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Boerne, Texas

Everything Boerne is known for

2 songs mention this city

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Music in Boerne

Songs About Boerne

If I Was a Cowboy
Miranda Lambert
40%
gadalupe days
gary p. nunn
10%

Artists From Boerne

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Rivers & Roads in Song near Boerne

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

Interstate 10 36 songs Guadalupe River 18 songs Blanco River 4 songs San Antonio River 2 songs Interstate 35 45 songs US Route 90 9 songs

History of Boerne

The Oldest German Town Band Outside Germany RoadyGoat

In 1860, a Boerne music teacher named Karl Dienger organized both a singing club, the Boerne Gesang Verein, and a brass band to play alongside it at the town's German song festivals. That band never stopped. Today the Boerne Village Band is billed as the oldest continuously organized German band in the world outside of Germany itself, more than 165 years of unbroken oompah and waltzes. The honor isn't just local bragging: in 1996 the band received the Pro Musica Plakette, Germany's highest award for amateur folk music, presented on behalf of the German president Roman Herzog, and the Federal Republic of Germany formally recognized the group again in 1998. The musicians still play the summer Abendkonzerte, the Berges Fest, and the Kendall County Fair, and every few years they travel back to Germany to reconnect with the tradition their founders carried across an ocean. When you hear brass drifting across the town square on a warm evening, you're hearing a sound that has rolled through Boerne since before the Civil War. (Source: Handbook of Texas.)

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The Town Named for a Satirist Who Never Saw It RoadyGoat

This Hill Country town began as a refuge for German idealists. After the failed revolutions of 1848, a wave of educated liberals called Forty-Eighters fled the German states, and a handful of them tried to build a utopian colony called Bettina up near Fredericksburg. It collapsed within a year because brilliant men who could argue philosophy in Latin couldn't farm a frontier. Some of the survivors regrouped here and, around 1849, founded a settlement they called Tusculum, after the ancient Roman retreat of the orator Cicero. In 1852, surveyor John James and Gustav Theissen platted the formal townsite and renamed it Boerne, honoring the German-Jewish writer and political satirist Karl Ludwig Börne, whose sharp essays against censorship and privilege had inspired their kind. Börne had died in 1837 and never crossed the Atlantic, yet a town in the Texas hills carries his name to this day. These freethinkers gave Boerne a streak of independence you can still feel walking its German-named Main Street. (Source: Handbook of Texas.)

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The Pilot Who Brought Flight 1380 Home RoadyGoat

When residents of Boerne heard that one of the most famous emergency landings in modern aviation had been flown by a local woman, plenty of them weren't surprised. Tammie Jo Shults, who lives in Boerne with her husband, was one of the first women to fly the F/A-18 Hornet in the U.S. Navy before joining Southwest Airlines. On April 17, 2018, she was captain of Southwest Flight 1380 when an engine on the Boeing 737 suffered an uncontained failure at altitude, flinging debris that shattered a window and caused an explosive decompression. With one engine gone and a hull breach, Shults calmly nursed the wounded jet into Philadelphia, and air-traffic recordings of her steady voice became a national symbol of grace under pressure. She later told the story in her book Nerves of Steel and retired from Southwest in 2020. Her neighbors here in the Hill Country had long known the quiet former fighter pilot down the road was made of exactly that. Boerne tends to grow people who stay calm when the world goes loud. (Source: Wikipedia; Texas Highways.)

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Boerne Village Band

1860

The Boerne Village Band was organized in 1860 by Karl Dienger in Boerne, the county seat of Kendall County. Having previously organized the Boerne Gesang Verein (singing club), Dienger organized the band to complement the singing festivals in Boerne with band music. He coordinated both musical groups from 1860 to 1885. Ottmar von Behr, who moved with his family to Sisterdale in the 1840s, was a strong influence in the band. Two of his children, Jennie and Ottmar, played with the group, and Jennie's husband, Fritz Fisher, taught his nephews, Ottmar Jr, Arthur, and Oscar to play musical instruments. In time, both Oscar and Ottmar Behr became directors of the band. Later, Oscar's daughter Roma married Alvin Herbst, and their son, Kenneth, a veterinarian, became the band director. In turn, Dr. Herbst's sons, Kenneth Jr. and Clint, also became members. In all, the descendants of the Behr family have included five generations of musicians and three generations of directors of the Boerne Village Band. The band managed to stay organized and practiced in barns during the difficult Civil War period. After the war it continued to practice and play at various events in and around Boerne. During the world wars the group was less active but remained organized. After World War II Ottmar Behr, despite losing his son Calvin who was killed in action near Oeting in France, reassembled the group with Erhard Ebner, Henry Schrader, Eugene Ebell, Alvin Grosser, Fritz Grosser, Harry Grosser, and others participating. In 1988 the Federal Republic of Germany recognized the Boerne Village Band for its contribution to the German heritage in Texas and America by donating to it much traditional German music and a magnificent tenor horn. For the band's 130th anniversary in 1990, Peter Fihn, a noted German composer, dedicated and presented his march "Grüsse an Texas" ("Greetings to Texas") to the band. In 1991 the Texas legislature adopted a resolution to recognize the Boerne Village Band for "keeping alive German music as a part of our heritage." The city of Boerne and the Boerne Area Historical Preservation Society have also recognized the band for its contribution to the German heritage of Boerne. Additionally, in 1988 the Federal Republic of Germany presented Dr. Kenneth C. Herbst Sr., director of the band since 1972, with its Friendship Award. Otto Schicht, a special friend in Bavaria, helped obtain authentic uniforms for the band, which were first worn during its 1986 Texas Sesquicentennial performances. On May 2, 1992, Dr. and Mrs. Herbst and other invited guests attended a luncheon given by the president of Germany, Richard von Weizsäcker, during his state visit to Houston, where he commended the German musical tradition in Boerne. In 1996 Germany's most distinguished award for folk music , the Pro-Musica Plakette, given only to German Bands with more than 100 years of continuous existence, was presented to the Boerne Village Band by German president Roman Herzog. Over the years, the German government has graciously donated several hundred pieces of sheet music to the band. German composers Hans Freivogel, Peter Fihn, and Alfred Fischer have dedicated march and waltz music to the band. For fifteen years, 1985-2000, band members Rudolf and Lia Scheffrahn maintained the musicians' folders, which in the year 2001 held more than 300 selections of authentic German music. Beginning in 1995 the Boerne Village Band has taken an annual trip to Monterrey, Mexico, to perform for the Deutscher Club and the Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery. In 1999 and 2000 the band played for the Germanfest at Robert's Cove, Louisiana. In 1994, 1997, and 2000, the Boerne Village Band toured Germany and Austria, where it presented a series of concerts. A highlight of the year 2000 tour was performing a concert in honor of the 1000th anniversary of Bad Camberg, a small town near Runkel, Germany, where the band performed another concert at the Runkel Castle. Acclaimed as the "Oldest Co

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Toepperwein, Elizabeth Servaty [Plinky]

1903

Elizabeth “Plinky” Servaty Toepperwein, sharpshooter, was born at New Haven, Connecticut, on January 23, 1882. She was the daughter of German immigrants Jacob and Catherine Servaty. In 1902 she was an employee at the Winchester factory in New Haven, and during this time she met Adolph (Ad) Toepperwein , a sales representative and exhibition shooter for the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Toepperwein, a native of Boerne, Texas, made his home in San Antonio. They married in 1903, and their only child Lawrence Clark was born in 1904. Soon after the couple married, Ad gave Elizabeth her first shooting lessons and discovered that she was a "natural." Within a short time, as part of his act, she was shooting one-inch pieces of chalk from between his fingers and empty shells off his fingertips. The Toepperweins (with their name Americanized as the “Topperweins”) began working as a team professionally; their first appearance as a famous husband and wife team was at the St. Louis World's Fair. Elizabeth acquired the nickname "Plinky" during her early shooting lessons. After several tries, she shot a tin can, which made a "plinking" sound. Elizabeth exclaimed, "I plinked it"—perhaps the first use of this echoic verb now common in shooting publications. Ad and Plinky Toepperwein performed in a career that spanned forty years. Their displays of expertise included shooting while standing on their heads and while lying on their backs. They could also break two targets simultaneously, one in front and one behind, with the aid of a mirror. Some of Plinky's aerial targets included marbles, metal discs, apples, oranges, and eggs. Not only did she perform spectacular, crowd-pleasing stunts, she also captured some shooting records in the process. She was the first woman in the United States to qualify as a national marksman with the military rifle and the first woman to break 100 straight targets at trapshooting, a feat she repeated more than 200 times, often with a twelve-gauge Winchester model 97 pump-action shotgun. She also held the world endurance trapshooting record of 1,952 of 2,000 targets in five hours and twenty minutes. Although trapshooting was her main interest, she was equally proficient with a pistol. The celebrated shooter Annie Oakley once said to Plinky, "Mrs. Top . . . you're the greatest shot I've ever seen." Plinky was also well-known in San Antonio and Texas bowling circles. The Toepperweins’ son Lawrence, newspaperman and artist, died at the age of thirty-six in 1940. During World War II the couple toured military installations; their last tour together occurred in 1943. Elizabeth “Plinky” Toepperwein died in her home in San Antonio, with her husband at her bedside, on January 27, 1945. She was buried in Mission Burial Park, San Antonio. She was inducted into the Trapshooting Hall of Fame in Vandalia, Ohio, in 1969.

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Adolph (Ad) Toepperwein

1889

ADOLPH TOEPPERWEIN IN THE 1880s, ELEMENTS OF THE OLD WEST WERE FADING AND BECAME ROMANTICIZED THROUGH WILD WEST SHOWS. THESE PROMOTIONS CREATED OPPORTUNITIES FOR THOSE WITH SKILLS, INCLUDING SHARP-SHOOTERS. ADOLPH (AD) TOEPPERWEIN WAS BORN IN BOERNE ON OCTOBER 16, 1869 TO JOHANNA (BERGMANN) AND EMIL ALBRECHT FERDINAND TOEPPERWEIN, WHO IMMIGRATED TO TEXAS FROM PRUSSIA IN 1850. AD’S FATHER WAS A GUNSMITH WHO BUILT AND DESIGNED GUNS AND, BECAUSE OF THIS, AD BECAME PROFICIENT WITH FIREARMS AT A YOUNG AGE. BY THE AGE OF TEN, HE COULD OUTSHOOT MANY VETERAN MARKSMEN. AFTER HIS FATHER’S DEATH, AD MOVED TO SAN ANTONIO TO PERFECT HIS SHOOTING SKILLS. IN 1889, HE QUIT HIS CARTOONIST JOB AT THE SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS AND WENT TO NEW YORK SEEKING A VAUDEVILLE JOB. FOR TWO YEARS, HE SHARED THE STAGE WITH MANY VAUDEVILLE ACTS. HE THEN JOINED THE ORIN BROTHERS CIRCUS, WITH WHICH HE TOURED FOR EIGHT YEARS. IN 1901, THE WINCHESTER REPEATING FIREARMS COMPANY SIGNED HIM TO A LONG-TERM CONTRACT AS AN EXHIBITION SHOOTER. ON A VISIT TO THE WINCHESTER PLANT IN CONNECTICUT IN 1902, AD MET A CARTRIDGE ASSEMBLER NAMED ELIZABETH SERVATY. AFTER A SHORT COURTSHIP, THEY WERE MARRIED. AD TAUGHT HER HOW TO SHOOT AND THEY BEGAN TOURING AS A HUSBAND AND WIFE SHOOTING TEAM KNOWN AS THE WONDERFUL TOEPPERWEINS. THEY TRAVELED FOR OVER FORTY YEARS UNTIL ELIZABETH DIED IN 1945. AD RETIRED IN 1951 AND DIED ON MARCH 4, 1962. AD WAS A LONG-TIME MEMBER OF THE BOERNE SCHUETZEN VEREIN, WAS INDUCTED INTO THE TEXAS SPORTS HALL OF FAME IN 1966, MADE RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT AND THE GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS. ONE OF BOERNE’S MOST FAMOUS SONS IS REMEMBERED AND RESPECTED FOR HIS MANY SHOOTING RECORDS OVER THE YEARS.

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Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig Von Herff

1850

In the 1850s, a few courageous and well-trained European doctors responded to the health needs of the citizens of San Antonio. For more than fifty years, Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig von Herff worked tirelessly to provide leadership and medical knowledge and to improve medical practices in Texas. He was born Ferdinand Charles von Herff in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany on November 29, 1820, but he never used the name Charles. When he later became a United States citizen, he dropped the von from his name and was called Dr. Herff. In 1847, with a group of idealistic young Germans, die vierziger (the forty), Dr. Herff failed in an attempt to establish the Bettina Socialistic Colony in Texas. He returned to Germany and married Mathilde Klingelhoffer (1823-1910) in 1849. The next year, they immigrated to New Braunfels and settled in San Antonio. Herffs second home here on a ranch in Boerne was a family retreat. Dr. Herff practiced medicine here and was instrumental in bringing to Boerne the railroad and Saint Marys Sanitarium. During the Civil War, he served briefly as a Brigade Surgeon for Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Confederacy. However, the Herff ranch was occupied by Confederate Rangers as Herff was known as a Union sympathizer. He treated all in need, including Native Americans. Dr. Herff achieved many medical breakthroughs in surgery, as well as introducing new procedures to the medical community. As one of the great pioneer doctors, he held many distinguished positions in local and state organizations, and received honors for his many contributions. His diligent efforts for the profession and patients whom he loved helped set standards for the medical profession, facilities and continuing advances. (2013)

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Boerne, TX

1849

Boerne, the county seat of Kendall County, is located on Cibolo Creek, Interstate Highway 10, and U.S. Highway 87 thirty miles northwest of San Antonio in the southern part of the county. In 1849 a group of German colonists from Bettina camped on the north side of Cibolo Creek, about a mile west of the site of present Boerne. They called their new community Tusculum, after Cicero's home in ancient Rome. In 1852 Gustav Theissen and John James laid out the townsite and changed the name to Boerne in honor of Ludwig Boerne, a German author and publicist. A post office was established in 1856 with August Staffell as postmaster. The community had only ten houses in 1859, but it was chosen as county seat by a margin of sixty-seven votes after the county was established in 1862. A courthouse was built in 1870 and was still in use in the 1990s; it was thus the second-oldest courthouse in the state. Boerne developed the reputation of having a very healthful environment and quickly became known as a health resort. By 1884 it had five hotels, assorted businesses, and 250 residents. Cotton, wool, and grain were the principal shipments, but timber, cedar posts, and building stone were also profitable commodities. The arrival of the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway in 1887 brought increased economic opportunity, and by 1890 the population of Boerne had risen to 800. Boerne residents voted to incorporate in 1909 and established a mayor-alderman form of city government. Also in that year they established the Boerne Independent School District. The population was reported at 950 in 1914, and the community prospered through the 1920s. The Great Depression of the 1930s, however, all but put an end to the tourism and cotton farming that had been staples of the local economy. The population fell from an estimated 2,000 in 1928 to 1,117 in 1931; it had risen to only 1,271 by the 1940s. In the 1950s, however, many residents turned to nearby San Antonio for employment, and Boerne became a bedroom community. The population grew at a slow but steady rate, reaching 2,169 in 1960. In the 1960s construction in neighboring Bexar County of the San Antonio Medical Center and the University of Texas at San Antonio, as well as the completion of Interstate Highway 10, made Boerne even more attractive as a town from which to commute. Its population rose to 2,400 by 1970, 3,254 by 1980, 4,274 by 1990, and 6,178 by 2000. In spite of the influx of different ethnic groups, the German cultural tradition has dominated the community in many ways. The Boerne Gesangverein, or singing society, which was established in 1860, was an important social and recreational organization until it disbanded in 1977; German community organizations still active in 1990 included the Boerne Schuetzen Verein (shooting club), which was formed in 1864, and the Boerne Village Band, which was formed about the same time as the singing society. Boerne has also held an annual celebration, the Berges Fest, since 1967.

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James House

1880

This two-story limestone house is believed to have been built about 1880 by Ives Brown for Ichabod and Alice Kingsbury. In 1925 it was purchased by Maria (Williams) James (1859-1940), the pioneer surveyor and early community leader who platted the town of Boerne in 1852. Named "Puccoon" by Maria for her ancestral home in Hanover County, Virginia, the residence remained in her family following her death. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1982

Historical Marker →

Things to Do in Boerne

historical 15.4 mi away
The Alamo

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Luckenbach Texas

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John T. Floore's Country Store

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The Nueces Massacre

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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…
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Bracken Cave

The largest bat colony on earth lives in this single sinkhole outside San Antonio -- somewhere between fifteen and twenty million Mexican free-tailed bats…
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The Town With No Church

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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…
day trip
Day Trip to Boerne 🌮 (FULL EPISODE) S8 E5

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

Everything Near Boerne

256 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

  • Boerne Village Band · Tsha Handbook

    The Boerne Village Band was organized in 1860 by Karl Dienger in Boerne, the county seat of Kendall County. Having previously organized the Boerne Gesang Verein (singing club), Dienger organized the band to complement…

  • Toepperwein, Elizabeth Servaty [Plinky] · Tsha Handbook

    Elizabeth “Plinky” Servaty Toepperwein, sharpshooter, was born at New Haven, Connecticut, on January 23, 1882. She was the daughter of German immigrants Jacob and Catherine Servaty. In 1902 she was an employee at the…

  • Boerne, TX · Tsha Handbook

    Boerne, the county seat of Kendall County, is located on Cibolo Creek, Interstate Highway 10, and U.S. Highway 87 thirty miles northwest of San Antonio in the southern part of the county. In 1849 a group of German…

  • Hughes, William George · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kendall County, not far from Boerne, where a British immigrant named William George Hughes arrived in 1878 with nothing but determination. He started as an unpaid shepherd, but by 1879, he was…

  • O'Grady, John G. · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, perhaps near Boerne. Right here, John G. O'Grady, a man who studied for the priesthood and then medicine, found his calling on the Texas frontier. He served as a sergeant…

  • Shaeffer, Franklin Wingot · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through South Texas, maybe not far from Boerne or Corpus Christi, where Franklin Wingot Shaeffer made his fortune. He came here in 1857 with money earned from gold rush freight lines and a tough stint on…

  • Zoeller, Helwig Karl Ludwig Adolph [Adolph] · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kendall County, and right here, you're passing through the story of Helwig Adolph Zoeller. Born in Germany, he came to Texas in 1853. When the Civil War broke out, Zoeller refused to fight for the…

  • James House · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    This two-story limestone house is believed to have been built about 1880 by Ives Brown for Ichabod and Alice Kingsbury. In 1925 it was purchased by Maria (Williams) James (1859-1940), the pioneer surveyor and early…

  • Saint Peter's Catholic Church · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Saint Peter's Catholic Church in Boerne, a place that started with a young French priest and a big mission. In 1866, Bishop Dubuis sent Emil Fleury to serve Boerne and the surrounding army posts.…

  • Weyrich Building · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Weyrich Building in Boerne. Charles Weyrich, a tinsmith who’d just moved from Gillespie County, bought this lot in 1877. He commissioned this building around 1878, right after marrying Sophia…

  • Adolph (Ad) Toepperwein · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    ADOLPH TOEPPERWEIN IN THE 1880s, ELEMENTS OF THE OLD WEST WERE FADING AND BECAME ROMANTICIZED THROUGH WILD WEST SHOWS. THESE PROMOTIONS CREATED OPPORTUNITIES FOR THOSE WITH SKILLS, INCLUDING SHARP-SHOOTERS. ADOLPH (AD)…

  • Staffel Family and the Staffel Store · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Boerne, and right here is where August Staffel, a German immigrant, set up shop back in 1854. He bought this land and quickly became the first postmaster when Boerne got its postal station in…

Show all 200 nearby places
  • Theis House · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Theis House, built in 1858 by German immigrant Phillip Jacob Theis. He was an early blacksmith and wheelwright here in Kendall County. Look closely at the original part of the house – it’s a rare…

  • Camino Real de San Saba (Camino Viejo) in Kendall County · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Kendall County along a route used for centuries. This was part of the Camino Real de San Saba, a vital pathway connecting San Antonio to a Spanish fort on the San Saba River. Spanish maps from the…

  • Kutzer, Albert Paul · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Boerne's historic commercial center, once home to Albert Paul Kutzer. Born in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1871</say-as> to German immigrant parents, Kutzer became a leading…

  • Fabra Smokehouse · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the old Fabra Smokehouse in Boerne, a testament to German immigrant ingenuity. Julius Fabra arrived from Germany in 1854, first hauling freight, then opening a meat market to serve the growing…

  • The Oldest German Town Band Outside Germany · 0.7 mi

    In 1860, a Boerne music teacher named Karl Dienger organized both a singing club, the Boerne Gesang Verein, and a brass band to play alongside it at the town's German song festivals. That band never stopped. Today the…

  • The Town Named for a Satirist Who Never Saw It · 0.7 mi

    This Hill Country town began as a refuge for German idealists. After the failed revolutions of 1848, a wave of educated liberals called Forty-Eighters fled the German states, and a handful of them tried to build a…

  • The Pilot Who Brought Flight 1380 Home · 0.7 mi

    When residents of Boerne heard that one of the most famous emergency landings in modern aviation had been flown by a local woman, plenty of them weren't surprised. Tammie Jo Shults, who lives in Boerne with her husband,…

  • The Second-Oldest Courthouse in Texas · 0.7 mi

    Kendall County was carved out on January 10, 1862, named for journalist and Mexican-American War correspondent George Wilkins Kendall, and Boerne edged out its rivals to become the county seat by a margin of just 67…

  • Engineering a Creek Back to Health · 0.7 mi

    Off Highway 46 at Boerne City Park, the Cibolo Center for Conservation has turned a stretch of overused creek bank into a working lesson in restoration ecology. The riparian zone, the green ribbon of plants right along…

  • The Main Street That Still Goes By Its German Name · 0.7 mi

    Locals don't always call Boerne's main drag Main Street. They call it Hauptstrasse, the German word the founding settlers used, and it's one of the most visible reminders that this was a German town first and a Texas…

  • Boerne's Wire-to-Wire Major Champion · 0.7 mi

    Boerne claims a major golf champion as its own. Jimmy Walker, who grew up in the area and still makes his home in Boerne, spent years as a steady but unheralded PGA Tour pro before everything came together at the 2016…

  • Did America's First Polo Match Happen Here? · 0.7 mi

    Here's a claim Boerne loves to make: that the first game of polo in America was played not in fashionable New York but out here in the Hill Country. In the late 1870s, a group of retired British army officers who had…

  • The Teetotaler Who Still Disapproves · 0.7 mi

    At 210 North Main Street stands the Dienger Building, a graceful two-story limestone landmark with wraparound porches that merchant Joseph Dienger built in 1884, a dry-goods and grocery store below and his family home…

  • The Stagecoach Inn That Watched the Town Grow Up · 0.7 mi

    On the square at 128 West Blanco Road sits one of the oldest continuously operating inns in Texas, known for generations as Ye Kendall Inn and recently rebranded simply as The Kendall. Its story starts on April 23,…

  • German Music in Boerne · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Boerne, a town with a musical soul! Back in 1855, German immigrant Karl Dienger arrived and soon after, in 1860, he formed a singing club and a band. Known as the Boerne Village Band, this group…

  • Kendall County · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Kendall County right now, established way back on January 10th, 1862. It was organized just a few weeks later, on February 18th. This whole area is named for George Wilkins Kendall, a real Texas…

  • Kendall County Courthouse · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Kendall County Courthouse in Boerne. This is the first and only courthouse the county has ever had. It was built between 1869 and 1870, seven years after the county was officially organized. Many…

  • Vogt-Clegg Log House · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past a piece of Texas pioneer history, the Vogt-Clegg Log House. German immigrants Wilhelm and Ernestine Vogt built this place around 1860, starting with just one room. As their family grew to nine kids,…

  • Ye Kendall Inn · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Ye Kendall Inn in Boerne, a place that's been welcoming travelers for over a century! It started in 1859 as a simple home for Erastus and Sarah Reed. But soon, its owners saw the potential,…

  • Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig Von Herff · 0.8 mi · Historical Marker

    In the 1850s, a few courageous and well-trained European doctors responded to the health needs of the citizens of San Antonio. For more than fifty years, Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig von Herff worked tirelessly to provide…

  • Surgeon to Robert E. Lee · 0.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Boerne, where Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig von Herff made his home. Born in Germany in 1820, this pioneering physician came to Texas in the 1840s, initially trying to start a socialist colony. That didn't…

  • Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig Von Herff · 0.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving near Boerne, home to Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig Von Herff. Born into a prominent German family and a veteran of the Prussian Army, he first arrived in Texas in 1847. By the 1860s, he was a leading physician in…

  • Graham, Henry J. · 0.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the building that once served as the office for Henry J. Graham, a man who arrived in Boerne all the way from Brazil in the 1870s. Graham wasn't just a businessman dabbling in real estate, insurance,…

  • Kuhlmann-King House · 0.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Kuhlmann-King House, a place with a history as layered as the Hill Country landscape. Built in the late 1880s, it was first home to William Kuhlmann, a successful pharmacist and landowner who…

  • Boerne Schoolhouses · 0.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Boerne, and right here is where this town's public education story began. It all started in 1873, when a local singing society, the Boerne Gesangenverein, donated land for the very first…

  • Kendall Masonic Lodge No. 897 · 0.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Boerne, where efforts to start a Masonic lodge began in 1904. Kendall Lodge No. 897 received its charter in 1905. After a fire destroyed their hall in 1908, they met in various locations, eventually…

  • Boerne Chapter No. 200, O.E.S. · 0.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Boerne Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. Organized in 1910, this chapter chartered in 1911 with twenty members, many from local pioneer families. The chapter continues to…

  • Saint Helena's Episcopal Church · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Boerne, and right here stands Saint Helena's Episcopal Church. The first Episcopal service in Kendall County happened way back in 1873, in a place called Old Kuhfuss Hall. The congregation…

  • Phillip, Julius A. and Anna · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Boerne home of Julius and Anna Phillip. Judge Phillip served as Kendall County's Justice of the Peace and County Judge. Built around 1900, this house started as a modest four rooms. But as you…

  • The Town Built by Clean Air · 1.0 mi

    In the late 1800s, a doctor's prescription might have been simple: 'Go to Boerne.' The arrival of the railroad in 1887 transformed the town into one of Texas's premier health resorts. Its high elevation and dry, crisp…

  • The Freethinker's Utopia: Tusculum · 1.0 mi

    Before it was Boerne, it was Tusculum. The name is a clue to the town’s unusual origins. In 1849, a band of German intellectuals, known as Freethinkers, settled here to create a utopian society. Fleeing political and…

  • The Cave 'Too Beautiful for a Name' · 1.0 mi

    Just a few miles from Boerne lies a natural wonder with a very unusual name: the Cave Without a Name. This stunning limestone cavern was hidden until the 1930s, when, as the story goes, a local farm animal fell into a…

  • Living on a Limestone Sponge · 1.0 mi

    The ground beneath Boerne is not solid; it's more like a giant, rocky sponge. You're driving over the Texas Hill Country, and the rock under your tires is mostly Glen Rose limestone—part of the Trinity Group, full of…

  • Boerne, TX · 1.0 mi

    Founded in 1849 as Tusculum, the city was renamed Boerne in 1852 by German settlers in honor of author and satirist Ludwig Börne. Boerne's history is deeply rooted in its German-Texan heritage, with its early settlers…

  • The Boerne Schuetzen Verein · 1.0 mi

    One of the most direct links to Boerne’s German past is an organization founded during the Civil War. The Boerne Schuetzen Verein, or shooting club, was established in 1864. For the German immigrants, a Schuetzenverein…

  • Beseler House · 1.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Beseler House in Boerne, a stone Victorian cottage built in 1903 for the parents of prominent businessman Maxmillian Beseler. Charles Beseler, Maxmillian's father, was a native of Prussia who…

  • The Radio Operator Who Charged Alone · 1.1 mi

    This stretch of Interstate Ten is the PFC Milton A Lee Medal of Honor Memorial Highway. Milton Lee was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, in nineteen forty nine. He attended Harlandale High School in San Antonio and…

  • George Wilkins Kendall · 1.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Kendall County right now, and you're passing the former home of George Wilkins Kendall. Kendall wasn't just a pioneer; he was a journalist and a writer. He co-founded the New Orleans Picayune…

  • Boerne Cemetery · 1.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Boerne, and just off the road is the city's historic cemetery. It started as a community burial ground even before it was officially deeded to the city in 1867 by Adam Vogt. The earliest marked…

  • Dienger, Joseph · 1.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Dienger Building, a limestone landmark in Boerne. Joseph Dienger, a German immigrant, built this structure back in 1884. The ground floor was his grocery store, and his family lived upstairs.…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Boerne-Champion (Boerne) · 1.4 mi

    Boerne-Champion (Boerne, TX) placed on the 5A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Brody Bendele (5 HR).

  • W. G. Hughes · 2.6 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…

  • Cascade Cavern · 3.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Cascade Cavern, a natural wonder that's been drawing people for thousands of years. Geologists believe this cave formed way back in the Pleistocene epoch, likely carved out by the Cibolo River.…

  • Pinta Trail in Kendall County · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Kendall County, and you're passing right by the historic Pinta Trail. This wasn't just any old path; it was a vital natural highway, used by Native Americans and later by Spanish settlers. It…

  • From a Racehorse Ranch to a City on Three County Lines · 5.5 mi

    Fair Oaks Ranch began in the 1930s, when San Antonio oilman and rancher Ralph E. Fair Sr. bought up land tracts that grew into a roughly five thousand acre spread. The working ranch had a dairy and a granary, and it…

  • The Water Under Your Feet: Drilling the Trinity Karst · 5.5 mi

    Fair Oaks Ranch sits on Hill Country karst, limestone that rain slowly dissolves into cracks, caves, and underground channels. Most of the town's water comes from city-owned wells drilled into the Trinity Aquifer, the…

  • The Prize Bull Named Battle Intense · 5.6 mi

    The Fair name is stamped on the golf course, but it was first stamped on cattle. Ralph E. Fair Sr. moved his ranch from racehorses to registered Hereford beef cattle and built his own bloodline from a bull called Battle…

  • The House That Cattle Built · 5.7 mi

    If you pass the Fair Oaks Ranch Golf & Country Club, you're looking at the heart of the original ranch. The sprawling main building wasn't built as a clubhouse; it was the actual home of Ralph E. Fair, Sr., a San…

  • Living on a Sponge: The Edwards Aquifer · 5.7 mi

    As you drive through Fair Oaks Ranch, you are traveling over one of the most important pieces of natural infrastructure in Texas: the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone. The limestone bedrock beneath you isn't solid; it's a…

  • A City by Design · 5.7 mi

    Driving along Fair Oaks Parkway, you're on the main artery of a city that had to be invented twice in order to exist once. By the mid-1980s the residential community of Fair Oaks Ranch was a success, but it was…

  • Fair Oaks Ranch, TX · 5.7 mi · Local history

    The story of this Texas community begins in the 1930s when Ralph Fair Sr. acquired the land. A successful figure in the oil industry, he also had a passion for ranching, owning cattle and racehorses. His vision for the…

  • Fair Oaks Ranch, TX · 6.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fair Oaks Ranch, a community with roots in the pioneering spirit of Ralph E. Fair, Sr. Back in the 1930s, this oilman and rancher bought thousands of acres right here. He started with racehorses,…

  • A Songbird Sanctuary in the Limestone Hills · 7.3 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…

  • Scenic Loop - Boerne Stage - Toutant-Beauregard Historic Corridor · 7.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through a landscape that's been important for over ten thousand years! This area, now known for its scenic beauty, was once home to Paleo-Indian tribes. Later, Spanish explorers encountered Jumano and…

  • Zink, Nicolaus · 8.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Texas history! In 1844, a Bavarian civil engineer named Nicolaus Zink led a group of German immigrants to Texas, tasked by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels and the Mainzer Adelsverein. When Zink…

  • Welfare School · 9.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the old Welfare School. Built around 1878 as a one-teacher schoolhouse, it served the rural community near Comfort. The original building was even moved to this spot around 1902. After…

  • Beseler Family · 9.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Welfare, Texas, a community that owes its very existence to the Beseler family. Carl Joseph and Augusta Beseler arrived from Germany in 1848, eventually settling on a land grant right here in the…

  • Engel Store · 9.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past what used to be the Engel Store in Bergheim. Andreas Engel, originally from Austria, arrived in Texas in 1885. By 1900, he bought this land and built a cotton gin, sparking the growth of a small…

  • Plehwe Complex · 10.0 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    Pull over here and imagine the dust of stagecoaches kicking up as travelers debated where to spend the night. This unassuming spot was once home to the Plehwe Stage Coach Inn, locked in fierce competition with the Aue…

  • First Officers Training Camp · 10.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past where America's first officers training camp kicked off World War I! On April 6, 1917, the U.S. declared war on Germany. Just a month later, on May 8th, three thousand volunteers assembled right here…

  • Leon Springs, TX · 10.2 mi

    Leon Springs still carries the memory of the '98 flood, a raw wound that time hasn't fully healed. Leon Creek, usually a gentle ribbon winding through the live oaks, became a raging torrent that year. The damage was…

  • Aue Stagecoach Inn · 10.2 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    Pull over here for a minute – this unassuming spot played a key role in connecting a growing Texas. This is the Aue Stagecoach Inn. German immigrant Max Aue built this complex of buildings in the mid-1800s on Boerne…

  • Cross Mountain, TX · 10.5 mi

    Cross Mountain's ethnic heritage is a blend of various backgrounds, with a significant Hispanic or Latino population at 18.50% as of the 2000 census. The racial makeup of the CDP includes White, African American, Native…

  • Cave Without A Name · 11.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kendall County, not far from Boerne, and right below your tires lies a geological wonder: the Cave Without A Name. It was discovered by accident in 1927 when a goat literally fell through a hole…

  • Walker, Samuel Hamilton · 11.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now Kendall County, Texas, a place that saw a legendary Texas Ranger named Samuel H. Walker make his name. In 1844, Walker and his Rangers, armed with brand new Colt revolvers, fought a…

  • Sisterdale, TX · 11.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Sisterdale, on Farm roads 1376 and 473, thirteen miles north of Boerne in north central Kendall County, was founded in 1847 by Nicolaus Zink , a German freethinker who surveyed New Braunfels for Prince Carl of…

  • Forty-Eighters · 11.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kendall County, and right here, in places like Sisterdale, settled some of the most passionate immigrants Texas has ever seen: the Forty-Eighters. These were German intellectuals and activists who…

  • Sansom, John William · 11.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    John W. Sansom, frontier militia officer and Unionist leader, was born in Dallas County, Alabama, on February 5, 1834, one of eleven children of William Greenbury Sansom and Mary ("Polly") Short. After his parents moved…

  • Cibolo Creek (Kendall County) · 11.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kendall County, and the creek you're crossing, Cibolo Creek, has a name with a long history. Indigenous peoples knew it by different names, like 'Xoloton' and 'Bata Coniquiyoqui.' Early Spanish…

  • Curry Creek · 11.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, and right near here, you're passing through the area once known as Curry's Creek Settlement. Settlers began homesteading along this creek back in the 1840s. By 1850, Judge…

  • Bergheim, TX · 11.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Bergheim ("Mountain Home"), a German immigrant community, is on State Highway 46 and Farm Road 316 ten miles northeast of Boerne in far southeastern Kendall County. Austrian-born Andreas Engel immigrated to Texas in…

  • Kendalia, TX · 11.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Kendalia is on Farm Road 473 twenty-five miles northeast of Boerne in east Kendall County. The community was probably named for George Wilkins Kendall , who established a ranch and introduced sheep ranching in the area…

  • Curry's Creek Settlement · 11.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kendall County, near the site of Kendalia, where Curry's Creek Settlement once thrived. Founded around 1847 by Samuel B. Patton, this wasn't just a town, but a string of homesteads along a…

  • R. L. White Ranch · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the R.L. White Ranch, a testament to one man's vision for Texas-style architecture and industry. Ryall Luther White, born in 1878, made his fortune in paving, starting the Alamo Paving Company in San…

  • Ottmar von Behr · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Sisterdale, a place that owes its name to Ottmar von Behr. He was a nobleman from Germany who wrote a guide for immigrants, encouraging them to farm in Texas. He settled here in 1848, becoming the…

  • From Tivy High School to the Highway Patrol · 11.7 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…

  • The Legendary Grey Moss Inn · 12.0 mi

    For nearly a century, the heart of Grey Forest has been a restaurant called the Grey Moss Inn. It started in 1929 when a woman named Mary Howell began serving meals to friends at a little stone building on the Scenic…

  • A City Engineered to Protect Water · 12.0 mi

    The way Grey Forest looks—the huge lots, the protected trees, the lack of pavement—isn't just for charm. It’s a form of environmental engineering. You are driving over the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone, one of the most…

  • The Fight to Stay a Forest · 12.0 mi

    Grey Forest is an independent city for one primary reason: it didn't want to become San Antonio. For its first few decades, the community was a loose collection of summer homes with no formal government. But by the late…

  • The Scenic Loop Playground · 12.0 mi

    Before it was Grey Forest, this place had a different name: the Scenic Loop Playground. In the late 1920s a San Antonio businessman named E. N. Requa bought about 320 acres out here and started marketing it to city…

  • Scenic Loop Playground · 12.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of what was once the Scenic Loop Playground, a rural retreat just north of San Antonio. Businessman E.N. Requa envisioned this 320-acre spot as an escape from city stress, featuring natural…

  • Old Lex Homestead · 12.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Old Lex Homestead, built between 1873 and 1874. Peter Lex, a German immigrant pioneer, and his wife Carolina built this stone cottage. Every rock in the original structure was hand-cut and faced.…

  • Waring Schoolhouse · 12.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Waring Schoolhouse, a testament to community spirit. Built in 1891 by Anglo pioneers in this mostly German area, it was the first public school here. Robert Percival Maxwell Waring,…

  • How Pipe Creek Got Its Name · 13.2 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…

  • Sisterdale, TX · 13.2 mi

    Sisterdale began as a haven, a place carved out of the Texas Hill Country by German immigrants in the 1840s. Drawn by the promise of land and the possibility of building a community based on shared ideals, these…

  • Pinta Trail Crossing of the Guadalupe River · 13.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the historic Pinta Trail crossing of the Guadalupe River. In October 1839, a Republic of Texas expedition started here, piling rocks to mark their survey line into the wilderness. Later, surveyor…

  • Sisterdale · 13.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Sisterdale, an early Hill Country settlement founded by German immigrants. The area was first a pathway for Native Americans and later, in 1839, saw Henry Karnes lead a frontier expedition here.…

  • The Spring-Fed River That Feeds the Aquifer · 13.3 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…

  • Willie Nelson's Honky-Tonk Home · 13.4 mi

    If you pass by a rustic-looking building with hats all over the ceiling, you've found the heart and soul of Helotes: John T. Floore's Country Store. It's not really a store; it's one of the most legendary dance halls in…

  • The Land That Drinks Water · 13.4 mi

    The rocky hills around you are more than just pretty scenery; they're the key to a massive underground plumbing system. You're driving over the recharge zone for the Edwards Aquifer, the primary water source for…

  • Gallagher Ranch · 13.4 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 Old Bandera Stagecoach Road · 13.4 mi

    The road you're on right now, Bandera Road, State Highway 16, follows a route that was already old when it was paved - the wagon and stage road running northwest out of San Antonio toward the Hill Country. By 1873…

  • Joseph Scheel House · 13.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Joseph Scheel House, a classic example of German pioneer architecture in the Texas Hill Country. Built in the late 1860s by Bernhard Joseph Scheel, this home showcases the resourcefulness of…

  • The Scottish Surgeon's Stone House on Helotes Creek · 14.0 mi

    At 15350 Scenic Loop Road stands the oldest residence in Helotes and the seed of the whole settlement. Dr. George F. Marnoch, a Scottish immigrant and surgeon, bought this land near Helotes Creek in 1858, and in January…

  • Marnoch Homestead · 14.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Marnoch Homestead, a grand limestone house built in 1859 near Helotes Creek. It was commissioned by Dr. George Frederick Marnoch, a Scottish surgeon who bought over 1500 acres here. The…

  • La Quinta de las Piedras (Miguel Menchaca House) · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the La Quinta de las Piedras, the home of Miguel Menchaca. His family history goes way back, with ancestors arriving in Texas from the Canary Islands in 1731. This stone villa, built in the 1850s,…

  • Brownsboro Cemetery · 14.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Brownsboro Cemetery, a final resting place for a community that once thrived here. Originally settled by shinglemakers, Brownsboro later saw farmers and railroad workers call it home. In…

  • Willie Nelson's Once-a-Month Home Stage · 14.5 mi

    The low white dance hall at 14492 Old Bandera Road is one of the most storied music rooms in Texas, and Willie Nelson is the reason its name travels far past Helotes. John T. Floore, a former manager of San Antonio's…

  • John T. Floore Country Store · 14.5 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    Pull over and listen up, because you're passing a place where country music history was written: Floore's Country Store. John T. Floore opened the store in 1946. It quickly became a hub for the local community, but it's…

  • World-Famous Tamales and the Biggest Patio in the Southwest · 14.5 mi

    Floore's isn't just a stage, it's a kitchen, and it has been feeding people since John T. Floore opened it in 1946 to catch the traffic rolling between San Antonio and Bandera. The Honky Tonk Cafe here is known for…

  • The Naturalist, the Postmaster, and a Box of Turtles · 14.5 mi

    The same Gabriel Marnoch who lent his name to a frog was also at the center of one of frontier Helotes' darkest episodes. Marnoch and postmaster Carl "Charles" Mueller, who ran the Helotes Stagecoach Inn, had been…

  • Willie Nelson, every Saturday night · 14.5 mi

    There's a sign out front of Floore's Country Store that reads, "Willie Nelson. Every Saturday Night." John T. Floore opened the place as a grocery store back in 1946 — Helotes wasn't even a town yet, wouldn't…

  • The Helotes Frog That Got Its Name in the Mail · 14.5 mi

    Listen on a damp night near these limestone bluffs and you may hear a sharp, cricket-like chirp coming out of the rock itself. That's the cliff chirping frog, a thumbnail-sized amphibian that lives almost its whole life…

  • The grocery store that built Northside ISD · 14.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the legendary John T. Floore Country Store in Helotes. Opened in 1946 by John T. Floore, this spot quickly became a hub for the community, offering everything from groceries to dances.…

  • John T. Floore Country Store · 14.5 mi · Historical Marker

    In 1945, as the Second World War drew to a close, John T. Floore, manager of San Antonio's Majestic Theatre, purchased land in this vicinity. He created the Floore Subdivision, planning it as a center for the community…

  • Where the Stagecoach Stopped and the Town Took Shape · 14.5 mi

    Before there was a downtown, there was a stagecoach. By 1873 Helotes had become a stop on the Bandera Road run between San Antonio and the western counties, and German immigrant Carl Mueller, the town's first…

  • Gugger Homestead · 14.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Gugger Homestead, built around 1881 by Arnold Gugger. This limestone building served as his home, general store, and saloon, with his family living upstairs. It even housed the Helotes Post…

  • Helotes · 14.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Helotes. According to archeologists, human occupation of the Helotes area dates to about 7000 years before present, when small bands of Nomadic Indians who migrated seasonally in search of food and…

  • Helotes, TX · 14.5 mi

    Helotes, nestled a bit higher than San Antonio, retains a distinct identity, and its very name hints at its agricultural roots. "Elotes," the Spanish word for corn, speaks to a history intertwined with the land. While…

  • John T. Floore's Country Store · 14.6 mi · Things to Do

    John T Floore opened his country store dance hall on the old Bandera road in Helotes in 1942 and Willie Nelson played it so many times for so many years that…

  • Floore Country Store · 14.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Helotes, and right here is Floore Country Store, a Texas institution that opened its doors in 1946. It started as a grocery store and dance hall, but by the 1950s, it was drawing country music…

  • Helotes, TX · 14.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Helotes, a town whose name might just mean 'corn on the cob.' The name dates back to the early 1700s, when Spanish explorers noted the area where Apaches were known to hunt. Later, German and…

  • Madla, Frank Lloyd, Jr. · 14.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Frank Lloyd Madla, Jr., state legislator and teacher, was born on January 23, 1937, to Frank Madla, Sr., and Epigmenia (Alcala) Madla, in Santa Rosa Hospital in San Antonio, but he grew up in Helotes, Texas, a community…

  • The Cartoon Saloon · 14.8 mi · Things to Do

    A walk-in faux Old-West saloon shed insulated with empty Lone Star beer cans and covered in license plates and visitor graffiti built in 2018 along FM 473 in…

  • Comfort, TX · 15.1 mi

    A notable event in Comfort's history is the tragic flood of the Guadalupe River in 1987, which resulted in the loss of 10 lives during the evacuation of a summer camp sited near the town. This disaster left 33 others…

  • Anhalt Halle and the Germania Farmer Verein · 15.1 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.…

  • Blanco County's first chief justice · 15.1 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 Comfort Caverns Nobody Visits · 15.1 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…

  • The Hon. Samuel Boyd Patton · 15.1 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…

  • The Hon. Samuel Boyd Patton · 15.1 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…

  • The Community's 30-Acre Heart · 15.2 mi

    At the very heart of Timberwood Park isn't a city hall or a courthouse, but a park. When this community was designed in the late 1970s, the developers set aside a 30-acre private park for the residents. This became the…

  • The Highway That Built a Suburb · 15.2 mi

    The road you're likely driving on, or one very near it, is the main reason Timberwood Park exists in its current form. For decades, U.S. Highway 281 north of San Antonio was a two-lane country road winding through…

  • Timberwood Park, TX · 15.2 mi

    As a large, unincorporated residential area rather than a distinct town, Timberwood Park doesn't have a list of famous sons and daughters in the traditional sense. While it's a desirable area that's certainly home to…

  • The Alamo · 15.4 mi · Things to Do

    Remember the Alamo. The 1836 last stand that became Texas' most sacred site.

  • The Town Named After Corn on the Cob · 15.5 mi

    The name on the sign you just passed comes straight off a cob. Helotes is an Americanized spelling of the Spanish words elotes and olotes, terms for ears of corn and corncobs, and they were attached to this stretch of…

  • Dinosaur Footprints in the Canyon Above Town · 15.5 mi

    Just outside Helotes, Government Canyon State Natural Area protects something most cities can't claim: a place where you can hike on public land straight to dinosaur tracks. Roughly 110 million years ago, in the Early…

  • Cornyval: The Party That Started With a New Post Office · 15.5 mi

    Every spring Helotes throws a festival with a name only this town could pull off: Cornyval, a pun on carnival and the corn that gave Helotes its identity. The first one was held in 1966, and the spark was wonderfully…

  • When Helotes Ran on Dairy Cows and Cattle Drives · 15.5 mi

    For most of its life Helotes was farm and ranch country, not a San Antonio bedroom suburb. The numbers tell it plainly: in 1919 the local post office served sixty-four area families, and sixty of them made their living…

  • Polly's Chapel · 15.7 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.…

  • Idlewilde Lodge · 15.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the former Idlewilde Lodge, a place that saw over sixty years of summer fun for girls. Built in 1902 as a spa by Dr. C. H. Wilkinson, it was a place for healing. Then, it became Camp Reliance, and…

  • The Scout Who Chased Camels and Built a Chapel · 15.8 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…

  • Lakehills, TX · 15.8 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…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: O'Connor (Helotes) · 15.8 mi

    O'Connor (Helotes, TX) placed on the 6A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Gabe Chavana (4 HR); Marcus Morales (0.421 avg); Jacob Stogsdill (3 HR).

  • Hygieostatic Bat Roost · 15.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Hygieostatic Bat Roost, a bizarre structure built right here in 1918. Albert Steves, a former San Antonio mayor, wanted to get rid of mosquitoes and the malaria they carried. So, he hired Dr.…

  • Old English-Crist Home · 15.9 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…

  • Moos Homestead · 16.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Moos Homestead, built around 1850 by German immigrant John Moos and his bride Rosina. This fieldstone house, mortared with caliche, was typical of pioneer Texas German architecture.…

  • Hermann Sons Home for the Aged · 16.2 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…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Brandeis (San Antonio) · 16.3 mi

    Brandeis (San Antonio, TX) placed on the 6A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Chrystian Ramirez (3 HR); Nate McCarty (2 HR).

  • Hermann and Antoine Ingenhuett Homestead · 16.3 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…

  • Koch Cemetery · 16.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving by the Koch Cemetery, established way back in 1874. It was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2004.

  • Meyer Hotel Complex · 16.4 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…

  • Comfort - Treue der Union Monument · 16.5 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 Nueces Massacre · 16.5 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 Town the Freethinkers Built Where the Creek Meets the River · 16.5 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 · 16.5 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 · 16.5 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 · 16.5 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…

  • Comfort, TX · 16.5 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 · 16.5 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 Bald Cypress Tunnel · 16.5 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…

  • The Freethinker Colony · 16.5 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 · 16.5 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 · 16.5 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 · 16.5 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 · 16.5 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 · 16.5 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 · 16.5 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…

  • Lunch in the Old Firehouse on High Street · 16.5 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,…

  • Faltin Homestead · 16.5 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 · 16.5 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…

  • Karger Building · 16.5 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…

  • Loyalty To The Union, In Stone · 16.6 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 · 16.6 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 · 16.6 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 · 16.6 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…

  • The Treue der Union Monument · 16.6 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 Word That Would Not Translate · 16.6 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 · 16.6 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 · 16.6 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 · 16.6 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…

  • The Fachwerk Buildings · 16.6 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…

  • The Antique Capital of the Hill Country · 16.6 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…

  • The Old Comfort Bridge Bats · 16.6 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 · 16.6 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…

  • Kendalia, TX · 16.6 mi

    Kendalia is likely named after early nearby settler George Wilkins Kendall. The community's name honors this early settler who played a role in the area's history.

  • Faltin, August, Building · 16.6 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…

  • Comfort Post Office · 16.6 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, Peter Joseph · 16.6 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 · 16.6 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…

  • Gass Schmiede · 16.6 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…

  • The Vox Organ That Defined Tex-Mex Lived Out Here · 16.7 mi

    If you've ever heard that cheap, swirling Vox organ riff on Sir Douglas Quintet's She's About a Mover or Mendocino, you've heard Augie Meyers, and in his last years he made his home right here in Bulverde. A San Antonio…

  • There's a Stone Arrowhead Named After This Town · 16.7 mi

    Long before any Pieper or Bulverdo, hunters worked this country for thousands of years, and they left a signature behind that archaeologists named for this very place. The Bulverde point is a recognized type of stone…

  • Caradja, Catherine Olympia · 16.7 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 · 16.7 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 · 16.7 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 · 16.7 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.…

  • From Pieper Settlement to a Name Nobody Can Quite Spell · 16.7 mi

    The crossroads you're rolling through started out in 1850 with a plainer name: Pieper Settlement, after Anton Pieper, one of the German pioneers who put down roots along Cibolo Creek in southwestern Comal County. The…

  • The Hill Country Crossroads Where German and Tejano Families Built a Town · 16.7 mi

    Bulverde grew up as a true crossroads community, the kind of place that lived on the traffic where U.S. Highway 281, State Highway 46, and Farm-to-Market 1863 still meet today. After 1850 the area filled with German…

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