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Blanco, Texas

Everything Blanco is known for

3 songs mention this city 1 artist from here

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

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Music in Blanco

Songs About Blanco

Hard Times Are Relative
Jason Boland & The Stragglers
94%
"Whistlin' the new Jimmy Rodgers tune as I crossed the Blanco Bridge"
Head Over Boots
Jon Pardi
50%
Sing to Me Willie
Edie Brickell
40%
"A longhorn steer is grazing by the river / Down in Blanco at sunset"

Artists From Blanco

C
Cameran Nelson
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Blanco

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

Blanco River 4 songs Guadalupe River 18 songs Pedernales River 6 songs Interstate 10 36 songs Texas State Highway 71 2 songs Interstate 35 45 songs

History of Blanco

The Courthouse That Lost Its County RoadyGoat

That beautiful stone building in the middle of the square is the Old Blanco County Courthouse. It looks like the proud heart of the town, and it is now, but it holds a history of a major civic defeat. Built with local limestone and high hopes in 1886, it was designed to be the permanent seat of a growing county. But there was a problem. The county was large, and travel by horse and buggy was slow. People in the northern part of the county, near a growing crossroads called Johnson City, felt Blanco was too far south. After years of debate, a county-wide election was held in 1890 to decide the matter. When the votes were counted, Johnson City had won. Blanco’s magnificent new courthouse, used for its intended purpose for only four years, was suddenly obsolete. It’s a powerful story of how geography and democracy can change a town’s destiny overnight.

RoadyGoat →

The Blanco River's Wall of Water RoadyGoat

The Blanco River, which you see flowing so peacefully through town, is capable of unimaginable power. On Memorial Day weekend in 2015, the science of hydrology became a terrifying reality. A stalled weather system dumped ten to thirteen inches of rain on the upper part of the river’s watershed here in southern Blanco County. Because the Hill Country has thin soil over non-porous limestone, the vast majority of that water ran off directly into the river channel. That built a ‘wall of water’—not a myth, but a hydrological event where the flood wave outruns the ordinary river. Downstream at Wimberley the river rose more than thirty feet in less than three hours, crested near forty-five feet—eleven feet above the old 1929 record—and carried an estimated 175,000 cubic feet of water per second, a flow you’d expect from a river many times its size. This catastrophic flood reshaped the riverbed, destroyed bridges, and tragically swept away homes and lives, a stark reminder of the immense energy contained within this beautiful Hill Country river.

RoadyGoat →

The CCC Boys and the Blanco River RoadyGoat

If you follow the river through town, you’ll find Blanco State Park, a narrow little park that hugs the water for about a mile. It might look modest, but it’s a living piece of American history. The park was built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC. This was one of President Roosevelt's New Deal programs, putting young men to work on conservation projects during the Great Depression. Here in Blanco, the 'CCC boys' had a clear mission: make the river more accessible for recreation. They built the park's roads, picnic areas, and a beautiful stone pavilion. Most importantly, they built several low-water dams across the Blanco River. These simple but brilliant structures, made of local stone, created the deep, calm swimming holes that people still enjoy today. Every stone in that park is a testament to a program that saved both the land and a generation of young men.

RoadyGoat →

McCrocklin, Jesse L.

1833

(November 8, 1800-March 22, 1888) Born in Kentucky. Moved to Texas in 1833. In Texas Revolution he fought in Siege of Bexar (1835) and Battle of San Jacinto (1836). In 1842 took part in Somervell Expedition against Mexico. Resided at Washington-on-the Brazos, present Kendall County; finally settled on his land grant in Blanco County. Worked as stock raiser, farmer, and blacksmith. Was member of the Masonic Order. Married Isabella Harris (1812-1902). They had four or more children. Recorded - 1972

Historical Marker →

Amenthal

1882

Constructed of native stone quarried near the site, this home was built in 1882-83 in Pittsburg (later annexed by Blanco) by Irish craftsman Laurence H. Wall. The total construction cost was $1,000. John Wilson Baines and his wife Ruth Ament Huffman (later grandparents of Lyndon Baines Johnson) purchased the home in 1887 and named it Amenthal. The house changed ownership several times after the Baines family left in 1904. Andrew J. Wagner purchased it in 1918, two years before he was elected county sheriff. The house remained in the Wagner family until 1943. (1990)

Historical Marker →

Blanco State Park

1933

Blanco State Park is just off U.S. Highway 281 on the south side of Blanco in Blanco County. The approximately 105-acre park covers about a mile-long strip of land on both sides of the Blanco River. Private landowners deeded the land to the state in 1933. In June 1933 Company 854 of the Civilian Conservation Corps began improvements on the land, as the park was one of the inaugural four parks in the state to have a CCC company. Capt. John L. Hill was commander of the camp, which included 177 CCC workers and a corps of engineers. The men built two seven-foot-high dams of stone from the riverbed, roads, two concrete bridges, and a concession house with eighteen-inch stone walls and pine timbers and shingles. Facilities also included a bathhouse, seven campsites, and a seventy-foot table. The work group included a tree army responsible for pruning trees and shrubs and planting shade and fruit trees. The workmen completed their job in May 1934, and Blanco State Park became one of the earliest parks in the state park system. Glen Rose limestone in the park gives the terrain a stairstep appearance. The riverbed contains layers of limestone and softer marl formed since prehistoric times, when a shallow sea covered the area that is now the Hill Country ; outcroppings of a fossil zone with ancient clams and oysters can be seen. Dinosaur tracks have been preserved in the streambed a mile upriver from the park and three miles downstream from the park, on private property. Local vegetation includes juniper, live oak, mesquite, and grasses that grow from dark calcareous stony clays and clay loams. Some water-tolerant hardwoods and conifers are present along the streambed. Area wildlife includes deer, armadillos, squirrels, and a variety of birds. In 1982 renovations began in the park with the addition of more facilities and the first solar-heated water system in a Texas state park. The system included 240 gallons of thermal storage for showers and restrooms and resulted in savings in the cost of electricity. The renovated park opened on July 30, 1983. Its facilities included thirty-seven picnic sites, twenty-one campsites, ten trailer hookups, and a trailer dump station. The park received a Texas Historical Marker in 2009. The park suffered extensive damage from a flood on May 23, 2015, when the river rose thirty feet. Park rangers and volunteers made repairs and cleaned out uprooted trees, silt, trash, and other debris that littered the park, which fully reopened on October 24, 2015. The park includes twenty-nine campsites, seven screened shelters, a park store, pavilion, picnic area, and hiking trails and is used by local citizens and tourists, many from Austin and San Antonio. Fishing (officials stock trout in the winter), swimming, boating, picnicking, and camping are popular park activities.

Tsha Handbook →

Blanco, TX

1853

Blanco is on U.S. Highway 281 twelve miles south of Johnson City in south central Blanco County. In 1853 pioneer stockmen built cabins along the Blanco River near the present site of the town and prepared to defend themselves against Indian attack. In 1854 the operators of the Pittsburg Land Company, including Gen. John D. Pitts , A. M. Lindsey, F. W. Chandler, William E. Jones, and Capt. James H. Callahan , purchased the league granted to Horace Eggleston by the government of Coahuila and Texas in 1835. They laid out the town of Pittsburg, named for General Pitts, across the river from the site of future Blanco. That same year a Methodist church was organized by circuit rider Daniel Rawls . The congregation met in a log cabin built to withstand Indian raids, which also served as a school. The Twin Sisters Masonic Lodge, organized at Curry's Creek perhaps as early as 1856, moved to Pittsburg around 1857. When Blanco County was organized in 1858, an election located the county seat across the river from Pittsburg, and named the townsite Blanco for the Blanco River. The Pittsburg Land Company gave the new town 120 acres of land. In 1858 a post office was established. Mail service was temporarily discontinued with the beginning of the Civil War , but the citizens raised money to bring mail once a week from New Braunfels in order to receive the war news. The first Baptist church was organized in 1859. In 1860 the first courthouse was built on the public square by A. V. Gates for about $600. In spite of hardships suffered during the Civil War, the town continued to grow and by 1870 had four stores, a hotel, and a gin. The old union church, built in 1871 at a cost of $1,300, remained for many years the center of town life. It was used as a church by different denominations, as a schoolhouse, and as a community meeting place. In 1874 the Masons drew up a charter for Blanco Masonic University. A foundation was laid, but building was discontinued because of a lack of funds. A new courthouse of native stone was built in 1875 by Frederick E. and Oscar Ruffini , architects. In 1876 a fire destroyed the Masonic lodge, the old courthouse, and all of the county records. The same year the residents of Johnson City made their first attempt to have the county seat relocated by petitioning for an election. They were unsuccessful. In 1884 the citizens of Blanco formed a joint stock company to raise the capital necessary to establish a high school. They elected a board of directors and a president and applied for a charter for Blanco High School under the Private Corporations Act. A two-story building was built on the foundation of the Masonic university. It opened in October 1884, and the first class graduated in 1887. In 1890 Johnson City won a county seat election, and Blanco lost its position as county seat; the courthouse records were moved to Johnson City in 1891. The rivalry between the two towns that began with this election is still hot. Blanco has primarily been a ranch and farm trade center. It had a population of 469 in 1904 and 1,100 by 1939, when the town was incorporated. By 1946 the town had forty businesses, a hospital, and a weekly newspaper, the Blanco County News . The population dropped in the 1940s to 453 before increasing again in the 1950s. In 1980 the census reported 1,179 residents in Blanco. There were forty-six businesses. In 1990 the population was 1,238, and in 2000 it grew to 1,505. Blanco had a population of 1,682 in 2020 and 381 businesses as of 2023. The city has a mayor and city council, and public education is operated under the Blanco Independent School District. The historic Blanco County courthouse serves as a visitor's center. Blanco hosts several seasonal festivals as well as an annual classic car show, and Blanco State Park along the Blanco River is a popular stop for locals and tourists.

Tsha Handbook →

Blanco County Courthouse

1886

Designed in Victorian style by architect F. E. Ruffini. Erected in 1886 as first permanent county courthouse, building served only four years--until 1890. County seat then moved to Johnson City. Purchased by Chas. E. Crist, the structure entered varied career as school, Blanco National Bank, office of "Blanco County News," opera house, Farmers' Union Hall, and hospital (1936-70). Now houses Blanco Museum of Early West. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark -- 1972

Historical Marker →

Blocker, John Rufus

1873

John Rufus Blocker, trail driver and rancher, second of the three sons of Abner Pickens and Cornelia Randolph (Murphy) Blocker, was born in the Edgefield district of South Carolina on December 19, 1851. The family moved to Texas in 1852 and settled near Austin. During the Civil War John helped drive ox teams to Mexico to avoid the Union blockade. He attended the Swan Coats School and Texas Military Institute, Austin , before 1871, when he entered the cattle business in Blanco County with his brother Bill. Seeing the demand for beef in the North, Blocker made his first trail drive to Ellsworth, Kansas, in 1873. Over the next twenty years he took longhorn cattle to buyers in Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, the Dakotas, and Montana, and was said to know every waterhole from the Rio Grande to the Yellowstone River. On the trail he used an inverted (backwards) seven brand, and his peculiar but effective mode of roping cows with a large loop came to be known among cowmen as the "Blocker loop." During one trip in 1885 with 25,000 steers, he and his brother Ab, who had joined the family business in 1876, were detained at Fort Supply (or Camp Supply) by Oklahoma and Kansas ranchers who would not allow them to go on to market because of the fear of Texas fever . After several appeals to the United States government, Blocker and George W. West , whose herd was also affected, finally obtained a cavalry escort to their destination. Soon afterward, the cow trails through Kansas were closed to prevent the disease from spreading. In 1881 Blocker married Annie Lane of Austin; they had four children. At one time or another, and with various partners, Blocker owned ranches in Tom Green, Coke, Maverick, and Dimmit counties, including the Chupadero Ranch near Eagle Pass, and also land in northern Mexico. In 1893 the Blocker brothers made their last trail drive north when they delivered Harris Franklin's herd of 9,000 cattle to a buyer in Deadwood, South Dakota. In later years Blocker made his home in San Antonio, where he joined the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association . He also helped organize the Old Time Trail Drivers Association and was elected its first president. He died at San Antonio on December 1, 1927, and was buried in Dignowity Cemetery.

Tsha Handbook → · 12.4 mi away

Things to Do in Blanco

historical 16.5 mi away
LBJ Ranch

Lyndon Baines Johnson was born in this stretch of the Hill Country in 1908 and came home to it every chance he got even as president. The ranch on the…
quirky 17.4 mi away
Jacob's Well

An artesian spring flows up through a vertical cave in Wimberley so clear and so deep that from the surface you can see straight down a hundred feet into the…
nature 18.1 mi away
Pedernales Falls

The Pedernales River drops over a staircase of tilted Cretaceous limestone here -- the rock layers dip about three degrees to the southeast and the river…
historical 18.3 mi away
Birthplace and Burial of a President

Lyndon Baines Johnson was born in Stonewall on August 27 1908 in a small farmhouse on the Pedernales River. He served as the 36th President and spent about 20…
historical 18.7 mi away
Devil's Backbone Tavern

Perched on the haunted limestone ridge that gives the road its name, Devil's Backbone Tavern is one of the great Texas Hill Country dive bars. The first stone…
quirky 19.7 mi away
Luckenbach Texas

The entire 'town' is a dance hall and post office. Waylon sang about it.
quirky 21.7 mi away
The Song Nobody Had Seen

When Waylon Jennings recorded Luckenbach Texas (Back to the Basics of Love) in 1977 it shot to number one on the country charts and number 25 on the pop…
quirky 21.7 mi away
The Town That Sold for Thirty Grand

In 1970 old Benno Engel retired as postmaster of Luckenbach Texas and placed an ad in the local paper that read TOWN FOR SALE -- lock stock and dancehall. The…
day trip
Day Trip to Blanco 🍻 (FULL EPISODE) S7 E4

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

Everything Near Blanco

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

  • The Courthouse That Lost Its County

    That beautiful stone building in the middle of the square is the Old Blanco County Courthouse. It looks like the proud heart of the town, and it is now, but it holds a history of a major civic defeat. Built with local…

  • The Blanco River's Wall of Water

    The Blanco River, which you see flowing so peacefully through town, is capable of unimaginable power. On Memorial Day weekend in 2015, the science of hydrology became a terrifying reality. A stalled weather system…

  • The CCC Boys and the Blanco River

    If you follow the river through town, you’ll find Blanco State Park, a narrow little park that hugs the water for about a mile. It might look modest, but it’s a living piece of American history. The park was built in…

  • The Brewery That Built a Destination

    In the mid-1990s, if you wanted a craft beer in Texas, your options were slim. But here in Blanco, something was brewing. In 1996, a small operation called Real Ale Brewing Company set up shop in the basement of an…

  • Blanco, TX

    Blanco's always been a place where the beauty of the Texas Hill Country meets a certain hardscrabble reality. The river, that Blanco River we're named for, the one that carved its way through the limestone and gave us…

  • McCrocklin, Jesse L. · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker

    (November 8, 1800-March 22, 1888) Born in Kentucky. Moved to Texas in 1833. In Texas Revolution he fought in Siege of Bexar (1835) and Battle of San Jacinto (1836). In 1842 took part in Somervell Expedition against…

  • Amenthal · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker

    Constructed of native stone quarried near the site, this home was built in 1882-83 in Pittsburg (later annexed by Blanco) by Irish craftsman Laurence H. Wall. The total construction cost was $1,000. John Wilson Baines…

  • A Depression-Era Park Built by Hand · 0.9 mi

    The low stone dams and shady riverside terraces in this little park are the work of young men who needed a job in the worst year of the Great Depression. When private landowners deeded this ground along the Blanco River…

  • Blanco State Park · 0.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Blanco State Park is just off U.S. Highway 281 on the south side of Blanco in Blanco County. The approximately 105-acre park covers about a mile-long strip of land on both sides of the Blanco River. Private landowners…

  • Blanco, TX · 0.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Blanco is on U.S. Highway 281 twelve miles south of Johnson City in south central Blanco County. In 1853 pioneer stockmen built cabins along the Blanco River near the present site of the town and prepared to defend…

  • Old Blanco County Courthouse · 0.9 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    Check out that impressive building on the corner! That's the Old Blanco County Courthouse, a survivor with quite a story to tell. Built in 1886, it was designed by Frederick Ernst Ruffini in that fancy Second Empire…

  • Blanco Methodist Church · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Blanco, where the Methodist Church you see was organized way back in 1854 by circuit rider Daniel Rawls. It took six charter members to get things started. The current building, made of native…

Show all 191 nearby places
  • The Courthouse That Lost Its County · 1.0 mi

    The grand limestone building on the square was built to last centuries and served as a courthouse for just four years. Blanco County accepted it on January 29, 1886, a two-story Second Empire showpiece of native…

  • The Lady in the Old Courthouse · 1.0 mi

    Locals will tell you the old limestone courthouse on the square keeps a few residents who never checked out, though you should take this one as the campfire tale it is. The most repeated legend describes a woman in a…

  • Conn, Adrian Edwards · 1.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Adrian Edwards Conn home, built before 1873. Imagine this place with walls a full sixteen inches thick, built to last. It still boasts a hand-dug well, a rock-walled cellar, and even an…

  • Named for a White River · 1.1 mi

    The river running through this town gave the place its name long before anyone built a cabin here. Back in 1721, members of the Aguayo expedition crossing the Hill Country looked at the pale limestone in the banks and…

  • The Surnames the River Still Carries · 1.1 mi

    Two friends put down the first stakes here, and one of their names is still on the map. In 1853 Eli Clemens Hinds and James Hughes Callahan rode up the Blanco River and built cabins on its north bank, becoming among the…

  • Blanco's Big-League First Baseman · 1.1 mi

    The kid who grew up to anchor a pennant-winning lineup came out of Blanco High School. Willie Clay Upshaw was born here on April 27, 1957, and the New York Yankees drafted him in the fifth round in 1975 straight out of…

  • How a Hill Country Town Became the Lavender Capital · 1.1 mi

    Blanco smells like Provence in June for a reason that traces back to one photographer's hunch. In the late 1990s National Geographic photographer Robb Kendrick was shooting a story in the south of France when he…

  • Walk the First Lavender Farm in Texas · 1.1 mi

    If you want to stand in the field that started Blanco's whole lavender story, this is it. Hill Country Lavender, out on FM 165 northwest of town, was the first commercial lavender farm in Texas when Robb Kendrick and…

  • The Chemistry Inside a Lavender Still · 1.1 mi

    Out at the lavender farms ringing Blanco, the real magic happens inside a steaming copper still, and it is pure chemistry. A lavender flower stores its scent in microscopic oil glands on the surface of the buds. When…

  • Blanco High School · 1.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Blanco High School. Chartered in 1883, it began as a mix of private and public education, with a limestone building opening here in 1884. The school has grown and built new facilities…

  • First Baptist Church of Blanco · 1.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the First Baptist Church of Blanco. Organized in 1859, the congregation shared a union church until purchasing land and building their own sanctuary in 1902. The current facility was…

  • The Brewery That Started in a Basement · 1.8 mi

    One of the better-known craft breweries in Texas got its start under an antique store in downtown Blanco. In 1996 Philip, Diane, and Charles Conner began brewing English-style ales in the basement of that shop, naming…

  • Blanco County Courthouse · 2.1 mi · Historical Marker

    Designed in Victorian style by architect F. E. Ruffini. Erected in 1886 as first permanent county courthouse, building served only four years--until 1890. County seat then moved to Johnson City. Purchased by Chas. E.…

  • The Highway Name That Took Seventy Years to Make Legal · 5.4 mi

    Every mile of U S Highway Two Eighty One inside Texas is the American Legion Memorial Highway, and the name is much older than the law behind it. On April thirtieth, nineteen thirty five, the Texas Highway Commission…

  • Peyton Colony Lime Kiln · 6.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Blanco County, and you might see the remnants of a community built by freed slaves after the Civil War. Peyton Colony was established in the 1860s by Peyton Roberts, a former slave himself.…

  • Saint Mary's Help of Christians Catholic Church · 6.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving near where Saint Mary's Help of Christians Catholic Church stands. Catholic families first worshipped in homes here in the 1850s. The church itself was built and dedicated in 1889, with stone quarried…

  • Peyton Colony (Board House) · 6.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Peyton Colony, a community established in 1865 by freed slaves led by Peyton Roberts. Born into slavery in Virginia, Roberts came to Texas in the 1820s. After emancipation, these families…

  • Mt. Horeb Baptist Church · 6.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through what used to be Peyton Colony, just outside Blanco. This area owes its beginnings to Peyton Roberts, who was born a slave in Virginia. After gaining his freedom at the end of the Civil War, he…

  • Thomas C. and Eliza V. Felps · 8.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Johnson City, and just ahead is the site where a young couple met a tragic end. Thomas C. Felps had come to Texas in 1850 and settled in this area by 1856, working as a freighter and serving with…

  • Kendall, George Wilkins, C.S.A. Home Front Producer · 10.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Kendalia, and right here is the story of George Wilkins Kendall, a man who knew how to spin a yarn – and wool! Born up in New Hampshire, Kendall learned the printing trade and ended up co-founding…

  • Kendalia Community Church · 10.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Kendalia, a community with roots going back to the late 1800s. Look for the Kendalia Community Church. It all started in 1882 when Carl Gustav Vogel and his wife Ettie bought land here. They later…

  • The Great Flood of 2002 · 11.5 mi

    The Guadalupe River may look peaceful today, but it has a history of terrifying power. In the summer of 2002 that power got loose. More than thirty-four inches of rain fell over the upper watershed in about a week, and…

  • The Knibbe Ranch: A Living Legacy · 11.5 mi

    As you travel through this area of new subdivisions, it's hard to imagine a ranch surviving here for more than 170 years, but that's the story of the Knibbe Ranch. It was founded in 1852 by Hans Heinrich Dietrich…

  • Taming the Guadalupe: The Engineering of Canyon Dam · 11.5 mi

    People assume the Guadalupe you see at Spring Branch is a managed river. It isn't. Canyon Dam -- the Army Corps of Engineers' rolled-earthfill wall, built between 1958 and 1964, a carefully compacted mound of soil and…

  • Fischer Store · 11.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Fischer's Store, a place that became the heart of this Texas community. It all started back in 1853 when brothers Hermann and Otto Fischer, who'd emigrated from Germany, settled here.…

  • Agricultural Society of Fischer · 11.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Fischer, a town that owes its name and its early success to the Fischer family. Back in 1853, pioneers Hermann and Otto Fischer arrived here. Hermann opened a mercantile in 1866, selling supplies…

  • Fischer House · 11.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Fischer House in Spring Branch, a rare survivor from the days of German immigration to Texas. About 1860, John Heinrich Fischer, a German immigrant, built this log cabin himself from hand-hewn…

  • Fischer Homestead · 11.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Fischer Homestead, a little piece of German heritage right here in Comal County. John Heinrich Fischer, a native of Germany, bought this land in 1860, but he was likely leasing it…

  • Trail Drives, Blanco County · 11.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Johnson City, and right here is the former headquarters of one of the biggest cattle operations in the Texas Hill Country. In the 1870s, brothers J.T. and Sam Ealy Johnson ran thousands of cattle…

  • Fischer Cemetery · 11.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Fischer, a community of German heritage that got its start with a school. In 1886, Otto Fischer donated land for that school. Just four years later, in 1890, this graveyard was established with…

  • Odiorne, Dr. James · 11.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Johnson City, Texas, where Dr. James Odiorne practiced medicine. He arrived in Texas in 1857, settling in Blanco County in 1860. During the Civil War, he served as a surgeon at Fort Mason. Odiorne…

  • Kendalia, TX · 12.0 mi

    Kendalia is part of the Texas-German belt, indicating a strong German cultural influence in the area. This ethnic heritage is a defining characteristic of the community and contributes to its unique identity.

  • Hye, TX · 12.3 mi

    In 1965, a significant event took place in Hye when President Lyndon B. Johnson swore in Lawrence F. O'Brien as United States Postmaster General on the porch of the Hye post office. Johnson's boyhood home is located…

  • Blocker, John Rufus · 12.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    John Rufus Blocker, trail driver and rancher, second of the three sons of Abner Pickens and Cornelia Randolph (Murphy) Blocker, was born in the Edgefield district of South Carolina on December 19, 1851. The family moved…

  • Hye, TX · 12.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Hye is on U.S. Highway 290 near the Gillespie county line ten miles west of Johnson City in western Blanco County. Whites settled the area in 1860 when a number of farming and ranching families moved to Rocky Creek,…

  • Blocker, William Butler · 12.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, maybe near Blanco County, where the legend of Bill Blocker comes alive. Born in Alabama in 1850, Blocker was practically raised on a ranch south of Austin, starting on…

  • Cypress Creek (Blanco County) · 12.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, near the Pedernales River. Right here, the waters of Cypress Creek have been a lifeline for centuries. Back in 1849, Mormon settlers tapped into the springs along this…

  • Deer Creek, Battle of · 12.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Blanco County, not far from where a fierce fight happened back in August of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1872</say-as>. Ten local men, spurred by recent raids, spotted an Indian scout…

  • Fuchs, Adolf · 12.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, perhaps near Marble Falls. Right here, in what was once the frontier, lived Adolf Fuchs. He was a Lutheran minister, a musician, and a pioneer who arrived from Germany in…

  • Healer, John W. · 12.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now Blanco County, Texas, but back in the 1830s, this land was part of the Republic of Texas. Right here, John W. Healer, a soldier in the Texas Revolutionary Army, was granted land for…

  • Krueger, Max Amadeus Paulus · 12.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Blanco County, and right here is the land where Max Krueger built a life, lost it, and started all over again. He came to Texas from Germany in 1868, seeking a warmer climate for his health. He…

  • Roberts, Daniel Webster · 12.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, a place Daniel Webster Roberts knew like the back of his hand. Born in Mississippi in 1841, his family moved to Texas three times, finally settling near Round Mountain in…

  • Peyton, TX (Blanco County) · 12.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Peyton (Payton), formerly known as Peyton Colony and Board House (Boardhouse), is near Boardhouse Creek just west of the junction of Farm roads 165 and 2325, seven miles east of Blanco in southeastern Blanco County. The…

  • McCrocklin, Jesse Lindsay · 12.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now Blanco County, an area that once held one of only four Mexican land grants issued here. That grant belonged to Jesse Lindsay McCrocklin, a farmer who arrived in Texas in 1833.…

  • Montgomery, Robert Hargrove · 12.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Blanco County, not far from where Robert Hargrove Montgomery was born. He became a University of Texas economics professor, known for his captivating lectures and colorful anecdotes. But…

  • Twin Sisters, TX · 12.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Twin Sisters is on the Little Blanco River and U.S. Highway 281, seven miles south of Blanco in southernmost Blanco County. It was named for a pair of prominent nearby hills, which form a landmark visible for miles…

  • Johnson, Samuel Ealy, Jr. · 12.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the heart of the Texas Hill Country, not far from where a significant figure in Texas history once walked these dusty roads. Samuel Ealy Johnson, Jr., father of President Lyndon Baines Johnson,…

  • Johnson, Samuel Ealy, Sr. · 12.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, and you're passing through the area where Samuel Ealy Johnson, Sr. once built his life and his cattle empire. He was the grandfather of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, and…

  • Johnson City, TX · 12.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Johnson City, a town named for James Polk Johnson. He and his neighbors thought the county seat at Blanco was too far away. So, in 1876, they tried to move it. When that failed, Johnson decided to…

  • Pedernales Electric Cooperative · 12.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, and right here in Johnson City, a revolution in rural life sparked in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1938</say-as>. Frustrated by a lack of electricity from private…

  • Blanco County · 12.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Blanco County is in the Hill Country of south central Texas, bordered on the west by Gillespie County, on the north by Burnet and Llano counties, on the east by Hays County, and on the south by Kendall and Comal…

  • Johnson, Rebekah Baines · 12.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Hill Country, maybe near Johnson City, and right here is where Rebekah Baines Johnson worked to shape a future president. Born in McKinney in 1881, she moved around Texas, studied at Baylor…

  • Wilke Cemetery at Albert, Texas · 12.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Wilke Cemetery at Albert, Texas. This burial ground was established in 1907 when blacksmith Friedrich August Wilke, Sr. conveyed this property for cemetery use. The first burial was Constantine…

  • L.B.J. Boyhood Home · 13.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the boyhood home of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th President of the United States. The Johnsons bought this house in 1913, and it was here that LBJ and his siblings grew up. His parents, Sam Ealy…

  • Lyndon B. Johnson and Hill Country Electrification · 13.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, a place that was largely without electricity even as cities glowed in the 1930s. Future President Lyndon Johnson saw this problem and, during his first run for Congress in…

  • The House Where a President Grew Up · 13.1 mi

    Just off the square stands a tidy clapboard Victorian house that's the reason a lot of travelers ever turn off the highway here. This is the Boyhood Home of Lyndon B. Johnson. His family moved into the three-bedroom…

  • The Man the Whole Town Is Named For · 13.1 mi

    The town square you're rolling into carries one family's name on purpose. James Polk Johnson, born in Georgia and raised in DeWitt County, came home from the Confederate army and rode up to Blanco County in the 1860s to…

  • The Cabin Where the Johnson Family Started · 13.1 mi

    Walk the restored prairie on the west side of town and you reach where this whole family story begins. In 1867 Samuel Ealy Johnson Sr. and his bride Eliza settled a simple two-room dogtrot cabin here, log rooms joined…

  • When a Tiny Town Lights Up Like a Galaxy · 13.1 mi

    Every winter this little county seat turns into one of the brightest Christmas towns in Texas. The tradition called Lights Spectacular started in 1989, when the local Garden Club began stringing lights, and it grew up…

  • The Vote That Stole the County Seat · 13.1 mi

    Johnson City did not become the seat of Blanco County by accident. It took a fourteen-year fight. Settlers along the Pedernales, James Polk Johnson among them, argued from 1876 onward that the old county seat down in…

  • The 1880 Grain Mill That Now Grinds Out Scientists · 13.1 mi

    The tall industrial building on Lady Bird Lane is the most town-specific science story in Johnson City, because its bones are pure 1880s machinery. The structure went up around 1880 as a steam-powered grist mill and…

  • A Town Built on Trail-Drive Money · 13.1 mi

    For most of its life this was a ranch town, plain and simple, and the rhythm of the place was set by cattle and the open range. Before there was ever a courthouse on the square, the country around the Pedernales worked…

  • Built by a Capitol Stonemason · 13.1 mi

    The handsome stone courthouse anchoring the square has a pedigree most small-town courthouses can't match. After Johnson City won the county seat, it needed a real seat of government, and in 1915 the commissioners…

  • The Hitchhiker on Highway 281 · 13.1 mi

    Out on U.S. 281, north of town toward Blanco, there's a stretch locals tell a dark old story about. In late August of 1885, a Blanco County man named Albert "Al" Lackey went on a killing spree across the rough country…

  • Blanco County's first chief justice · 13.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Kendalia, and right here we're passing the final resting place of Samuel Boyd Patton. He was a veteran of the War of 1812 who moved to Texas in 1837, serving in the Congress of the Republic.…

  • The Hon. Samuel Boyd Patton · 13.1 mi · Historical Marker

    Born in South Carolina in 1787, Samuel Boyd Patton moved to Tennessee as a youth. After serving in the war of 1812, he moved to Alabama, where he held public office and served in the state legislature. In 1837 Patton…

  • Craft Beer in the Old Hardware Store · 13.1 mi

    Right off the courthouse square, Pecan Street Brewing pours its beer inside a building that used to sell hammers and fence wire. The brewpub sits in the old Blanco County hardware store, a 1950s commercial building that…

  • 1894 Blanco County Jail · 13.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Johnson City, and right here is the old Blanco County Jail, built in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1894</say-as>. Before this limestone beauty, prisoners were kept in a damp basement.…

  • Dr. James F. Barnwell · 13.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Johnson City, home of Dr. James F. Barnwell, a physician who arrived in 1898. He established Blanco County's first hospital in 1913, complete with the county's first X-ray machine and its own…

  • Blanco County Courthouse · 13.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Johnson City, and right here is the Blanco County Courthouse. This beautiful limestone building, designed in the Classical Revival style with its Doric columns and domed cupola, was built in 1916.…

  • Johnson, James Polk · 13.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Johnson City, a town named for the man who founded it, James Polk Johnson. Born in Georgia in 1845, Johnson came to Texas and served in the Confederate army. After the Civil War, he joined his…

  • The Hon. Samuel Boyd Patton · 13.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the resting place of Samuel Boyd Patton, a man who wore many hats across three states. Born way back in South Carolina in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1787</say-as>, Patton served in the…

  • First Baptist Church of Johnson City · 13.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the First Baptist Church of Johnson City. Seven members formed the Missionary Baptist Church of Christ here in 1879, holding services in the schoolhouse. The original church building was…

  • Johnson, James Polk, Building · 13.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Johnson City, the town named for its founder, James Polk Johnson. Look to your right, and you might see the building he constructed back in the 1870s. This place has seen it all: general stores,…

  • Blanco County · 13.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Blanco County, formed way back in 1858 from parts of Burnet, Hays, Gillespie, and Comal counties. It's named for the Blanco River that flows through the area. The county seat was Blanco City until…

  • First Christian Church of Johnson City · 13.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the First Christian Church of Johnson City. This congregation got its start in 1903 with just twenty-six members and a traveling evangelist. Land for the sanctuary came from Judge N. T. Stubbs, and…

  • Johnson City Masonic Cemetery · 13.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Johnson City Masonic Cemetery, purchased by local Masons back in 1892. It holds the graves of community leaders and military veterans, stretching from the War of 1812 all the way to Vietnam. And…

  • Spring Branch Post Office · 13.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the original Spring Branch Post Office. Gottlieb Elbel built this cabin in 1852, and by 1867, it was serving as the local post office. Elbel, who kept a detailed postal journal, served as…

  • Williams Creek School · 13.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Williams Creek School. Established to serve the rural Albert community, the Williams Creek School, also known as the Albert School, began in 1890-91 near the creek. In 1897, trustees approved…

  • Herman and Ada Knibbe Home · 13.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Herman and Ada Knibbe Home, built in 1910. Herman was the grandson of Spring Branch's first settler. This house, made of locally quarried rock, still stands today, a testament to the family's…

  • Julius Bremer Family and Rebecca Creek School · 13.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Rebecca Creek School, founded in 1882 on land donated by Julius Bremer. He was the son of German immigrants who helped found New Braunfels. This one-room school served students for…

  • Knuepper Chapel · 13.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Kneupper Chapel, built in 1878 by German settlers in the Honey Creek community. They quarried local stone for this one-room building, which served St. Joseph's Catholic Church until…

  • Hye Post Office · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Hye Post Office, a place that served as a tiny but significant stop on the road to the presidency. It all started back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1880</say-as>, named for founder…

  • Specht's Crossing · 14.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Specht's Crossing, a place that served as a vital connection for early Texas travelers. For decades, settlers in horse-drawn carriages navigated this low water crossing on the San Antonio-Blanco…

  • Bringing Light to the Hill Country · 14.5 mi

    Before the late 1930s, the Texas Hill Country was dark. Private utility companies refused to build here, arguing it was unprofitable to run power lines across the rugged limestone terrain for so few customers. This is…

  • Johnson City, TX · 14.5 mi

    Johnson City, nestled in the heart of the Hill Country, carries a quiet history woven into its very fabric. While the town takes its name from James Polk Johnson, a generous land donor, its story is also one of hardy…

  • Spring Branch, TX (Harris County) · 14.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Spring Branch is in the Memorial Villages area of the western edge of Houston in west central Harris County. It began as a religious community settled by German farmers in the mid-to-late 1840s, many of whom owned…

  • Adam Becker Homestead · 15.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Adam Becker Homestead. German native Adam Becker arrived in Texas in 1845, joining Prince Carl Solms-Braunfels to help establish a colony. After contributing to Fredericksburg and…

  • Andreas and Frederike Lindig Farmstead · 15.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Andreas and Frederike Lindig Farmstead, a testament to German immigrant grit in the Texas Hill Country. Arriving in Texas in 1869, the Lindigs established this farmstead in 1874. They…

  • Site of the Andreas Lindig Lime Kiln · 15.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Stonewall, and just ahead is the site of the Andreas Lindig Lime Kiln. Built in 1874, this was the first lime kiln in eastern Gillespie County. Andreas Lindig, trained in Germany, used rock hauled…

  • Trinity Lutheran Church · 15.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Stonewall, where this historic Trinity Lutheran Church began in 1902. The congregation first met in the Albert Schoolhouse. Worship services here were held in German until 1950, and the church…

  • Lyndon Baines Johnson · 15.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the birthplace of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th President of the United States. He was born right here in this house on August 27, 1908. His parents, Sam Ealy Johnson Jr. and Rebekah Baines…

  • Esser's Crossing at Wesson · 16.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Esser's Crossing, a vital spot on the Fredericksburg Road that served pioneers for nearly 150 years. Known first as Henderson Crossing around 1850, it offered a safe, shallow crossing of the…

  • The Comfort Caverns Nobody Visits · 16.2 mi · Things to Do

    The limestone beneath Comfort is riddled with caves that most people drive right past without knowing. Ranchers have been finding new cave openings after heavy…

  • LBJ Ranch · 16.5 mi · Things to Do

    Lyndon Baines Johnson was born in this stretch of the Hill Country in 1908 and came home to it every chance he got even as president. The ranch on the…

  • Albert Nebgen House · 16.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Albert Nebgen House in Stonewall. Albert Nebgen, son of German immigrants, built this farmhouse for his family around 1918. It's a classic example of the farmsteads established by early German…

  • Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park · 16.6 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    Get ready to walk where a President walked – and shaped a nation. Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th President of the United States, called this land home. Johnson was born near here in 1908. He grew up in the area, and later,…

  • LBJ Ranch - Texas White House · 16.7 mi · Historical Marker

    The LBJ Ranch in Stonewall, Texas, where Lyndon Johnson was born, lived, governed during his presidency, and is buried along the Pedernales River.

  • Lady Birds Wildflower Revolution · 16.7 mi · Things to Do

    Lady Bird Johnson championed the Highway Beautification Act of 1965 from the Texas White House in Stonewall. She pushed to plant native wildflower seeds along…

  • Hermann Jonas Homestead · 16.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Hermann Jonas Homestead, a massive four-story farmhouse that was once the largest residence in the early German settlements of Comal County. Hermann Jonas, born in Germany in 1836, and his wife…

  • LBJ Ranch (Texas White House) · 17.0 mi · Historical Marker

    LBJ governed the country from this Hill Country ranch, installing a full communications center. He was born, lived, governed, and is buried on this land.

  • Canyon Lake, TX · 17.1 mi

    Canyon Lake, a census-designated place in Texas, is part of the San Antonio Metropolitan Statistical Area. This area, which includes several small communities, began to develop residentially and commercially after the…

  • Canyon Lake, TX · 17.3 mi

    Canyon Lake, nestled in the Texas Hill Country, is more than just a pretty reservoir – it's a testament to the enduring spirit of adapting to change. For generations, this area along the Guadalupe River was ranching…

  • Jacobs Well Cemetery · 17.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Jacobs Well Cemetery, a resting place that's been here since 1883. It served the Jacob's Well community, named for a nearby natural spring. Many of the first settlers here came all the way from South…

  • Jacob's Well · 17.4 mi · Things to Do

    An artesian spring flows up through a vertical cave in Wimberley so clear and so deep that from the surface you can see straight down a hundred feet into the…

  • Jacob's Well · 17.4 mi · Natural Landmark

    This spring has never stopped flowing. Jacob's Well is a perpetual artesian spring that rises from the Trinity Aquifer through a vertical shaft in the creek bed, twelve feet across and dropping straight down into…

  • Jacob's Well · 17.4 mi · Things to Do

    An artesian spring that looks like a bottomless blue hole. One of Texas' most dangerous diving spots.

  • Stonewall, TX · 17.4 mi

    Stonewall has always been a place where the past feels present, where the rumble of Highway 290 can't quite drown out the echoes of simpler times. But even here, change finds a way. In recent years, the increasing…

  • Stonewall Community Cemetery · 17.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Stonewall, and you're passing the Stonewall Community Cemetery. This historic graveyard originally served the settlement of Millville, laid out by Israel Nuñez, who ran a stage stop nearby after…

  • Pedernales Falls · 18.1 mi · Things to Do

    The Pedernales River drops over a staircase of tilted Cretaceous limestone here -- the rock layers dip about three degrees to the southeast and the river…

  • Flowers Every Mother's Day · 18.1 mi

    This stretch of U S Highway Two Ninety is the John Allen McCarty Memorial Highway, honoring a Henly rancher who survived the Bataan Death March. McCarty was a member of the U S Army during World War Two. He was…

  • Jacob's Well, The Heart of the Creek · 18.3 mi

    Just northwest of town lies Jacob's Well, one of the most significant natural landmarks in Texas. It’s the headspring of Cypress Creek, a deep artesian spring that looks like a dark, mysterious hole in the creekbed. For…

  • The Night the Blanco River Roared · 18.3 mi

    If you look at the Blanco River near Wimberley, you might see a peaceful, shallow stream. But on Memorial Day weekend in 2015, it became an unstoppable force of destruction. Meteorologists call the event a 'rain bomb.'…

  • Jacob's Well: A Gauge for the Trinity Aquifer · 18.3 mi

    Wimberley’s famous Jacob's Well isn't just a swimming hole; it's a natural scientific instrument. It’s the largest spring discharging from the Middle Trinity Aquifer in the area. Think of the aquifer as a massive…

  • Birthplace and Burial of a President · 18.3 mi · Things to Do

    Lyndon Baines Johnson was born in Stonewall on August 27 1908 in a small farmhouse on the Pedernales River. He served as the 36th President and spent about 20…

  • Saving the Blue Hole · 18.3 mi

    One of Wimberley's most beloved spots is the Blue Hole, a stunning swimming area on Cypress Creek shaded by towering cypress trees. For most of the twentieth century it was privately owned, open to swimmers on a…

  • Johnson, Lyndon Baines · 18.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Stonewall, Texas, and right here is where a future President of the United States walked these halls. As a 12-year-old boy, Lyndon Baines Johnson attended the 8th grade right here, from October of…

  • The Only President Born and Buried in Texas · 18.3 mi · Things to Do

    Texas has produced or claimed several presidents but LBJ is the only one both born and buried in the state. His birthplace his ranch his Texas White House and…

  • The Lions Club Market Days · 18.3 mi

    On the first Saturday of almost every month, Wimberley transforms. Thousands of people flock to a sprawling field for Wimberley Market Days, one of the oldest and largest outdoor markets in the Texas Hill Country. What…

  • Nunez, Israel M. · 18.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Stonewall, a town with roots in the Civil War. Look around, because you're in the place founded in 1870 by Israel M. Nunez. He was a Civil War veteran who named this town after Confederate General…

  • Peach Capital of Texas · 18.3 mi · Things to Do

    German settlers in Stonewall experimented with fruit trees in the Hill Country soil and struck gold with peaches. The area now produces about 40 percent of the…

  • The First Limekiln in Gillespie County · 18.3 mi · Things to Do

    German settler Andreas Lindig built the first limekiln in Gillespie County right at Stonewall. From his kiln the other settlers learned to manufacture lime…

  • Named for Stonewall Jackson · 18.3 mi · Things to Do

    Stonewall Texas was named for Confederate General Thomas Stonewall Jackson by Israel P. Nunez who established a stage station near the site in 1870. Nunez…

  • The Underground Wine Cellar · 18.3 mi · Things to Do

    Pedernales Cellars in Stonewall boasts the largest underground barrel cellar in Texas. The family dug directly into a Hill Country hillside to create a…

  • The Flood That Cut a Canyon in Three Days · 18.4 mi

    In the first week of July 2002, almost three feet of rain fell on the Guadalupe watershed, and for the first time since the dam was built in 1964, Canyon Lake rose so high it poured over the emergency spillway. That had…

  • The Flood Uncovered a Dinosaur's Footprints · 18.4 mi

    When the 2002 flood stripped the soil and rubble off the rock below Canyon Dam, it exposed ground no living person had ever seen. Pressed into the freshly scoured limestone of the gorge are the tracks of an…

  • The Lake That Drowned Two Towns · 18.4 mi

    The water spreading out around you isn't natural. After killer floods on the Guadalupe River in 1936 and 1938, area leaders begged the federal government for help, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers answered with…

  • The Flood of 2015 · 18.4 mi

    Cypress Creek is the beautiful, life-giving artery of Woodcreek, but on Memorial Day weekend in 2015 the whole watershed showed what it can do. A weather system stalled over the Hill Country and dropped more than a foot…

  • The Fragile Creek · 18.4 mi

    The beautiful Cypress Creek flowing through Woodcreek isn't just rainwater runoff; it's the product of a fascinating and fragile underground plumbing system. The creek is fed by springs that emerge from the Trinity…

  • The Southernmost Trout River in America · 18.4 mi

    There is something below this dam that has no business existing in Central Texas: a cold-water trout river. Canyon Dam draws its releases from deep in the lake, where the water stays near 60 degrees even in August, so…

  • How a Dam Turned Into a Tubing Capital · 18.4 mi

    The dam wasn't built for fun, but it accidentally created one of the great float trips in Texas. Because Canyon Dam releases steady, cool water out of the bottom of the lake, the Guadalupe below it runs predictably…

  • The Graves They Moved Up the Hill · 18.4 mi

    When Canyon Lake filled in the 1960s, the dead of Cranes Mill faced the same eviction as the living. The town itself went under, but its hilltop burying ground stood high enough to survive, perched off Cranes Mill Road…

  • From Ranch to Resort: The Double J · 18.4 mi

    The golf course is the reason Woodcreek exists at all. This stretch of Hill Country a mile north of Wimberley was ranch country until developers started carving a resort community out of it in the 1970s, and the anchor…

  • The German Pioneers of Stonewall · 18.4 mi · Things to Do

    In the 1860s German settlers arrived at the Pedernales River crossing and began farming land that had belonged to a grant holder named Justa Flores. They…

  • Life on the Pedernales · 18.4 mi · Things to Do

    The Pedernales River defines Stonewall. LBJ swam in it as a boy conducted diplomacy beside it as president and is buried within earshot of its waters. German…

  • Family-Run Since 1946 · 18.4 mi

    If you want a meal with actual roots in this place rather than the resort era, Startz Cafe at 10350 Startz Road is the one. The same family has run it since 1946, which makes it older than the lake itself by nearly…

  • Woodcreek, TX · 18.4 mi

    Nestled in the heart of Hays County, Texas, Woodcreek is a city that boasts a total area of 1.1 square miles, all of which is land. The city is located just 2 miles north of Wimberley, 34 miles southwest of Austin, and…

  • Tillie's at Camp Lucy · 18.5 mi · Things to Do

    Upscale Hill Country dining at the Camp Lucy resort, 3509 Creek Road. Said to serve the best breakfast in the Hill Country — open to the public, not just…

  • Devil's Backbone Tavern · 18.7 mi · Things to Do

    Perched on the haunted limestone ridge that gives the road its name, Devil's Backbone Tavern is one of the great Texas Hill Country dive bars. The first stone…

  • Startzville Community · 18.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the heart of what used to be Startzville, a community that grew up around a simple intersection. It all started in 1940 when Bruno and Viola Elbel opened a store and cedar yard right here. Then,…

  • Johnson, Lyndon Baines · 18.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Lyndon Baines Johnson, president of the United States, the eldest of five children of Samuel Ealy Johnson, Jr. , and Rebekah Baines Johnson , was born on August 27, 1908, on a farm in the Hill Country near Stonewall,…

  • Lyndon Baines Johnson Birthplace, Boyhood Home, and Ranch · 18.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving past the Texas birthplace of the 36th U.S. President, Lyndon Baines Johnson. Right here, in this home built by his grandfather, young LBJ entered the world on August 27, 1908. His family lived here until…

  • Lyndon B. Johnson State Historical Park · 18.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the heart of the Texas Hill Country, not far from Stonewall. Right here is Lyndon B. Johnson State Historical Park. This place wasn't just a park; it was a gift to Texas, officially opened to the…

  • Stonewall, TX · 18.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Stonewall, a community with roots stretching back to the 1870s. It all started when Israel P. Nuñez established a stage station here on the Pedernales River in 1870. He later opened a post office…

  • Sauer, Emil · 18.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, not far from where Emil Sauer was born near Stonewall in 1881. He started his education right here, but his life's journey took him far beyond these rolling hills. Sauer…

  • The Store That Named a Town · 19.0 mi

    The community of Startzville, on the south side of the lake along FM 2673, started as a single building. The Startz family had farmed the Tom Creek valley here since the 1850s, when Heinrich Startz settled in alongside…

  • Why Texas Vodka Goes Through the Still Twenty Times · 19.2 mi

    Out on Bell Springs Road, Dripping Springs Distilling has spent two decades turning Midwestern corn into award-winning vodka, and the how is a small lesson in chemistry. Brothers Gary and Kevin Kelleher launched…

  • Czichos House · 19.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Czichos House, a pioneer home built by hand from cedar logs, chinked with clay. It was constructed in Comal County around 1850. But this house became home to Dr. Adolph Schlameus and his large…

  • Burns Sons' Gravesite · 19.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Burns Sons' Gravesite, established in 1879. This site was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2008.

  • Anhalt Halle and the Germania Farmer Verein · 19.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Spring Branch, an area that started as a German settlement called Krause Settlement in the 1850s. By 1875, the settlers here formed the Germania Farmer Verein, partly to fight cattle rustling.…

  • 711 Ranch · 19.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through what was once the sprawling 711 Ranch, established in 1949 by oilman L.A. Nordan and his wife, Pearl. They transformed this land along the Guadalupe River into a world-class operation, focusing on…

  • Wimberley Glassworks · 19.5 mi · Things to Do

    Watch master glassblowers create art in real time. Beautiful Hill Country setting.

  • Winters-Wimberley House · 19.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Winters-Wimberley House, a landmark that grew with this town. William Winters arrived in Texas in 1834, fought at San Jacinto, and eventually settled here. He built a mill on Cypress…

  • Wimberley-Hughes House · 19.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Wimberley-Hughes House, built around 1877 by Zach Wimberley. It was painted pink with red trim, a unique choice for the time. The house is connected to the Wimberley mill, which provided lumber…

  • Ragsdale, Julia Ann · 19.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Julia Ann Ragsdale house, a testament to a woman's resilience. Julia Ann, a widow and former teacher, brought her family to Texas during the Civil War. After her daughter Mary died young, Julia…

  • Miss Lillie Dobie's House · 19.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Miss Lillie Dobie's House, a landmark that tells a story of resilience and community. Lillie and her husband John bought this land back in 1911, running a dairy and raising a family.…

  • The Night the Blanco Rose Forty Feet · 19.7 mi

    On the night of May 23 into May 24, 2015, Memorial Day weekend, the Blanco River turned into one of the deadliest flash floods in Texas history. Ten to thirteen inches of rain fell upstream in a few hours, and the river…

  • The Well That Swallows Divers · 19.7 mi

    Just northwest of town, in the bed of Cypress Creek, a perfectly round 12-foot mouth opens straight down into the earth. That's Jacob's Well, and from the surface it looks like an inviting blue swimming hole. Below it…

  • Luckenbach, Texas · 19.7 mi · Historical Marker

    Luckenbach, Texas consists of a general store, a dance hall, a post office, and not much else. Its permanent population has never exceeded a few dozen. In 1970, humorist Hondo Crouch bought the entire town for $30,000…

  • Luckenbach Texas · 19.7 mi · Things to Do

    The entire 'town' is a dance hall and post office. Waylon sang about it.

  • Three Owners Before It Got the Right Name · 19.7 mi

    The town you're rolling into spent decades answering to other people's names before it became Wimberley. In 1848, the year Hays County was organized, San Jacinto veteran William Carvin Winters built a grist mill and…

  • The Swimming Hole the Town Bought to Save · 19.7 mi

    Generations of Wimberley kids learned to swim in the cold green water of Blue Hole, where Cypress Creek pools up under a canopy of old-growth bald cypress trees. The Dobie family opened it to the public back in the…

  • The Mandolin Prodigy Who Grew Up at the Friday Jam · 19.7 mi

    Some of the bluegrass that made Sarah Jarosz famous was learned right here in Wimberley. Raised in town, she picked up the mandolin at age 10 and sharpened her playing at the weekly Friday night bluegrass jams that…

  • The Most Haunted Drive in the Hill Country · 19.7 mi

    Head west out of Wimberley on Ranch Road 12 toward Blanco and you climb onto the Devil's Backbone, a narrow limestone ridge that locals swear is the most haunted stretch of road in Texas. The Spanish reportedly named…

  • Wimberley, TX · 19.7 mi

    Wimberley isn't just a pretty postcard of Cypress Creek winding through the Hill Country; it’s a place shaped by resilience. You can’t talk about Wimberley without acknowledging the 2015 Memorial Day flood. The Blanco…

  • Devil's Backbone Tavern · 19.7 mi

    Out on Ranch Road 32, in Comal County near a wide spot called Fischer — not quite Wimberley, whatever the map tells you — a honky-tonk called the Devil's Backbone Tavern has stood since 1932, back in the last days of…

  • How an Artesian Spring Can Run Dry · 19.7 mi

    Jacob's Well isn't just a pretty swimming hole, it's a window into the plumbing under the Hill Country. The water comes up under its own pressure from the Trinity Aquifer, an artesian spring that needs no pump. In 1924…

  • Live Pigs to 490 Booths: Market Days and the Arts Colony · 19.7 mi

    On the first Saturday of every warm month, the oak-shaded grounds at Lions Field fill with shoppers for Wimberley Market Days, one of the largest outdoor markets in Texas. It started small and strange. When the Chamber…

  • A Theatre Built From a Daughter's Memory · 19.7 mi

    The amphitheater and gardens at 1101 FM 2325 carry the name of a teenager who never got to grow up. Emily Ann Rolling, born in 1980, moved to Wimberley with her family in 1993 and threw herself into the drama program at…

  • Wimberley Mills · 19.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Wimberley Mills, a business that served this valley for over 85 years! It all started in 1848 when William Winters, a San Jacinto veteran, built a grist and sawmill right here on Cypress…

  • Indian Mott Skirmish · 19.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Indian Mott Skirmish. After peace talks ended in the disastrous &#x201C;Council House Fight&#x201D; in March 1840 in San Antonio, the Comanche increased raids. Returning from a bold attack on…

  • C. W. Burdett · 19.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past C. W. Burdett. Clarence W. Burdett (1913-2001) helped build his family&#x2019;s store in Wimberley in 1932, supervising the construction of the building using native and colored stone brought in from…

  • Peal-Pleasant Valley Cemetery · 19.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Peal-Pleasant Valley Cemetery, the final resting place for pioneering families in Hays County. This rural cemetery, sometimes known as Valley Ford, holds twenty-three known graves and is the last…

  • A Restaurant Rebuilt Board by Board · 19.8 mi

    The building that houses Longleaf Craft Kitchen + Bar at 314 Wimberley Square has eaten more years than most of the town. It started out in San Marcos and was facing demolition there when it was saved in an unusual way:…

  • Pyland, Sidney J. · 19.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the historic Wimberley Town Square, where about 1880, a young Sidney Pyland arrived with his family from Tennessee. Fast forward to 1895; at 20 years old, Sidney Pyland opens his blacksmith shop…

  • Saunders, John Henry · 19.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the former home of John Henry Saunders, a man who wore many hats here in Hays County. Born in Virginia in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1850</say-as>, Saunders served in the Confederate…

  • James C. Lane House · 19.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the James C. Lane House, built in 1935 by a local Wimberley builder. It's known for its unique 'giraffe rock' exterior, a mix of native rock, poured concrete, and decorative fossils. His wife,…

  • UIL 5A Football State Champions — 2 titles · 19.9 mi

    Smithson Valley High School (New Braunfels, TX): Most recent: 28-6 over Frisco Lone Star · 2025 5A Division 1 final.

  • Dobie, John R. · 20.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the John R. Dobie house, built around 1892 for the Cock family. The Dobies, John and Martha, bought it in 1899. John R. Dobie, a Scottish immigrant, farmed, ranched, and even served as a Hays County…

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