving as mayor of Fair Oaks South and Don King as mayor of Fair Oaks North. These founding fathers, along with homeowner's association board member Robert L. Herring, eventually helped to combine the two communities into one, named Fair Oaks Ranch, on January 21, 1988.

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Laurie E. Jasinski | © TSHA

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Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.

Belongs to

Fair Oaks Ranch is part of or belongs to the following places:

Currently Exists

Yes

Place type

Fair Oaks Ranch is classified as a Town

Location

Latitude: 29.75714950
Longitude: -98.65217900

Has Post Office

No

Is Incorporated

Yes

Population Count, 2021 View more »

10,505