{"nrhp_refnum":"74000280","name":"Rancho Estelle","other_names":["Sublett Farm","Stone Residence","Dorgan Residence"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"On the Rio Grande River","address_restricted":false,"city":"Big Bend National Park","county":"Brewster County","state":"TX","lat":29.15459634450005,"lon":-103.57923335313032,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1974-09-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Rancho Estelle is a district of ruined adobe and stone farm buildings on the Rio Grande flood plain in Big Bend National Park, Brewster County, Texas, dating to the early 1900s. It was developed by James Sublett and his associates.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that Rancho Estelle is a good, representative example of flood plain farming along the Rio Grande. It also states that the Dorgan House has outstanding architectural merit among remaining structures of its time, type and place.","narrative":"Rancho Estelle is a cluster of ruined farm buildings on the north side of Park Route 9 in Big Bend National Park, between Castalon and Santa Elena Canyon. James Sublett, an early large-scale farmer of the Rio Grande flood plain, bought four sections of land here and, as Grand Canyon Farms, he and his associates operated the farm. The surviving structures include an adobe farmhouse, a farm hand's casita, an adobe shed, a stone farmhouse that probably housed workers, and the Dorgan Residence. The Dorgan house is a one-story adobe and stone home with a large square main room, a two-way petrified wood fireplace serving as a structural pier, and log beams forming a nearly flat hipped roof. All of the buildings are roofless or deteriorating. The site was listed for its value in showing flood plain farming along the Rio Grande and for the architectural merit of the Dorgan house.","period_of_significance":"Early 1900's","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"All remaining structures are in various states of ruin; some stabilization work has been done, but all are endangered. The form checks the condition as ruins and proposes preservation.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:19.108071-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/77/9713/40971377/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/74000280.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74000280/4226038099-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74000280/4226038099-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Fredlyfish4","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sublett_farm_house_1.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Fredlyfish4</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sublett_farm_house_1.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40971377","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rancho_Estelle","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7290973"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/brewster-county/rancho-estelle-74000280/"}