The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad reached Leon Springs, approximately half way between San Antonio and Boerne in 1887. The stop was originally called Aue Station after one of the communities founders, who ran an inn catering to the stage coach trade which had opened for business in 1846. In 1906 the army acquires 17,273 acres near Leon Springs for training outside San Antonio's increasingly crowded city limits. The proximity of an under used railroad and plenty of land unsuitable for agriculture made it an ideal location for training with ever increasingly powerful artillery and, later, air planes. Camp Stanley and Camp Bullis survive to this day, though the railroad is long gone and Camp Bullis Road is closed for security reasons.