The loan was repaid through the 1994 General Obligation Bond package. This resulted in the Trust for Public Lands providing an interim loan to the City of San Antonio to purchase Comanche Lookout for a City park. At that time, a private sector effort was organized to preserve the site led by a group named Save Comanche Lookout. The property traded hands several times before the real estate market collapse of the 1980s led to the Resolution Trust Corporation’s ownership of the remaining Comanche Lookout property in 1990.

Colonel Coppock’s children sold the land in 1968 to a developer who cleared all of the structures except for the tower and some remnant foundations. Cavasos died in 1948 and the project was abandoned. Coppock envisioned a castle-like house, but completed only its foundation. Coppock in February 1923 for $6,000.Ĭoppock was a romantic and history aficionado, and with assistance from his two sons and a man named Tarquino Cavazos, he constructed an extensive compound on the hill including a four-story, medieval-style stone tower. After Adolph Reeh died, Gustav sold a portion of his land to retired Army Colonel Edward H. The Reeh brothers used the land for farming. In July 1890, they sold 524.6 acres of the land to German immigrants, Gustav and Adolph Reeh of Bexar County for $3,500.

The Calders lived in Galveston and apparently did not use the Comanche Lookout property. She later married Samuel Douglass Calder, also a member of a prominent Texas family. It is not clear why Lamar purchased the land described in his deed as 'including the hill known as Comanche Lookout.' The property was inherited by Lamar’s daughter by his second marriage, Loretto Evalina (1852-1933) who was only seven years old when her father died in 1859. Lamar served as second president of the Republic of Texas (1838-41) and enjoyed a long and distinguished political, military and diplomatic career. The Comanche Lookout property was acquired by Mirabeau B. Frequent sale of land grants was not uncommon during the Republic and early Statehood periods in mid-19th century Texas. Gray, Alexander Patrick, and Ludovic Colquhoun. The property subsequently had a number of owners including Peter W. The land surrounding and including Comanche Lookout was part of Land Grant Survey #196 comprised of 1,476 acres that was surveyed for James Conn in April 1847. The road followed earlier American Indian travel routes, and today its remnants are known as Nacogdoches Road. The old Spanish road (one of several routes of the Camino Real or Royal Road) from San Antonio to Bastrop and Nacogdoches in East Texas extended past the base of the hill. The hill was also a prominent landmark for travelers in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Apache, and later, the Comanche Indians dominated the area as they hunted along waterways including nearby Cibolo Creek. Native Americans used this hill as a vantage point for warfare and hunting. Vegetation on the hill includes native ash juniper, Texas and Mexican buckeye, chinaberry, graneno, Lindheimer hackberry, honey mesquite and huisache.

The Cibolo floodplain lies at the base of this escarpment between the Gulf Coastal Plain and the Edwards Plateau. The site includes the fourth highest point in Bexar County with an elevation of 1,340 feet. 'Comanche Lookout Park is a 96-acre public park owned by the City of San Antonio. The site is now a city park with very well maintained hiking trails to the tower and around this interesting transitional area: the edge of the Blackland Prairie where it meets the Texas Hill Country.įrom the city of San Antonio Parks website: ( visit link) It offers a gorgeous view of the northwestern part of Bexar County. This tower was never part of a frontier fort. In the 1920s the owner built this tower on the property. It was used by Indians to survey the surrounding lands. The Comanche Lookout Park contains the fourth-highest hill in Bexar County.

Comanche lookout park