Skip to content

Bandera, Texas

Everything Bandera is known for

23 songs mention this city 3 artists from here

RoadyGoat plays music like this when you drive through Bandera. It's free on iPhone, and full songs play through Apple Music.

Sign up for the free newsletter Get the iPhone app

Bandera, Texas, known as the "Cowboy Capital of the World," has a rich connection to music, particularly country. This Texas Hill Country city is home to country artists such as Bruce Robison and Charlie Robison. The town's musical identity is also reflected in songs that bear its name, including "Bandera Texas" by Kix Brooks and "Bandera Waltz" by Bruce Robison.

With 17 songs in our collection mentioning Bandera and three artists calling it home, the city's influence on music is evident. Live country and acoustic music can be found nightly year-round in Bandera.

Music in Bandera

Songs About Bandera

Bandera Texas
Kix Brooks
83%
"Bandera texas a lifetime ago"
Bandera Waltz
Bruce Robison
81%
"They called it Bandera, the Bandera Waltz"
Bandera
Willie Nelson
80%
"Song about Bandera"
Bandera
Control Machete
80%
"Song about Bandera"
Bandera Baby
Mayeux & Broussard
79%
Bandera Waltz
Slim Whitman
79%
"They called it Bander-er-er-era"
Bandera (Hometown In My Soul)
Paul Logan
79%
"Bandera (Hometown In My Soul)"
Banks Of The Old Bandera
Willie Nelson
77%
"On the banks of the old Bandera where roams the barefoot child"
Back Streets Of Bandera
Arkey Blue
58%
"TITLE"
Waterbill
Red Shahan
55%
"I broke an axle in Bandera"
Banks of the Old Bandera
Rodney Crowell
55%
Bandera Waltz
Texas Top Hands
55%
My Brother And Me
Bruce Robison
52%
"Take the boy out of Bandera, not the other way around"
Desperate Times
Charlie Robison
51%
"He drove off to Bandera, 'cause that was his hometown"
The New Bandera Waltz
Easy Adams and The Texas Top Hands
50%
Bandera Style
McKay Brothers
50%
Heaven
Kevin Fowler
30%
My Hometown
Charlie Robison
25%
"Around my hometown"
all my ex's live in texas
george strait
10%
Screw You, We’re From Texas
Josh Abbott Band
7%
"We got Willie and Jacky Jack, Robert Earl Pat, Cory, Charlie, Ray"

Showing top 20 of 23 songs · Hear more in the free iPhone app

Artists From Bandera

C
Charlie Robison
country
B
Bruce Robison
country
S
Stryker Brothers
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Bandera

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Bandera.

Guadalupe River 18 songs Interstate 10 36 songs US Route 90 9 songs Pedernales River 6 songs Blanco River 4 songs Interstate 35 45 songs

Musical Heritage

Arkey Blue's Silver Dollar RoadyGoat

This place started life back in the nineteen-twenties under a rougher name — the Fox Hole. By the forties it had cleaned up into a dance hall and taken the name it still wears: the Silver Dollar. Then in 1968 a honky-tonk singer named Arkey Juenke — you know him as Arkey Blue — bought the whole thing. And here's the part that makes it rare: he never left. Some Saturday nights, Arkey Blue and the Blue Cowboys are still up on that stage, and the rest of the time you walk over to the jukebox and pick your own. Folks around here will tell you it's the oldest honky-tonk in Texas still running. Oldest or not, there aren't many places where the man who bought it in sixty-eight is still the one doing the singing.

RoadyGoat →

Bandera RoadyGoat

Bandera calls itself the Cowboy Capital, and it's got the papers to back most of it. The name traces to a San Antonio newspaper in 1948, and it's grounded in real ground — this was a staging area for the Great Western Cattle Trail, and it's rodeo country, home to Toots Mansfield, the 1938 world champion calf roper. The town holds the trademark and a historical marker. Now, up the road, Stephenville will fight you over the title — so in 2025 the Legislature split the difference and made Bandera the Cowboy Capital of Texas, official. History runs deep here: back in the 1700s, Apaches and Spanish troops clashed at Bandera Pass. These days it's dude ranches, Saturday gunfight shows on Main Street, and Arkey Blue's Silver Dollar keeping the honky-tonk lit. An hour from San Antonio. Worth the drive.

RoadyGoat →

History of Bandera

Bandera, TX RoadyGoat

Founded in the 1850s by Polish Catholic settlers from Silesia, Bandera, Texas, has a rich history that shaped its identity. These settlers built St. Stanislaus Catholic Church, and their descendants still call the area home. The city's legacy as the 'Cowboy Capital of the World' dates back to its role as a staging area for the Great Western Cattle Trail during the last cattle drives of the 1800s. This history is a source of pride for locals and a key part of Bandera's identity.

Bandera, TX RoadyGoat

Bandera wasn't always the Cowboy Capital of the World, though stepping onto Main Street today, with its hitching posts and saddle shops, you might think it sprang fully formed from a Western movie. It began much more humbly, a rough-and-tumble settlement nestled in these rugged hills. The name itself comes from "bandera," Spanish for flag, marking a boundary line between territories. Imagine those early days – the 1850s – a few families carving out a life where the Medina River bends, the air already clear and dry at this elevation. What drew them here? Opportunity, mostly. The promise of timber. Bandera was a crucial processing and staging area for cypress shingles harvested along the Medina River. Those shingles helped build homes and businesses across the region. It wasn't easy. Life was hardscrabble, facing the elements and the ever-present threat of raids. But they persevered, and Bandera grew, slowly, steadily. Even the whispers of a lost Spanish silver mine somewhere in these hills couldn't distract them from the hard work of building a town, a community, a life rooted in this beautiful, unforgiving land where live oaks and juniper stand sentinel.

Bandera, TX RoadyGoat

Bandera proudly wears its nickname, the Cowboy Capital of the World, and it's more than just a catchy phrase. It's woven into the very fabric of the town, stemming from its history as a staging ground for the Great Western Cattle Trail. After Bandera was established, right on the edge of the Hill Country, it became a vital point for cowboys driving herds north. They'd rest, resupply, and let their cattle graze on the abundant native grasses carpeting the area before continuing on. The open range might be gone, but the spirit endures. You can still see it in the saddle shops lining Main Street, now officially State Highway 16. The drier air, the rolling hills dotted with live oak and juniper, it all contributes to the feeling that you're stepping back in time. Local ranches, some dating back generations, continue to raise cattle, passing down the traditions and skills of horsemanship that made Bandera famous in the first place. That history isn't just a story — it's a living part of the community, celebrated in rodeos, dances, and the everyday lives of the people who call this place home.

Bandera - Cowboy Capital of the World

1853

Bandera was a major staging point for cattle drives on the Great Western Trail. The town claims the title Cowboy Capital of the World.

Pilot's Lounge at Bandera Airpark

1945

Colonel John Henry "Jack" Lapham (1885-1956) was a son of a co-founder of the Texas Company (later Texaco). He was living in San Antonio by 1920 and had many business interests. Jack, his wife, Julie Edna (Capen), and their four children all had pilots' licenses and were known as "The Flying Laphams." Jack's second wife, Lucy Jane (Thomas), was also an accomplished pilot. Jack Lapham, a WWI and WWII veteran, was a retired Army Air Corps colonel with a dream to create the first "dude ranch airpark" in the United States. In 1945, he bought a 486-acre ranch near Bandera from Dr. J.O. and Ethel Butler and established the Flying L Ranch. By late 1946, the site featured an airstrip, villas, lounges, a pool and flight training school for WWII veterans. From the air, the villas were designed to appear as planes flying in formation. The Pilots' Lounge was designed as a two-story concrete block quonset hut trimmed with handmade oak arches and cedar siding with a concrete roof. The second story has a horseshoe-shaped balcony with wooden floors and handmade oak railing and stairs. A large southeast-facing window provided a view of the landing strip and grounds.
 A May 1947 "Fashion Rodeo" at the Flying L Ranch was featured in several magazines, including an article in LIFE. Photographer Cornell Capa captured the event with more than 100 pictures of the fashion show hosted by Stanley Marcus of Neiman Marcus. Col. Lapham's dream of establishing a series of similar properties never materialized, and he and three others were killed in a 1956 plane crash near the airpark. Several national brands including Coca-Cola and aircraft manufacturers have filmed commercials here and guests have ranged from families to celebrities. Western movie star John Wayne stayed at the ranch when he was filming The Alamo near Brackettville in 1959-60. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2016

Historical Marker →

Bandera, "Cowboy Capital of the World"

1874

The tradition of the Texas cowboy originated from northern Mexico with the vaqueros, individuals mounted on horseback who herded livestock, mainly cattle, through the open prairie. These men became legends in Bandera County. The City of Bandera became known as a cowboy town for recreation and obtaining supplies. Boys learned how to ride horses and drive cattle at a young age to earn wages on the ranches. The Western Cattle Trail extended from Mexico through Texas and up to the Canadian border and from 1874 to 1894, it is estimated that thirty thousand cowboys drove seven to ten million longhorns and one million horses through the trail using Bandera as a staging area. Local rodeos began in the 1920s when cowboys who worked the ranches started exhibiting their skills during roundups and on cattle drives. Bandera had its first rodeo in 1924 at Mansfield Park, where rodeos have continued through the years. The Buck and the Bruce ranches took in summer guests holding rodeos as entertainment. Others that followed were the Dixie Dude, Bennie's U-Bar, and the Twin Elm ranches. Bandera cowboys became famous by earning world champion titles and being inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. In 1938, Toots Mansfield was Bandera's first world champion in calf roping, earning this title on six additional occasions. He later became the first president of the National Rodeo Cowboy Association which was organized in 1945. In 1948, a San Antonio newspaper referenced Bandera as the "Cowboy Capital of the World." Since then, this title has been mentioned in numerous newspapers and magazines throughout the world. (2013)

Historical Marker →

Arkey Blue's Silver Dollar Saloon

1921

Located at 308 Main Street in downtown Bandera, Texas, this nightclub has hosted a number of local and national artists, including Robert Earl Keen, Willie Nelson, Charlie Robison, Johnny Bush, and Jay Hooker. The building was constructed in 1921 and opened as a social establishment called The Fox Hole. In the 1940s the dance hall became The Silver Dollar. In 1968 the venue was purchased by singer-songwriter, Arkey Juenke, who was born in nearby Gillespie County. After Juenke graduated from Fredericksburg High School, he began performing at Lost Valley Ranch, located east of Bandera. By 1968 Juenke had changed his name to Arkey Blue and bought the Silver Dollar Saloon where he still performed with his band, the Blue Cowboys, in the 2010s. Arkey Blue also has had several of his own songs featured in movies, including "Daddy's Sick Again" from the cult classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and "Living on Credit" and "Misty Hours of Daylight," from the 1975 Peter Fonda film Race with the Devil . In 2005 Arkey Blue was the first person to be inducted into the Bandera Music History Project Hall of Fame and he was named its Songwriter of the Year in 2011. The Hall of Fame proclaimed Arkey Blue's Silver Dollar Saloon to be a "Legendary Venue" in 2012. Named one of the top three honky-tonks in the state by Texas Highways magazine, the saloon celebrated its fiftieth anniversary as Arkey Blue's Silver Dollar Saloon in 2018 and has remained a popular live music venue for locals and tourists into the 2020s.

Tsha Handbook →

Bandera County

1853

Bandera County is twenty-five miles northwest of San Antonio in the Edwards Plateau region of southwest Texas. It is bordered by Kerr and Kendall counties on the north, Bexar County on the east, Medina and Uvalde counties on the south, and Real County on the west. The county seat and largest town is Bandera, and the center of the county lies at 29°45' north latitude and 99°11' west longitude. The county is crossed by State highways 16, 46, and 173 and Farm roads 187, 337, 470, and 1283. Bandera County comprises an area of 793 square miles, with elevations that range from 1,200 to 2,300 feet. The western part of the county is drained by the Sabinal River and the eastern part by the Medina River. The alkaline and generally shallow soils overlie limy subsoils. The vegetation consists primarily of grasses such as bluestems, grama, buffalo grass, winter grass, and wild ryes. Along the many streams of the county grow cedar, post oak, Spanish oak, live oak, pecan, and cypress trees. Deer and turkey are plentiful, but there are no large predators. The climate features dry and mild winters and warm summers. Temperatures range in January from an average low of 36° to an average high of 69° F, and in July from 69° to 95° F. The average annual rainfall is twenty-nine inches; the average relative humidity is 76 percent at 6 a.m. and 45 percent at 6 p.m. There is no significant snowfall. The growing season averages 235 days a year, with the last freeze in late March and the first freeze in mid-November. The region has been the site of human habitation for several thousand years. Archeological artifacts suggest that the earliest human inhabitants arrived around 6,000 to 10,000 years ago and settled in rockshelters. Lipan Apaches and, later, Comanches subsequently drifted into the area. The first Europeans to set foot in what is now Bandera County were the Spanish, who probably explored the region in the early eighteenth century. Bandera is Spanish for "flag," and there are a number of colorful accounts as to how the county was named. One has it that a Spanish general named Bandera led a punitive expedition in the area against the Apaches after the Indians raided San Antonio de Béxar. Another relates that after pursuing the Indians to Bandera Pass the Spanish left a flag or flags to warn them against future raids. And a third legend claims that in 1752 (or 1732) a council was held between Spanish and Indian leaders, during which the Spanish pledged never to go north of the pass if the Indians agreed to cease their raids in the south, and a red flag was placed on the pass as a symbol of the treaty. Though it is not clear if one or any of these accounts is true, the name was in use by 1842, when a group of Texas Rangers under the command of Col. John Coffee (Jack) Hays defeated a large party of Comanches at Bandera Pass. In 1852 John James , Charles S. DeMontel , and John J. Herndon entered into a partnership to acquire land "in and above the mountains, commencing ten or fifteen miles above Castroville." Their purpose was to establish a town on the Medina River with a sawmill in order to cut the huge cypress trees that grew there for shingles. In 1853, James and DeMontel surveyed and platted the town of Bandera, and in early 1853 A. M. Milstead, Thomas Odem, P. D. Saner, and their families camped along the river and began making cypress shingles. By the fall of the same year the firm of James, Montel and Company built a horse-powered sawmill and opened a commissary store. In March 1854 a group of Mormons led by elder Lyman Wight reached Bandera. The colony, numbering approximately 250, eventually settled a few miles below the town at a site known for many years as "Mormon Camp," which is now covered by Medina Lake. For a time the Mormons manufactured tables, chairs, and other furnishings, which they sold in San Antonio. But Wight died before the colony was fully established, and many of the colony moved on to Utah or set

Tsha Handbook →

Things to Do in Bandera

historical 19.6 mi away
The Nueces Massacre

In August 1862 sixty-eight German Unionists from the Comfort area fled south toward Mexico rather than fight for the Confederacy. Confederate soldiers caught…
historical 19.6 mi away
The Treue der Union Monument

Comfort's Treue der Union monument is the only memorial to Union soldiers on former Confederate soil south of the Mason-Dixon line. It honors thirty-four…
historical 19.5 mi away
The Freethinker Colony

Comfort was founded in 1854 by German intellectuals fleeing the failed revolutions of 1848. They were freethinkers -- educated liberals who opposed slavery and…
quirky 19.5 mi away
The Town With No Church

Comfort's German freethinker founders were so committed to separation of church and state that the town had no church building for its first forty years. They…
quirky 19.6 mi away
The Bald Cypress Tunnel

The Guadalupe River near Comfort runs through a tunnel of ancient bald cypress trees so thick the canopy blocks out the summer sun completely. Some of these…
historical 19.7 mi away
The Fachwerk Buildings

Comfort has the most intact collection of fachwerk -- German half-timber construction -- in Texas. The settlers used the same building techniques their…
food 0.2 mi away
OST Restaurant

Old Spanish Trail, on Main Street in Bandera — the Cowboy Capital's town cafe since 1921. Chuckwagon breakfast bar, mounted longhorn over the door, and a John…
quirky 19.4 mi away
The Antique Capital of the Hill Country

Comfort's main street has more antique shops per capita than arguably any town in Texas. The old limestone and half-timber buildings that line High Street have…
day trip
Day Trip to Bandera 🐴 (FULL EPISODE) S9 E9

Featured on The Daytripper — a full-episode local travel guide.

Everything Near Bandera

175 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

  • Arkey Blue's Silver Dollar

    This place started life back in the nineteen-twenties under a rougher name — the Fox Hole. By the forties it had cleaned up into a dance hall and taken the name it still wears: the Silver Dollar. Then in 1968 a…

  • Bandera

    Bandera calls itself the Cowboy Capital, and it's got the papers to back most of it. The name traces to a San Antonio newspaper in 1948, and it's grounded in real ground — this was a staging area for the Great Western…

  • Bandera, TX

    Founded in the 1850s by Polish Catholic settlers from Silesia, Bandera, Texas, has a rich history that shaped its identity. These settlers built St. Stanislaus Catholic Church, and their descendants still call the area…

  • Bandera - Cowboy Capital of the World · Historical Marker

    Bandera was a major staging point for cattle drives on the Great Western Trail. The town claims the title Cowboy Capital of the World.

  • Bandera - Cowboy Capital of the World · Historical Marker

    Historic frontier town in the Hill Country with deep ranching roots and eleven dude ranches within thirty miles. Calls itself the Cowboy Capital of the World.

  • Bandera Methodist Church · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Bandera Methodist Church, a Gothic Revival beauty built in 1880. Its hand-cut limestone and oak timbers were assembled by members under B.F. Langford, Sr. Even with later additions, it keeps its…

  • The Silesian Families Who Came for Mill Work and Stayed · 0.1 mi

    Walk the streets and read the old grave markers and you keep meeting the same surnames: Adamietz, Anderwald, Dugosh, Mazurek, Pyka, Kalka, Kindla, Knappick. They belong to the Polish-speaking families from Upper Silesia…

  • Bandera's Seven-Time World Champion Roper · 0.1 mi

    Of all the cowboys this self-styled Cowboy Capital has produced, Coy Herman Mansfield, known to everyone as Toots, is the one with the buckles to prove it. Born in Bandera in 1914, he started roping calves as a teenager…

  • The Giant Concrete Dam at the County's Edge · 0.1 mi

    Down in the southeastern corner of Bandera County, where the river backs up into Medina Lake, stands a piece of engineering that was briefly one of the most ambitious in the country. The Medina Dam was built between…

  • Pilot's Lounge at Bandera Airpark · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    Colonel John Henry "Jack" Lapham (1885-1956) was a son of a co-founder of the Texas Company (later Texaco). He was living in San Antonio by 1920 and had many business interests. Jack, his wife, Julie Edna (Capen), and…

  • Bandera, "Cowboy Capital of the World" · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    The tradition of the Texas cowboy originated from northern Mexico with the vaqueros, individuals mounted on horseback who herded livestock, mainly cattle, through the open prairie. These men became legends in Bandera…

  • Arkey Blue's Silver Dollar Saloon · 0.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Located at 308 Main Street in downtown Bandera, Texas, this nightclub has hosted a number of local and national artists, including Robert Earl Keen, Willie Nelson, Charlie Robison, Johnny Bush, and Jay Hooker. The…

Show all 175 nearby places
  • Texas Ranger Trail · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the heart of the Texas Hill Country, and right here, you're passing along what was once the Texas Ranger Trail. This wasn't just any road; this 100-mile route from San Antonio to Kerrville was a…

  • Great Western Cattle Trail · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the starting point of one of the longest cattle drives in history! The Great Western Cattle Trail, also known as the Old Texas Trail, began right around here near Bandera. From the 1870s to the…

  • The Pass That Gave the Town Its Name · 0.1 mi

    The name on every sign here comes from Bandera Pass, a narrow gap in the limestone hills about ten miles north of town where an old route between the San Antonio area and the upper country squeezes between the cliffs.…

  • The Cypress That Built San Antonio's Roofs · 0.1 mi

    Bandera exists because of the bald cypress that crowds the Medina River right through the middle of town. In 1852 three men, John James, Charles de Montel, and John Herndon, formed a partnership to plat a town here and…

  • The Last Stop Before the Long Drive North · 0.1 mi

    The Cowboy Capital nickname is not just marketing. In the last quarter of the 1800s Bandera sat on the Great Western Cattle Trail, the route that pushed longhorns north out of South Texas toward the Kansas railheads.…

  • How a Cattle Town Learned to Take in Dudes · 0.1 mi

    By the 1920s the open-range cattle business was fading, and Bandera ranchers found a new crop: city people who would pay to play cowboy. Texas dude ranching essentially started here. Around 1920 the Buck Ranch began…

  • The Architect Who Died Before His Courthouse Was Finished · 0.1 mi

    The three-story limestone building with the clock tower anchoring the square is the Bandera County Courthouse, built in 1890 and 1891 of white limestone quarried right around here. It was designed by a busy San Antonio…

  • Bandera County · 0.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Bandera County is twenty-five miles northwest of San Antonio in the Edwards Plateau region of southwest Texas. It is bordered by Kerr and Kendall counties on the north, Bexar County on the east, Medina and Uvalde…

  • Phillips, Captain Jack · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Bandera County, not far from where Captain Jack Phillips met his end. A deputy sheriff, Phillips rode out alone on December 29th, 1876, on an official visit. But he was ambushed by Native…

  • Mormon Settlers in Bandera Cournty · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Bandera County, where in March of 1854, a group of 250 Mormon settlers arrived. Led by elder Lyman Wight, who had split from Brigham Young's main followers, they were seeking a new home. After…

  • Camp Montel, C.S.A. · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Bandera County, where in 1862, Camp Montel was established as part of the Confederacy's defense line. Named for Captain Charles DeMontel, this camp housed frontier troops who often lacked supplies…

  • Bandera, TX · 0.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Bandera, a town that owes its existence to a partnership formed way back in 1853. John James, Charles DeMontel, and John Herndon wanted to build a town and a water-powered lumber mill right here…

  • Bandera County Courthouse · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Bandera County Courthouse, built between 1890 and 1891. This was the county's first permanent courthouse, replacing makeshift offices. It's a local take on the Second Renaissance Revival style,…

  • Bandera's First Bank · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Bandera's First Bank. Bandera's First Bank. On Texas Republic land grant. Hand-cut native rock. Built about 1860.

  • Chisum, Isham · 0.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Isham Chisum, farmer and Confederate officer, was born on August 5, 1818, in Mississippi, the son of Parmellia (Roberts) and Isham Chisum. On January 16, 1841, he married Charlotte Martin of Nacogdoches County. Chisum…

  • Arkey Blue's Silver Dollar · 0.2 mi

    Arkey Blue's Silver Dollar in Bandera, the Cowboy Capital of Texas, is the oldest continuously operating honky-tonk in the state. A red door on Main Street leads down to a sawdust dance floor and walls of memorabilia;…

  • The Limestone Museum Full of Two-Headed Things · 0.2 mi

    On the high ground of Bandera sits one of the strangest small-town museums in Texas. Newspaperman and historian J. Marvin Hunter, who bought the local paper and launched a magazine called Frontier Times in 1927, kept…

  • Warren Hunter · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Warren Hunter. Artist John Warren Hunter (1903-93), son of J. Marvin Hunter, was born in Kimble County and known for his scenic depictions of Texas. A 1923 graduate of Bandera High School, he soon…

  • Bandera Water Works Complex · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Bandera, and right here is the historic Bandera Water Works Complex. Back in 1936, Walter Trenklebach bought the local water franchise, expanding service and pushing for modernization. By 1938,…

  • Bandera Historic Town Center · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Bandera, a town with roots stretching back to the 1840s. German immigrant Charles de Montel and John James surveyed this area, buying land in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1841</say-as>.…

  • OST Restaurant · 0.2 mi · Things to Do

    Old Spanish Trail, on Main Street in Bandera — the Cowboy Capital's town cafe since 1921. Chuckwagon breakfast bar, mounted longhorn over the door, and a John…

  • A Century of Plates on Main Street · 0.2 mi

    If you want to eat where Bandera has been eating for generations, the Old Spanish Trail, known to locals simply as the OST, is the spot, parked at 311 Main Street right in the heart of the old downtown. The building…

  • Huffmeyer Store · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Bandera's oldest building, the Huffmeyer Store. Built in 1873 from native stone, it served this frontier town as a general store for over thirty years. Imagine the goods that passed through these…

  • Benjamin Franklin and Mary Hay Langford, Jr. Home · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Bandera, and right here is the home of Benjamin Franklin and Mary Hay Langford, Jr. This house has roots going back to the earliest days of Bandera's settlement. It was built for the Miller family…

  • Frontier Times Museum · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Frontier Times Museum in Bandera. This building, constructed in 1933, was built to house the incredible Western collection of J. Marvin Hunter, Sr. Hunter was a noted historian, journalist, and…

  • Old Jail & Courthouse · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Old Jail and Courthouse in Bandera, built way back in 1881. This sturdy building, made with local stone and cypress floors, served as the county offices for nearly a decade. It stood for 57…

  • First Bandera County Courthouse · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past First Bandera County Courthouse. Georgia stonemason Henry White is credited with building this structure in 1868. In 1877, a store occupied the first floor and the Masonic Lodge met on the top floor.…

  • Giant Longhorn Skull · 0.3 mi · Things to Do

    A roughly 12-foot-tall fiberglass longhorn skull about 50 feet horn-to-horn made by German-born artist Karl Koenig and originally built for a Houston Longhorn…

  • St. Stanislaus Convent and First Catholic School · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the St. Stanislaus Convent and First Catholic School, built by Polish settlers in 1874. Classes moved out in 1882, and the convent was expanded in 1922 before the Sisters moved in 1963. The parish…

  • The Mills of Bandera · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Bandera, a town that owes its very existence to a handful of ambitious mill owners. Back in 1852, A.M. Milstead, Thomas Odem, and P.D. Saner were hacking out cypress shingles by hand near the…

  • Schimdtke-Callahan House · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Schmidtke-Callahan House, a limestone gem built in the 1870s. It was constructed by Georgia stonemason James Henry White for Charles F. Schmidtke, a German immigrant who became a key merchant and…

  • Mormons, then Polish immigrants arrived · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Bandera County, a place with a history as rugged as its landscape. This area was a key Indian point, seeing clashes between Rangers and Comanches as early as 1843. By the mid-1850s, it became a…

  • Bandera County · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker

    A strategic Indian point in early days. Rangers and Comanches struggled here in 1843. In 1854 Elder Lyman Wight settled Mormon colony. In 1855 Poles settled here. From early days a part of Bexar County, created and…

  • Bandera Cemetery · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Bandera Cemetery, a resting place that's been serving this community since the 1850s. The oldest known burial here dates back to 1851, even before Bandera itself was officially founded. This…

  • The Dance Hall Where Bob Wills Played First · 0.6 mi

    For most of the twentieth century the biggest room in Bandera was the Cabaret Dance Hall on Main Street, a barn of a venue that opened in 1936 and could pack in around 1,200 two-steppers. The story Bandera tells is that…

  • Hendrick Arnold Survey No. 59 Colored Burial Ground · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Hendrick Arnold Survey No. 59 Colored Burial Ground. Freedman and soldier Hendrick Arnold (1804-1849) was awarded land following the Texas Revolution for his participation in the Siege of Bexar and…

  • The Polish Church on the Frontier · 1.7 mi

    If you get a chance to see one building in Bandera, make it St. Stanislaus Catholic Church. It’s not just a beautiful old stone church; it’s the heart of the town’s origin story. When Polish immigrants arrived here in…

  • Staging Ground for the Great Western Trail · 1.7 mi

    The streets you're driving on now were once the last patch of civilization for thousands of cowboys. From 1874 to about 1886, Bandera was a major staging area for the Great Western Trail, the legendary cattle path to…

  • Arkey Blue's: The Downstairs Honky-Tonk · 1.7 mi

    In a town full of cowboy history, some of the best of it is still alive and kicking in a basement. If you look for the Silver Dollar Saloon on Main Street, you'll find a staircase leading down to Arkey Blue's, one of…

  • The Trees That Built the Town · 1.7 mi

    Before the cowboys and settlers, the first story of Bandera was a story of trees. The town owes its existence to the majestic Bald Cypress, or Taxodium distichum, lining the Medina River. These aren't just any trees.…

  • Clark Family Cemetery · 3.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Bandera County, passing the final resting place of Amasa Clark, a true pioneer. Clark wasn't just any settler; he was a veteran of the Mexican War and the very first permanent resident of Bandera.…

  • The Marine Who Went Into the Medina · 3.8 mi

    The Master Sergeant Rodney Lee Buentello Memorial Highway follows State Highway One Seventy Three out of Bandera, from the south end of the bridge over the Medina River to the Medina County line. That river is where…

  • The Scout Who Chased Camels and Built a Chapel · 6.0 mi

    Just northwest of Pipe Creek stands a small stone chapel built by one of the frontier's most remarkable figures. Jose Policarpio Rodriguez, born in 1829 near Zaragoza, Mexico, was a surveyor and U.S. Army scout who…

  • Polly's Chapel · 6.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Bandera County, and just ahead is Polly's Chapel. This isn't just any chapel; it was built by Policarpo Rodriguez, a Texas Ranger, Army Scout, and Guide who settled Privilege Creek back in 1858.…

  • Battle of Bandera Pass · 6.8 mi

    Bandera Pass is a narrow gap through the hills on what is now State Highway 173, and in 1842 it became the site of a fight that changed frontier warfare forever. Captain Jack Coffee Hays and forty Texas Rangers rode…

  • Hix Ranch House · 7.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Hix Ranch House, a testament to frontier life in Bandera County. Built for Fabian L. Hicks, a Texas Ranger and local official, this stone and cypress home was styled after his family's place back…

  • Old Buck Ranch · 7.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, near Bandera, where you might just pass the Old Buck Ranch. It was settled in 1867 by Judge Edward M. Ross, a New Yorker who'd fought in the Mexican War and even served at…

  • Old English-Crist Home · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Pipe Creek, and just ahead is the site of the Old English-Crist Home. This cabin, built around 1888 by J.W. English, wasn't just a house; it was a lifeline. Located near a key crossing of the…

  • How Pipe Creek Got Its Name · 8.3 mi

    The creek came before the town, and so did the story. By most accounts the stream was named around 1852 after a westward-bound pioneer lost his tobacco pipe in its waters. The most colorful version says a settler…

  • The Spring-Fed River That Feeds the Aquifer · 8.8 mi

    The clear water that slides past Pipe Creek is doing quiet geologic work. The Medina River rises from springs in the Edwards Plateau of northwest Bandera County and runs about 120 miles to meet the San Antonio River in…

  • Bandera Pass · 9.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Bandera Pass, a name that echoes with the clash of cultures on the Texas frontier. For centuries, this was a vital corridor through the mountains, known from the earliest days of Spanish…

  • The Lights and the Headless Rider of Bandera Pass · 9.4 mi

    After dark, the legend of Bandera Pass takes over from the history. The same rocky gap north of town that gave Bandera its name has long been the subject of ghost stories told around Hill Country campfires. Drivers…

  • Spanish fought Apaches in the 1730s · 9.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Bandera Pass, a natural cut through the hills that's been a vital corridor for centuries. Spanish soldiers fought Apaches here in the 1730s, and later, Texas Rangers and Comanche warriors clashed…

  • Bandera Pass · 9.6 mi · Historical Marker

    The prominent feature known as Bandera Pass is a notable landmark in the topography and history of the region. The pass is a narrow natural cut through a chain of hills which run roughly east and west and divide the…

  • Highway One Seventy Three and Westmoreland's Fire Brigade · 9.8 mi

    State Highway One Seventy Three, from near Kerrville down to near Jourdanton, is the One Seventy Third Airborne Brigade Memorial Highway. The highway and the brigade share a number. Texas lawmakers passed the…

  • Camp Verde - U.S. Camel Corps · 10.7 mi · Historical Marker

    In 1856, the U.S. Army did something genuinely bizarre: it imported 66 camels from Egypt, Turkey, and Tunisia to this outpost in the Texas Hill Country. The idea came from Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, who believed…

  • Lost Maples State Natural Area · 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, and right here is Lost Maples State Natural Area. For thousands of years, this rugged canyon has been a natural refuge, but what folks really come for is the spectacular…

  • Polly, TX · 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Polly, also known as the J. P. Rodriguez Settlement, is a small rural community located approximately six miles northeast of Bandera and two miles north of State Highway 16 in eastern Bandera County. In 1858 noted U. S.…

  • Vanderpool, TX · 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Vanderpool is on State Highway 187 ten miles north of Utopia and thirty miles west of Bandera in western Bandera County. The land on which it is located was given as a headright certificate by the Republic of Texas to…

  • Bluff, TX (Bandera County) · 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Bandera County, and right here on Wallace Creek, you're passing through the site of Bluff. This tiny spot owes its name to a general store and post office that opened in 1906, right by a bluff…

  • Pipe Creek, TX · 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    The Pipe Creek community is on State Highway 16 about nine miles east of Bandera in eastern Bandera County. The town was founded about 1870 and was named for nearby Pipe Creek. The first settler of the community,…

  • Spettel Riverside House · 11.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Spettel Riverside House, a place that was once a popular stop for travelers. John B. Spettel, Jr. was a successful cattleman in this area, and by 1881, he and his wife Theresa were…

  • Lakehills, TX · 11.2 mi

    Lakehills is situated on Medina Lake, a significant geographical feature that has greatly influenced the area's development and economy. The town's prosperity is closely tied to the lake's water levels, which have…

  • Historic Log Cribs · 11.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country near Medina, and you might spot these historic log cribs. Built by the Walker family starting in 1897, they were used to store feed for livestock. The craftsmanship shows…

  • Old Stanard Home · 11.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Old Stanard Home in Medina. Land here was once owned by Confederate General John Bell Hood, but hostile Indians kept folks from building until 1878. The Standard family has owned this property…

  • Camp Verde General Store and Post Office · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Camp Verde General Store, which has a wild story tied to the U.S. Army's bizarre camel experiment. In 1857, this mercantile opened as the Williams Community Store, right near the Army…

  • Camp Verde, C.S.A. · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Kerr County, Texas, where during the Civil War, a frontier regiment outpost was established in 1862, not far from the old U.S. post, Camp Verde. These Confederate troops were tasked with guarding…

  • Camp Verde · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Camp Verde, a U.S. Army frontier post established way back in July of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1855</say-as>. This place became the headquarters for a truly bizarre…

  • One Mile to Ruins of Camp Verde · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Camp Verde, a frontier post established by the U.S. Army way back in July of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1855</say-as>.<break time="400ms"/> By <say-as interpret-as="date"…

  • Penateka Comanches · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the heart of the Edwards Plateau, a land once dominated by the Penateka Comanches. The 'honey eaters,' they called themselves, and their range stretched from right here all the way to the…

  • Newcomer, Joe H. · 12.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Medina, and you might be passing the final resting place of Joe H. Newcomer. Newcomer wasn't just one thing; he wore many hats across Texas. He served as a Special Texas Ranger and Deputy Sheriff…

  • Tarpley, TX · 13.0 mi · Local history

    Nestled in the rolling hills of Bandera County, Tarpley's name speaks to its very beginnings. The community took its name from the Tarpley family, early settlers who carved a life out of the rugged Edwards Plateau. This…

  • A Songbird Sanctuary in the Limestone Hills · 14.2 mi

    On Highway 46 east of Pipe Creek lies 3,852 acres of protected Hill Country: the Albert and Bessie Kronkosky State Natural Area. The Kronoskys willed their ranch to Texas, and the state accepted the donation in March…

  • The Rangers' Own Arlington · 14.5 mi

    The land here was bought for a church and cemetery in 1872, expanded in 1881 and again in 1901 to about 5.3 acres. Roughly 1,452 graves have been located, the oldest being Lydia Burney, who was born in 1795. But the…

  • Center Point, TX (Camp County) · 14.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Camp County, heading southeast of Pittsburg. Right here is the site of Center Point, a community founded by formerly enslaved people shortly after emancipation in 1865. It got its name because the…

  • Center Point, TX (Kerr County) · 14.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Center Point, a town with a name that's more descriptive than you might think. It wasn't always called Center Point, though. Back in 1859, early settler Dr. Charles de Ganahl opened a post office…

  • Burney, Jesse Green · 14.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Hill Country, maybe near Center Point in Kerr County. Right here, Jesse Green Burney was farming and building a political career. In 1895, he took his seat in the Texas House as one of the…

  • N.O. Reynolds · 14.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Center Point, and right here is the final resting place of N.O. Reynolds, a lawman who made his mark on Texas history. Born in Pennsylvania and a Civil War veteran, Reynolds enlisted as a Texas…

  • Center Point Cemetery · 14.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Center Point Cemetery, a resting place for over 1,400 souls. The town of Center Point itself was named Zanzenberg by Dr. Charles Ganahl, who emigrated from Austria, before settling on the name Center…

  • Cow Camp Massacre on Hondo Creek · 15.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Hondo Creek, the site of a deadly encounter in the mid-1800s. It was January 27, 1866. Three young men – August Rothe, George Miller, and Hubert Weynand – left their homes near D'Hanis to find stray…

  • Mosty Brothers Nursery · 15.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Mosty Brothers Nursery. MOSTY BROTHERS NURSERY A son of Belgian immigrants, Leander A. Mosty worked as a cattle driver and broker in Kansas before migrating to Kerr County in 1897. Sensing a market…

  • Cypress Creek Cemetery · 15.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Cypress Creek Cemetery, a quiet link to the 19th-century heritage of this community. The oldest marked grave here is Laura Steves Boerner, who died in 1861. Her husband, Wilhelm, was killed at the…

  • Center Point Christian Church · 15.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Center Point Christian Church, a community pillar for over 135 years. Founded in 1879 by traveling minister Green L. Surber, the church saw its first building burn down in 1888 but…

  • Center Point School · 15.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Center Point's first official school building. Before this limestone structure went up in 1911, classes were held in shacks and homes, and later in a building called the Center Point…

  • The Town That Named Itself the Middle · 15.2 mi

    Center Point sits on the Guadalupe River about eight miles southeast of Kerrville, and its name is a plain statement of geography. In 1859 Charles de Ganahl opened a post office inside his home on the north bank and…

  • The Bald Conifer Guarding the River · 15.2 mi

    The giant trees leaning over the Guadalupe at Center Point are bald cypress, and they are stranger than they look. Bald cypress is a conifer, a cone-bearing cousin of pines and firs, yet it drops its needles every fall,…

  • Woolls Building · 15.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Woolls Building, one of Center Point's oldest commercial structures. Built between 1873 and 1875, it housed a mercantile business on the first floor and fraternal organizations upstairs. Notably,…

  • Center Point United Methodist Church · 15.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Center Point United Methodist Church. Mrs. Henrietta Rees arranged for Methodist circuit riders to serve this area starting in 1852. Land was purchased for a church in 1872, and the…

  • Its engineer died on the Lusitania · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Medina Dam, completed in 1912. It was the largest dam in Texas and fourth largest in the U.S. at the time, built with massive concrete and limestone boulders. Sadly, its visionary…

  • Medina Dam · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker

    Henri Castro, who colonized this area in the 1840s, envisioned irrigated farms along the Medina River. The project was delayed, however, until after the turn of the century, when Dr. Fred Stark Pearson, an…

  • Medina Dam · 15.4 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    Prepare to be amazed! You're approaching Medina Dam, a testament to early 20th-century engineering that tamed the Medina River. Built between 1911 and 1912 by the Medina Irrigation Company, this hollow-masonry dam was…

  • Mountain Valley · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Mountain Valley, a Mormon settlement that vanished beneath the waters of Medina Lake. In 1854, sixteen families, led by Lyman Wight, built their homes and mills here. But just four years…

  • Rising Star Lodge No. 429, A.F. & A.M. · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Rising Star Lodge No. 429, chartered way back in 1875. Their first meeting hall burned down in 1900, taking all their records with it. The lodge met in another building until moving…

  • Zanzenberg · 15.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Center Point, and you're passing the site of Zanzenberg, home of Dr. Charles De Ganahl. He was a key figure here, a signer of the Texas Articles of Secession in 1861 and served as an Army Surgeon…

  • Apelt Armadillo Farm · 17.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of a truly unique Texas business: the Apelt Armadillo Farm. In the late 1890s, German immigrant Charles Apelt discovered a use for the armadillo's shell. He started the Armadillo Basket…

  • Wharton Cemetery · 17.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Center Point, and just off the road is Wharton Cemetery. This isn't just any old graveyard; it's the final resting place of William Watson Wharton, one of Kerr County's earliest settlers. He…

  • The Army's Camel Experiment · 17.3 mi

    In eighteen fifty-six, the United States Army imported seventy-five camels from Egypt, Tunisia, and Turkey and brought them to Camp Verde, Texas — roughly forty miles southwest of present-day Kerrville. The experiment…

  • Hermann Sons Home for the Aged · 17.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Hermann Sons Home for the Aged. This fraternal group, originally for people of German descent, started its first Texas lodge way back in 1860. By 1913, they decided to build something…

  • Gallagher Ranch · 17.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Gallagher Ranch, a place built by an Irish immigrant who saw a lot of Texas history. Peter Gallagher, an engineer, merchant, and ranger, built this stone house and fort in the mid-1800s. Look…

  • The Ranch That Becomes a Songwriter's Town · 18.2 mi

    You're pulling onto Quiet Valley Ranch, nine miles south of Kerrville on the Medina Highway, home of the Kerrville Folk Festival since Rod Kennedy and Nancylee Davis started it in 1972. For nearly three weeks every late…

  • Stoneleigh Ranch · 18.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the historic Stoneleigh Ranch, a place with roots stretching back to 1878. That's when George L. Leigh, seeking better health, arrived in Kerr County. He started a mercantile and even served as…

  • W. G. Hughes · 18.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the Boerne area, and just off Highway 46, you might catch a glimpse of the historic Hughes Ranch headquarters. This place was the heart of a booming operation started by William George Hughes, who…

  • Hanisch House · 19.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Comfort, Texas, and right here is the Hanisch House, built starting in 1857. Emil Serger and Paul Hanisch used local cypress trees to build the log portion, and get this – it housed the very first…

  • From Tivy High School to the Highway Patrol · 19.1 mi

    Interstate Ten in Kendall County, from mile marker five twenty two to mile marker five thirty five near Comfort, is the Trooper Kurt David Knapp Memorial Highway. Kurt Knapp was born in Prescott, Arizona, and raised in…

  • Freidenker · 19.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, a place that attracted some unique settlers. Between 1845 and 1861, German "Freethinkers," or Freidenker, arrived here. These weren't your typical immigrants; they were…

  • Hermann and Antoine Ingenhuett Homestead · 19.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Hermann and Antoine Ingenhuett Homestead, a place that tells a story of German-Texan heritage right here in Comfort. Married in 1895, Hermann and Antoine Ingenhuett built their lives on this…

  • "Treue Der Union" · 19.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Comfort, Texas, a place where loyalty to the Union cost lives during the Civil War. Look around, and imagine 68 men, mostly German immigrants, determined to reach Union troops. They tried to sneak…

  • Faltin, August, Building · 19.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Comfort, and right here is the August Faltin Building. Born in Prussia in 1830, Friedrich August Faltin arrived in Texas in 1856. He took over a general store right on this spot, eventually…

  • Texas Lions Camp · 19.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Texas Lions Camp, a place born from a polio epidemic and a vision for kids. Back in 1948, local Lion Jack Roe saw handicapped children turned away from summer camps. He vowed to create a place…

  • The Antique Capital of the Hill Country · 19.4 mi · Things to Do

    Comfort's main street has more antique shops per capita than arguably any town in Texas. The old limestone and half-timber buildings that line High Street have…

  • Lunch in the Old Firehouse on High Street · 19.4 mi

    When you need a stop in the historic district, High's Cafe & Store at 726 High Street is the easy call, and the building has a story of its own. The cafe sits in the original Comfort Volunteer Fire Department building,…

  • Comfort State Bank Building · 19.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Comfort, and right here is a building that tells a story of local business and community. Constructed in 1907, this was the Comfort State Bank for over fifty years, closing its doors in 1960. Look…

  • Ingenhuett, Peter Joseph · 19.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Peter Joseph Ingenhuett home here in Comfort. Ingenhuett arrived from Germany in the 1850s, settling on a farm before moving into town in 1867. He and his wife, Marie, built a life…

  • Comfort Community Theatre · 19.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Comfort Community Theatre, a building that's been the heart of this town for nearly a century! Back in 1930, local leaders pooled their resources to build this civic center. Designed by architect…

  • Turtle Creek School and Cemetery · 19.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the Turtle Creek area, just west of Kerrville. Look for the old schoolhouse and cemetery – a testament to the pioneer settlers who carved out a life here. The oldest marked grave belongs to Miles…

  • Gass Schmiede · 19.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Gass Schmiede. This limestone-block building was built in 1890 as a blacksmith shop ("schmiede") for Jacob Gass (1845-1913). Rock mason J. Gottlieb Lorbeer worked on the lower level for almost a…

  • Karger Building · 19.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Karger Building, constructed in 1913 by Ernst Karger, who ran a saloon next door. Fritz Anderwald's pool hall was the first tenant, and later businesses included a cabinetry shop after 1951. The…

  • Comfort School · 19.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Comfort, the site of its first permanent schoolhouse, built between 1892 and 1893. This three-room limestone building, complete with a bell tower, replaced earlier log cabins and frame structures…

  • Loyalty To The Union, In Stone · 19.5 mi

    On High Street here in Comfort, Texas, stands a limestone monument you would not expect to find anywhere in the old Confederacy. It is called Treue der Union, German for loyalty to the Union, and it marks the hardest…

  • A Town Named For A Feeling · 19.5 mi

    Here's a town whose name is really a translation. Comfort, Texas, sits along Cypress Creek in the Hill Country, and it was laid out in eighteen fifty-four by a young German surveyor named Ernst Hermann Altgelt. German…

  • The Surveyor Who Named Two Places · 19.5 mi

    The man who drew the town of Comfort deserves a closer look. Ernst Hermann Altgelt was born in eighteen thirty-two in Dusseldorf, into a prominent Rhineland family, and he crossed to America at age twenty. Right here in…

  • The Town With No Church · 19.5 mi

    Comfort's founders were freethinkers, part of a wave of educated German liberals who prized reason and kept a deliberate distance from organized religion. That conviction left a strange and very specific mark on the…

  • Comfort - Treue der Union Monument · 19.5 mi · Historical Marker

    Not everyone in Texas supported the Confederacy. The German settlers around Comfort had come to Texas partly to escape Prussian militarism, and they wanted no part of a slaveholders' war. When Texas seceded, the Hill…

  • The Town the Freethinkers Built Where the Creek Meets the River · 19.5 mi

    You're rolling into a town that was planned, not just settled. In 1852 a band of educated Germans from New Braunfels pushed up here to where Cypress Creek runs down into the Guadalupe River, drawn by clear water and…

  • Forty Years, No Church, by Design · 19.5 mi

    Here is the fact that startles most people who stop in Comfort: for roughly the first forty years of its existence, this town had no church at all, and that was the plan. The German freethinkers who founded the place in…

  • The English Architect Who Gave Comfort Its Stone Face · 19.5 mi

    The handsome limestone storefronts along High Street aren't accidental. Many were drawn by Alfred Giles, an English-born architect who came to San Antonio in 1875 and became the region's most sought-after designer.…

  • The Limestone Obelisk on High Street · 19.5 mi

    On High Street, between Third and Fourth, stands a plain limestone obelisk that is one of the most significant historic markers in Texas. The Treue der Union Monument, German for Loyalty to the Union, was dedicated in…

  • The Word That Would Not Translate · 19.5 mi

    You're passing through Comfort, a small town in the Texas Hill Country whose name started life as the German word Gemuetlichkeit. Sit with that word for a minute, because it is famous for being hard to carry across a…

  • The Angora Goat King Of The World · 19.5 mi

    Here in Comfort, in the Texas Hill Country, there was once a title a local man could actually earn: Angora Goat King of the World. In the nineteen forties and fifties, when the Hill Country was one of the planet's great…

  • Why The Ground Here Burns White · 19.5 mi

    Look at the ground you are standing on. Comfort rests on the edge of the Edwards Plateau, the great limestone shelf that gives the Hill Country its pale bluffs, its clear spring-fed creeks, and its thin rocky soil. That…

  • One Cozy Word, Unspooled · 19.5 mi

    So think about how much one gentle little town name can hold. Comfort began as Gemuetlichkeit, a German word for warmth and belonging that simply would not fit in English, so the settlers traded it for the nearest plain…

  • Comfort, TX · 19.5 mi

    In 1854, Comfort was established by German immigrants who were Freethinkers and abolitionists. Ernst Hermann Altgelt, at the age of 22, is credited with surveying and measuring the lots that were later sold to the…

  • The Town With No Church · 19.5 mi · Things to Do

    Comfort's German freethinker founders were so committed to separation of church and state that the town had no church building for its first forty years. They…

  • The Freethinker Colony · 19.5 mi · Things to Do

    Comfort was founded in 1854 by German intellectuals fleeing the failed revolutions of 1848. They were freethinkers -- educated liberals who opposed slavery and…

  • The Founder Who Left, and the Families Whose Names Stuck · 19.5 mi

    The man who drew this town on the ground was barely more than a kid. Ernst Hermann Altgelt was born in Dusseldorf on the Rhine in 1832, the son of a city official, trained as a lawyer, and served a stint as a Prussian…

  • Texas's Oldest General Store, and the Fire That Took It · 19.5 mi

    For well over a century, the Ingenhuett Store on High Street was the beating heart of Comfort's commerce. The Ingenhuett family ran a general store on this site beginning in 1867, and in 1883 they hired architect Alfred…

  • The Goat King and the Life Magazine Photographer · 19.5 mi

    In the 1940s and 1950s the Texas Hill Country was the wool and mohair capital of the country, and no one embodied that boom like Adolph Stieler, a Comfort rancher crowned the Angora Goat King of the World. From his…

  • When Amelia's Rains Turned the Guadalupe Loose · 19.5 mi

    Comfort sits in the crook where Cypress Creek empties into the Guadalupe River, which is beautiful most of the year and dangerous in the wrong storm. The town learned that hard lesson over and over, in floods recorded…

  • Seashells on the Graves, 200 Miles From the Sea · 19.5 mi

    Wander the old section of Comfort Cemetery, out on Third Street, and you'll find something that stops people cold: graves blanketed in seashells, here in a Hill Country town nearly two hundred miles from the nearest…

  • Fachwerk: The Building Science Hidden in the Walls · 19.5 mi

    Look closely at Comfort's oldest German houses and you're looking at an engineering choice, not just an old-country style. The settlers brought a building method called fachwerk, in which a rigid skeleton of heavy…

  • Meyer Hotel Complex · 19.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Comfort, where Frederich Christian Meyer, a German immigrant wheelwright, established a stage stop and weight station back in 1862. He later expanded his log cabin into a home and, with his wife…

  • The Old Comfort Bridge Bats · 19.5 mi · Things to Do

    The old highway bridge on the edge of Comfort hosts a colony of Mexican free-tailed bats that pour out at dusk every summer evening. It is a smaller show than…

  • The Ingenhuett Store · 19.5 mi · Things to Do

    The Ingenhuett Store has operated on Comfort's High Street since 1867 making it one of the oldest general stores in continuous operation in Texas. The…

  • Schwethelm, Arno Building · 19.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Arno Schwethelm Building in Comfort. Look for this prominent local merchant's mercantile business, built in 1916. It was a leading establishment in the Hill Country. Designed by L. Harrington of…

  • Comfort Post Office · 19.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Comfort, and right here is a building that served this town for decades. Before this structure went up in 1910, the post office bounced around in local stores, starting way back in 1856. But this…

  • Ingenhuett-Faust Hotel · 19.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Ingenhuett-Faust Hotel in Comfort, a place that's seen over six decades of Texas hospitality. The older section, with its charming jig-cut brackets, went up in 1880. Seven years later, the…

  • Hein, Ludwig · 19.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the former Ludwig Hein home, a Victorian gem in Comfort. Hein himself arrived from Germany in 1877, marrying Rosa Treiber and building this house for his family before 1900. He ran a blacksmith shop…

  • Brinkmann, Otto · 19.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Comfort, and right here stands a piece of German heritage in Texas architecture. This cottage, built in 1860 by Otto Brinkmann, showcases the 'fachwerk' technique, a half-timbered style brought…

  • Faltin Homestead · 19.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Faltin Homestead, a home built by German immigrants right here in Kendall County. Theodor Goldbeck, a native of Germany, built the first part of this house in 1854, the same year the town of…

  • Stieler Ranch House · 19.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Stieler Ranch House, a testament to German ingenuity right here in the Texas Hill Country. Built between 1890 and 1892 by Herman Stieler, a skilled rock mason who also happened to be a successful…

  • The Treue der Union Monument · 19.6 mi · Things to Do

    Comfort's Treue der Union monument is the only memorial to Union soldiers on former Confederate soil south of the Mason-Dixon line. It honors thirty-four…

  • The Nueces Massacre · 19.6 mi · Things to Do

    In August 1862 sixty-eight German Unionists from the Comfort area fled south toward Mexico rather than fight for the Confederacy. Confederate soldiers caught…

  • The Bald Cypress Tunnel · 19.6 mi · Things to Do

    The Guadalupe River near Comfort runs through a tunnel of ancient bald cypress trees so thick the canopy blocks out the summer sun completely. Some of these…

  • Ingenhuett, Paul · 19.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the former home of Paul Ingenhuett, a man who built his life right here in Comfort. Born on this very block in 1868, he took over his father's mercantile business and didn't stop there. Ingenhuett…

  • Comfort Community Church · 19.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Comfort Community Church, a beautiful Gothic revival building dedicated back in 1892. It started as the Deutsche Evangelische Gemeinde, founded by Reverend Frederick Bauer just a year earlier.…

  • The Fachwerk Buildings · 19.7 mi · Things to Do

    Comfort has the most intact collection of fachwerk -- German half-timber construction -- in Texas. The settlers used the same building techniques their…

  • Caradja, Catherine Olympia · 19.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, maybe near the town of Comfort. Right here, a Romanian princess named Catherine Caradja lived for part of the year. During World War II, she was known as the 'Angel of…

  • Kendall County · 19.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kendall County, a place settled heavily by German immigrants in the 1840s. When the Civil War broke out, many of these folks, who opposed slavery and secession, found themselves in a tough spot.…

  • Nueces, Battle of the · 19.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kinney County, not far from where the Battle of the Nueces took place on August 10, 1862. This was a brutal clash during the Civil War, pitting Confederate soldiers against Unionists, many of them…

  • Comfort, TX · 19.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Comfort, Texas, a town founded by German freethinkers and liberals back in 1854. But this peaceful community holds a somber secret. During the Civil War, Comfort was a hotbed of Union sentiment.…

  • Altgelt, Ernst Hermann · 19.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the beautiful Texas Hill Country, and right here is the town of Comfort, founded in 1854 by Ernst Hermann Altgelt. A German immigrant, Altgelt led a surveying party onto land owned by a cotton…

  • Tegener, Frederick [Fritz] · 19.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, and right here in what is now Kerr County, you're passing through a place that was once a hotbed of Union loyalty during the Civil War. Fritz Tegener, a German immigrant…

  • Beckner, Denver William [Denny] · 19.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, maybe not far from Comfort, where bandleader Denny Beckner made his home. Known as the 'Clown Prince of Music,' Beckner wasn't just a bandleader; he was a comedian and…

Explore Bandera on the Map
All music from Texas → Find another town Vote on city songs

Sign up for the free newsletter

Longer stories, research notes, photos, videos, and where the road goes next. Free, and no iPhone needed.

Subscribe free