96 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.
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Silver Mine Pass
· 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
Named for silver mine opened near pass by Spaniards in 1700s or earlier. Ore was inferior, and mine was abandoned; but 14 shafts (some interconnecting) remain. Near the mine are remnants of a fortification made by 30…
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Saltpetre Mine, C.S.A.
· 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
Important to Texas in waging the Civil War. Site of natural deposits of bat guano, worked in the 1860s to obtain the chief ingredient for gunpowder. Cave inhabited by bats, source of the guano, extends about 23 miles.…
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Uvalde County, TX
· 2.5 mi · Local history
The Southern Texas Plains define Uvalde County, a land where the horizon stretches wide and the earth rolls gently. Here, the transition from the Hill Country's rocky terrain smooths out. The land, once part of…
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Old Davenport Home
· 3.3 mi · Historical Marker
Originally an early settler's 1-room log house on the Dry Frio (1 mi. N), built in era of Lipan-Apache raids and infestation of this frontier by outlaws. Enlarged for his family of 12 by L. C. ("Clabe") Davenport, who…
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Civilian Conservation Corps at Garner State Park
· 5.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Garner State Park, a place built by the hands of young men during the Great Depression. Back in 1935, the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC, set up camp here. These young guys, working under a…
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Dry Frio Canyon
· 7.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Dry Frio Canyon, a place that drew settlers looking for new frontiers back in 1875. Families like the Bohmes and Joneses arrived, and soon after, the first post office and schoolhouse bore the…
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Lombardy Irrigation Ditch
· 9.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through the Rio Frio area, where a major feat of 19th-century engineering took shape. In 1868, the Lombardy Irrigation Company dug this two-mile ditch by hand, channeling water to irrigate over 800 acres.…
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Kincaid Site
· 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
Kincaid Site (Kincaid Rockshelter, Kincaid Shelter, 41UV2) is an archeological site near the Sabinal River in Uvalde County consisting of a rockshelter and an open area in front of the shelter. Stratified deposits in…
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Blewett, TX
· 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
Blewett, a mining community originally known as Carbonville, is on Farm Road 1022 and Turkey Creek five miles southeast of Cline in far southwestern Uvalde County. Outcroppings of limestone rock asphalt cover 50,000 to…
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Fort Inge
· 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
Fort Inge (Camp Leona) is on the east bank of the Leona River a mile south of Uvalde in southern Uvalde County. The site is dominated by Mount Inge, a 140-foot volcanic plug of Uvalde phonolite basalt. Archeological…
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Garner State Park
· 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Uvalde County, heading north on Highway 83, and you're passing Garner State Park. This beautiful spot on the Frio River owes its existence to a bit of family drama. In the early 1930s, former Vice…
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McFatter, Joe Harry
· 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Uvalde County, not far from Montell, where Joe Harry McFatter grew up ranching. He traded his saddle for a bomber's seat in World War II, flying a B-25 Mitchell over Italy. Facing intense…
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Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria del Cañón Mission
· 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Uvalde County, not far from Montell, where you're passing the site of a Spanish mission that had a very unusual purpose. In 1762, Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria del Cañón Mission was founded not…
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Leona Ditch, TX
· 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
Leona Ditch, also known as the Ditch and Leona Chapel, was six miles southeast of Uvalde in far south central Uvalde County. The community was named for the irrigation ditch system used by the farming community. Leona…
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Reagan Wells, TX
· 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
Reagan Wells, a small rural community, is located on Farm Road 1051 and the Dry Frio River twenty-five miles north of Uvalde in north central Uvalde County. The area was originally settled by the families of Lawrence…
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Uvalde County
· 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Uvalde County, a land with a history as rugged as its canyons. Back in 1790, Spanish governor Juan de Ugalde led a decisive victory over the Apaches right here, near the site of modern Utopia. The…
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Uvalde County Limestone Rock Asphalt
· 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through a unique stretch of Texas history, right here in Uvalde County. This land holds the state's only significant deposit of limestone rock asphalt – a natural paving material. Back in the late 1800s,…
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Cline, TX
· 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
Cline is on U.S. Highway 90 and the Southern Pacific Railroad eighteen miles west of Uvalde in southwestern Uvalde County. The site was in Dawson County between 1858 and 1866. The community was first settled by Celeste…
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Concan, TX
· 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
Concan (Con Can) is on the Frio River and State Highway 127 in north central Uvalde County. According to local lore, the town was named after "coon can," a Mexican card game. Though the site may have been settled as…
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Dabney, TX
· 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
Dabney, also known as Whitesmine, was a mining community at the southern end of Farm Road 1022, six miles south of Cline in far southwestern Uvalde County. An asphalt-mining operation was opened by the Lathe Carbon…
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Montell, TX
· 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
Montell is on State Highway 55 thirty miles northwest of Uvalde in northwestern Uvalde County. It is in the Nueces River canyon just north of the river's confluence with Montell Creek. The site was that of the Spanish…
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Patterson Settlement, TX
· 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
Patterson Settlement was on the Sabinal River six miles south of Sabinal in southeastern Uvalde County. It was founded by and named for G. W. Patterson, Sr., who brought his family homesteading from Alabama to Texas in…
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La Jita Site
· 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Uvalde County, not far from the Sabinal River. Right here is the La Jita Site, a place where people lived and worked for thousands of years. Imagine generations of hunters and gatherers returning…
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Leona River
· 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving along the Leona River, a waterway that's seen thousands of years of history. Spanish explorer Alonso de León might have seen it as early as 1689. By 1875, an irrigation ditch was built to water the farms…
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Farris, TX
· 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
Farris, on what is now Ranch Road 2690 thirteen miles north of Uvalde, was named for Charles Jefferson Farris, who moved to the area with his brother and a nephew in 1891. Farris subsequently bought the other two men…
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Heard, TX
· 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
Heard is on Farm Road 1051 and the Dry Frio River, two miles north of Reagan Wells in north central Uvalde County. It was probably named after Augustin Heard, an early settler in the area. The community established a…
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Laguna, TX
· 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
Laguna, formerly known as Good Luck and Norwood, was at the intersection of Farm Road 334 and State Highway 55, a mile west of the Nueces River and sixteen miles northwest of Uvalde in west central Uvalde County. The…
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Famous Cattle Trail, Near Route of
· 10.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Real County, near where thousands of longhorns once thundered north. This trail, a feeder to the famous Chisholm Trail, helped save Texas' economy after the Civil War. It wasn't just cattle,…
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Clark Family Cemetery
· 11.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Clark Family Cemetery. Newlyweds Joseph Hutchinson Clark (1857-1901) and Annie Susie Wilson (1869-1953) bought this land from Annie's father on April 2, 1887. On Christmas Eve, 1901, Joseph was…
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Rio Frio, TX
· 11.3 mi
Rio Frio sits right at the heart of what makes the Texas Hill Country special, and that's always been tied to the land. You'll find folks around here who know the best spots for deer hunting like the back of their hand.…
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Joe A. Kelley Home
· 12.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Joe A. Kelley Home, one of Utopia's few remaining pioneer houses. Built in 1865, this two-room house with back shed rooms was constructed by Joe A. Kelley, who came to the area with his family in…
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In This Vicinity June 24, 1841, John Coffee Hays
· 13.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, near Utopia. On June 24, 1841, a pivotal moment happened right around here. Captain John Coffee Hays, a legendary Texas Ranger, led a company of just 12 men. They teamed up…
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Captain William Ware
· 13.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Utopia, Texas, a town named for paradise. But this area was anything but idyllic in the early days. Look around and imagine Captain William Ware, born in Kentucky back in <say-as…
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Waresville Cemetery
· 13.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Waresville Cemetery, the final resting place for some of the earliest pioneers in this part of the Sabinal River valley. This land was settled by Captain William Ware, a veteran of the Texas…
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The Utopia That Almost Stood Here
· 13.8 mi
Here's a coincidence sharp enough to give you chills, and it starts right here in Utopia, Texas. The word Utopia did not just land on this canyon by a postmaster's whim. A real attempt at utopia had already reached for…
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The Word Nobody Was Supposed to Reach
· 13.8 mi
You're rolling through Utopia, Texas, a real little town on the Sabinal, and a name like that begs the obvious question, so let's take the detour and talk about where the word itself even comes from. It was invented, on…
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The Maples That Missed the Ice Age Exit
· 13.8 mi
Follow the Sabinal River north out of Utopia, Texas, and you reach one of the strangest little forests in the state, the bigtooth maples of Lost Maples. Here is why they matter. Around ten thousand years ago, as the…
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The Town That Renamed Itself Perfect
· 13.8 mi
You're standing in Utopia, Texas, and yes, that is the real name on the map, and it was chosen on purpose. Here's how it happened. This spot started as Waresville back in the eighteen fifties. Then a family named…
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Paradise Was a Dangerous Address
· 13.8 mi
It is worth pausing on the nerve of naming this canyon Utopia, because for its first settlers it was closer to the opposite. This was a hard, contested frontier. Back in eighteen thirty-nine, the Texas Ranger Jack Hays…
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Pull the Name, Unspool the Canyon
· 13.8 mi
So look at everything one hopeful little town name out here on the Sabinal can hold. Pull on the word Utopia and the whole canyon unspools. It leads back to a postmaster named Barker, reaching past Waresville and a…
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The Soldier Behind Waresville
· 13.8 mi
Before it was Utopia, it was Waresville, and that name has a real man under it. Captain William Ware fought in the Texas Revolution, and in the early eighteen fifties he pushed up into Sabinal Canyon to settle, hauling…
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Hollywood Found the Name Too
· 13.8 mi
The name Utopia was too good for the movies to leave alone, and in twenty eleven they came for it. A film called Seven Days in Utopia was shot right here in this town, along with some scenes over in Fredericksburg.…
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Old Waresville
· 14.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Old Waresville, the first non-military settlement in Uvalde County. It was founded in 1852 by Captain William Ware, a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto. He built the first log cabin here, and it's…
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William Ware
· 14.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Utopia, Texas, where Captain William Ware carved out a life on the Texas frontier. Born in Kentucky in 1800, Ware moved his family to Texas in 1828. He answered the call to arms, raising a company…
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Highsmith, Benjamin F.
· 14.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Utopia, folks, and right here we remember Benjamin F. Highsmith. Born in Missouri in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1817</say-as>, Highsmith came to Texas and served in the Army of Texas…
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Uvalde County, TX
· 14.1 mi · Local history
Uvalde County, in the heart of the Southern Texas Plains, began as a scattering of ranches along the Nueces River. The fertile land, ideal for grazing and agriculture, drew settlers westward. The area's namesake, Juan…
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Jones Cemetery
· 14.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Jones Cemetery, a final resting place for some of Utopia's earliest settlers. The story starts in 1879 when Reverend Irvin Jones deeded two acres of his homestead for this burial ground. His wife…
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Rock Store
· 14.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Utopia, and right here is a piece of its very beginning. This stone building, erected in 1873, was Utopia's first building! It served as a general store, the Rock Store, for its owner R. H.…
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Utopia
· 14.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Utopia, a town with a story that starts with a scare and ends with a name change. After an Indian raid in 1886, R. H. Kincheloe and his family moved here and built a home. By 1873, they'd added a…
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Utopia Methodist Church
· 14.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Utopia, and just up ahead is the Utopia Methodist Church. It was established way back in 1866, part of a growing mission to serve this frontier area. Imagine pioneer camp meetings held right here…
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Utopia Baptist Church
· 14.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Utopia, where the Baptist Church has roots going back to at least 1886. Organized with just nine charter members, they shared space with Methodists before building their own in 1912. The…
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Knippa, TX
· 14.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Knippa, Texas, a town that started with a dream of lush pastures. George Knippa moved his family here in the 1880s, drawn by the Frio River's promise of abundant grazing land. He settled near the…
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Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Knippa (Knippa)
· 15.0 mi
Knippa (Knippa, TX) placed on the 2A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Joaquin G (0.509 avg).
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Knippa Trap Rock Plant
· 15.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Knippa, and right here, you're passing the site of one of Texas's biggest industrial operations: the Knippa Trap Rock Plant. It all started around 1904 when Pete Walcott came looking for gold, but…
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Knippa
· 15.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Knippa, a town that owes its start to the railroad. The Texas & New Orleans Railroad arrived in 1882, and by 1887, freighter George Knippa had settled here, encouraging friends to join him. The…
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Ware, William
· 15.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Uvalde County, near Utopia. Right here is where William Ware, a veteran of San Jacinto, decided to settle in 1852. He was said to be the only Anglo-American family between D'Hanis and the Rio…
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Utopia, TX
· 15.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Utopia, a place founded on a dream of peace, but its early days were anything but. In 1852, Captain William Ware arrived with his son, six slaves, cattle, and wagons packed with seeds and fruit…
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Taylor School
· 15.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the old Taylor School, founded back in 1883. Early settlers like Henry Taylor gave land for the first one-room schoolhouse, which had homemade desks. After burning down, two more…
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Catherine McLauren
· 15.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Leakey, the site of the last Indian raid in Frio Canyon on April 19th, 1881. Catherine "Kate" McLauren was home with her children when a Lipan Apache band attacked. Shot during the raid, she…
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Leakey Cemetery
· 15.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Leakey Cemetery. Originally known as the Floral Cemetery and serving an earlier community by that name, this cemetery dates to at least 1881. Land for the graveyard was sold by John and Nancy Leakey…
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Leakey, TX
· 15.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Leakey, Texas, a town named for the family that settled here in 1856. John and Nancy Leakey arrived near these springs, drawn by the abundant cypress trees along the Frio River. Loggers quickly…
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John Leakey
· 15.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past John Leakey. Tennessee native John Leakey (1824-1900) came to Texas in 1847, settling for a time in Henderson County where he was a brickmason and rancher. He and his wife Nancy (Patterson) moved to…
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Real County
· 15.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Real County, a place carved out of the rugged Edwards Plateau. It wasn't always this county, though. Leakey was once the county seat for Edwards County, but after a move to Rocksprings, folks in…
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Real County Courthouse
· 15.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Real County Courthouse in Leakey. After county seat disputes, Judge D. D. Thompson pushed for a permanent building. Architect H. A. Reuter designed this 1918 Classical Revival structure, built…
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Real County
· 15.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Real County. Located on the Edwards Plateau, Real County is in an area of rolling terrain broken by the canyons of the Frio River. Because of raids by Comanche, Apache, and Lipan Apache Indians,…
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Bandera County, TX
· 15.9 mi · Local history
The rolling hills of Bandera County, part of the Edwards Plateau, have fostered a spirit of independence that seems to echo in the lives of its notable figures. While the county's rugged landscape and cedar-dotted…
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Emmanuel Lutheran Church
· 15.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Emmanuel Lutheran Church, a testament to faith and cultural resilience. Organized in 1904 by nine charter members, this congregation initially met in homes, served by traveling pastors.…
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Leakey Methodist Church
· 16.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Leakey Methodist Church. Its origins trace back to worship services held in the John and Nancy Leakey home, the first settlers in this canyon area starting in 1856. The congregation…
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Leakey School
· 16.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Leakey School. Settlers arrived in the Leakey area, then part of Bandera County, in the mid-1850s. Many educated their children in their own homes, and early schoolhouses also existed near the John…
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Chalk Bluff Indian Massacre
· 17.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving near Chalk Bluff in Uvalde County, the site of a brutal Indian attack on May 29, 1861. Two of southwest Texas' most feared Indian fighters, Henry Robinson and Henry Adams, were ambushed by twenty hostile…
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Baylor, John R.
· 17.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Uvalde County, near Montell, where John R. Baylor made his home after a wild life. Born in Kentucky, he came to Texas in 1839 and became a colorful Indian fighter. He served in the Texas…
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Nuestra Senora de la Candelaria Mission
· 17.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Uvalde County, near the Nueces River. Look for the remnants of a story that began over 250 years ago. This was the site of the third Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria Mission, established in 1762.…
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Mission Nuestra Senora de la Candelaria
· 17.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Uvalde County, heading into history. Look to your right – this is the site of Mission Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria. It was first established way back in 1749 by Franciscan missionaries, hoping…
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Church of the Ascension
· 17.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Church of the Ascension in Montell. Bishop W. P. Elliott held the first Episcopal rites here in 1890. The church was built with donations from friends around the world and held its first service…
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Montell Methodist Church
· 17.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Montell, where a Methodist mission was established in 1889. The congregation met in various places, including a brush arbor, before dedicating a permanent church building on June 1, 1908.…
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Camp Sabinal
· 19.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Uvalde County, not far from where Camp Sabinal once stood. Back on July 12, 1856, Captain Albert G. Brackett of the Second U.S. Cavalry established this spot. Its mission? To protect travelers on…
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Garner Army Air Field
· 19.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Garner Army Air Field, established in July 1941 and named for former Vice President John Nance Garner. This field trained hundreds of cadets, including those from Latin America and…
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Sabinal, TX
· 19.6 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Sabinal, originally known as Hammer's Station. Right here, in 1854, Thomas Hammer established a stage stop on the Sabinal River, a vital outpost on the frontier. Just a few years later, in 1857,…
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Sabinal Christian College
· 19.6 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Uvalde County, not far from Sabinal. Right here, in 1907, a Church of Christ college opened its doors. Sabinal Christian College was built with red bricks from Laredo and local lumber, offering…
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First Baptist Church, Sabinal
· 19.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the First Baptist Church of Sabinal. It began in 1899 with eight charter members and the Rev. Winter Green. The congregation worshipped monthly, meeting in various buildings before…
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Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Uvalde (Uvalde)
· 19.8 mi
Uvalde (Uvalde, TX) placed on the 4A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Jordan Albarado (6 HR); Derek De La Cruz (3 HR).
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Sabinal Methodist Church
· 19.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Sabinal, where the Methodist Church began in 1876 as part of the Sabinal circuit. Services were held in other buildings until their own structure was finished in 1907. The church continued to grow…
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Dalton, Bertha
· 19.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the former home of Bertha Dalton, a woman who dedicated her life to educating Texans. Built in 1893, this house was bought in 1905 by Captain James Dalton. His daughter, Bertha, began her teaching…
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Black, Reading Wood
· 20.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Uvalde, Texas, a town that owes its very existence to a Quaker merchant named Reading Wood Black. Black arrived here from New Jersey in 1852, drawn by the promise of opportunity. He didn't just…
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Briscoe, Dolph, Jr.
· 20.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through South Texas, and right here is Uvalde, the hometown of Dolph Briscoe, Jr. He grew up here, dreaming of the Governor's Mansion after a childhood visit where he slept in Sam Houston's bed. That…
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Evans, Dale
· 20.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
Right here in Uvalde, Texas, was born Frances Octavia Smith, who would become the legendary Dale Evans. She was born October 31st, 1912, though she later discovered her birth certificate said October 30th, and her…
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Getty, Thomas Murray
· 20.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, and right here, near what is now Uvalde, you passed by the site of old Fort Inge. From 1850 to 1854, this was home to Army surgeon Thomas Murray Getty. During his time…
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Uvalde, TX
· 20.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Uvalde, a town with a story that starts back in 1853. Reading W. Black settled here, aiming to build a community. He opened a store, quarried rock, and even built a lime kiln. By 1855, he hired a…
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Garner Army Air Field
· 20.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Uvalde, and right here is the site of Garner Army Air Field. Named for Texas legend John Nance Garner, this base was a vital part of the World War II effort. In early 1942, the very first cadet…
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Leona Springs
· 20.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Uvalde County, and right here, the Leona River hides a secret: four groups of springs that once powered the area's early life. Back in 1858, these springs, rising from the deep Edwards aquifer,…
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Shand, Terry A.
· 20.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Uvalde, Texas, the birthplace of Terry A. Shand. Born in 1904, Shand was a pianist, vocalist, composer, and bandleader who got his start playing piano in silent movie theaters as a teenager. By…
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Smyth, Joseph Grigsby
· 20.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Uvalde County, the heart of a vast cattle ranching empire built by Joseph Grigsby Smyth. Born in East Texas, Smyth served in the Confederate Army before diving into the lumber business with his…
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Southwest Texas Junior College
· 20.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Uvalde, Texas, where in 1946, a bold experiment in education began. Right here, Southwest Texas Junior College opened its doors as the very first tricounty junior college in the entire state.…
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Arnett, William Washington
· 20.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Uvalde County, and right here, in what was once a wilderness, William Washington Arnett decided to settle. In 1852, he moved his family to the banks of the Leona River, building a simple shanty.…
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Sevier, Henry Hulme
· 20.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Uvalde County, where in 1895, a young Henry Hulme Sevier arrived from Tennessee. He wasn't here for the scenery, though. He took over the local newspaper, the Sabinal Sentinel, and quickly caught…
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North Uvalde, TX
· 20.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Uvalde County, and right here is where Sansom used to be, a community that became Uvalde Junction. It started in 1891 as Sansom, named for Captain John W. Sansom, a Civil War veteran. By the early…