The service town for the Big Bend — railroad, ranch country, and a college that turns out good cowhands.
Alpine sits in a wide valley in the foothills of the Davis Mountains in northwest Brewster County — at 4,475 feet it's cooler and greener than most Trans-Pecos towns. It's home to about 6,000 people and a big-country college, and it serves as the main resupply stop for ranchers across the Big Bend.
The town is named for the surrounding mountains — early settlers thought they looked like the Swiss Alps. You can still feel that: pine-ridges north, desert flats south, cattle country everywhere.
Cattlemen lived in tents near their herds here between 1878 and 1882, and the town itself began when railroad workers pitched tents along a spring-fed creek. By 1888 it was Alpine, the service center for a huge ranching area specializing in sheep and Hereford cattle. The railroad made the town, and the ranches kept it going.
In 1921, Sul Ross State Normal College opened — what's now Sul Ross State University. Its rangeland management, animal science, and rodeo programs have trained generations of Big Bend ranch hands and cowboys. Ranching is still the backbone of Brewster County's identity.
From our fields in Saragosa to Alpine is about two hours south. It's a real drive, but worth it for the ranches and horse operations scattered across Brewster County — and for the Sul Ross folks running rodeo stock, show horses, and teaching-ranch cattle.
Whether you're running cattle out toward the Big Bend, keeping horses in Alpine, or feeding a mix of stock on a smaller operation, we can get you premium custom alfalfa from our Saragosa fields. Multiple cuttings, mid-sized square bales, forage testing on request.
Give Ray a call or drop a note. We'll tell you what's on hand, what's coming in the next cutting, and when we can set up a delivery to Alpine.