Texas Rangers Heritage Center

Texas Rangers Heritage Center provides Historical Learning Opportunity

Keeping in line with Fredericksburg’s dedication to historic preservation, the Texas Rangers Heritage Center brings the story of the state’s famous lawmen to life.

This is especially important as the Texas Rangers will celebrate their bicentennial year in 2023. This year marks the 50th year of the Former Texas Rangers Foundation.

The TRHC site includes a 12-acre campus that features a 350-seat open-air pavilion with a full catering kitchen and a Lone Star Stories Campfire Ring. The amenities support a wide range of event opportunities.

Phase I of the Texas Rangers Heritage Center is complete. The project on the town’s eastern edge was about 14 years in the planning.

In September 2013, then-Gov. Rick Perry and other dignitaries attended a groundbreaking ceremony on the land between Fort Martin Scott and the Hill Country University Center.

The Former Texas Rangers Foundation is the organization heading up the project. Phase I has a spacious open-air pavilion, which can seat 350 and features an amphitheater with a fire pit.

The site also includes a campanile (bell tower) and a Ring of Honor, and a 30-foot simulatioof a Ranger badge which memorializes Rangers who lost their lives in the line of duty.

An historic flintlock rifle used by Mexican Texas colonist and elder statesman Ben Milam during the Siege of Béxar will be on display at the Texas Rangers Heritage Center when Phase II opens in 2023, just in time for the 200th traditional anniversary of the Texas Rangers.

The foundation has begun fundraising for Phase II, which will feature a museum building.

Construction is slated to start soon. There, visitors will learn about well-known Rangers and episodes in Ranger history.

Museum planners promise an immersive experience which will include interactive exhibits, a theater, galleries associated with the character traits of the Texas

Members of the Headquarters Company of the Former Texas Rangers Association and Foundation stand ready for action on the grounds of the Texas Rangers Heritage Center in Fredericksburg. Pictured from left are Marvin Schroeder, Bruce Ferguson and Jeff Nichols.

Rangers, and episodes of Rangers who battled bootlegging, counterfeiting and murder, and the man who stopped the University of Texas Tower shooter in 1966.

Youths will be taught the five Ranger traits of courage, determination, dedication, respect and integrity.

The Former Texas Rangers Association welcomes new memberships. Get more information about the organization at www.TRHC.org.

Contact the Former Texas Rangers Foundation office, at 103 Industrial Loop in Fredericksburg at 830-990-1192.

Walking tours are available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Monday. The Texas Rangers Heritage Center has brought the story of the state’s famous lawmen to life since it opened in September 2013. Joe B. Davis, a retired Texas Ranger, is president of the Former Texas Rangers Foundation. He said Phase II of the Texas Rangers Heritage Center should break ground soon with the goal of being completed in time for the bicentennial celebration of the Texas Rangers next year.