Cibolo Creek Ranch provides getaway

MARFA Fernando Autrique and Adele Houghton of Austin decided to take a "pre-moon."

A few days before their wedding was scheduled, they sat at dinner, telling about how a friend of Houghton's told them about Cibolo Creek Ranch, located between Marfa and Presidio.

They learned about how the hotel on the 30,000-acre working cattle ranch offered majestic scenery of the Chinati Mountains near the "cultural experience" of Marfa.

"It's beautiful," she said. "I know you have to think that, too. It's amazing."

The couple sat around a table eating one of three meals served daily, included in the $475 per couple, per room rate. This one consisted of stuffed quail.

The Princeton-educated Houghton and Mexico City native Autrique are both architects. Although they can tell it's not original, they appreciated the design of the hotel, some of which was part of a fort, built in 1857 to protect Don Meliton Faver from Apache and Comanche attacks.

"I think they've done a great job recreating something from the past," Houghton said.

Guests can review the history of the ranch at a museum in the fort, which includes American Indian artifacts and other relics. They can also climb several towers overlooking the property.

The 22 guest rooms at El Cibolo fort are located in an addition built in the 1990s, as part of a renovation by ranch owner John Poindexter of Houston. They are designed to match the adjoining original structure.

About a half-hour drive across a rugged road and Highway 67 are 10 other rooms, located at La Cienega fort. Scott McGehee, ranch vice president and general manager, said the even-more secluded area appeals to celebrities.

That's where Tommy Lee Jones stayed during the filming of "No Country for Old Men." Sam Elliot, Larry Hagman and a Dixie Chick "wedding or two" have

also called it home.

"They feel more privacy when they're here," McGehee said. "In this world of paparazzi, it's kind of nice to find a place where the public's not gonna bother you."

But the resort also appeals to university workers conducting research projects in the ranch.

"It runs the gamut, it really does," McGehee said of the guest list.

Well, it runs the gamut of those with a good cash supply.

While he makes no secret of Cibolo Creek trying to appeal to those with many zeroes in their bank account, he said it's different than Lajitas, the border resort that was recently auctioned off in U.S. Bankruptcy Court after falling between $18 million and $20 million in debt.

Along with having the ranch to support it, he said Cibolo Creek's biggest advantage is it does not have to fill the 92 rooms Lajitas has.

"More than anything it's the size of the property," McGehee said. "It's not quite the battle Lajitas had to do."

But Cibolo Creek, at an elevation of 4,000 feet and up, does target those traveling to Lajitas. McGehee said many tourists make a "triangle" between Cibolo Creek, Lajitas and the Gage Hotel in Marathon.

Cibolo Creek features a spa, where guests can use a sauna or have a massage or facial. For an additional fee, they can go horseback riding, hunting or touring the property in retrofitted Operation Desert Storm Humvees. There, they can see animals from camels to Peregrine falcons.

But, at 7:30 each evening, everyone returns to the dinner table, where they can share tales of their day, or discuss life in the real world, with the ranch's other guests.

On busier nights, meals are served in a large dining room near the historic fort.

But tonight, dinner is served at a table in a gathering room, full of plush chairs and lamps for reading. The room overlooks a 2.5-acre lake, fed by a desert spring.

Here, you learn people's first reactions to the area.

Autrique and Houghton were surprised to see a movie poster for 2005's "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada," another Tommy Lee Jones film, and find out it was filmed in the area. So imagine their reaction when they learned "No Country for Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood," the two films with the most Academy Award nominations, were filmed close by.

Although her father was from Midland, Houghton hadn't spent much time in West Texas. The beauty of the area took her aback.
"The mountains look so fragile," she said. "You almost don't want to go on them."

The seclusion is also appealing.

"The wind is so thick and nice, it's almost like being at the ocean," she said. "It's been nice being here without people."

Along with quail, served with rice pilaf, salads are brought out. While the resort's signature Tres Leches cake is not served for dessert, a cake that tastes like strawberry ice cream mixed with a handful of graham crackers makes a nice substitute.

As dinner wraps up, and the sky turns as dark and starry as the movies filmed in the area (Cibolo Creek has its own "star parties" and also takes guests on trips to McDonald Observatory), people head back to their rooms.

With each guest room equipped with a fireplace, but no television or phone - and cell phone reception just a far-away dream - the rest of the night is left to the imagination.