Badenthal Ranch

The Thermal Spa constructed by German philosopher Ernst Kapp was a famed outpost before the Civil War. Located on a spring between the East Sister and West Sister creeks near Sisterdale, Texas, the 1850’s compound consisted of the original log dog-trot, ice-house, smoke house, spring house, sanitarium, smithy shop, and multiple barns and outbuildings.

Buried beneath 20th-century additions, the original structures were largely intact. With written accounts and an early sketch by German artist Hermann Lungkwitz in hand, additions were delicately removed and original structures restored.

Today, the house is the headquarters for a horse ranch. The tradition as a place of repose and rejuvenation continues, with daily life centered on the porches, terraces, and water basins of the south lawn.