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Devine, Texas

Everything Devine is known for

2 songs mention this city

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Music in Devine

Songs About Devine

the interstate 35 waltz
garret t. capps & justin boyd
10%
I-35
Max Stalling
5%
"I went on down to Devine town, I bought a six-pack or two"

Artists From Devine

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Rivers & Roads in Song near Devine

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

Interstate 35 45 songs US Route 90 9 songs Frio River 13 songs Interstate 10 36 songs San Antonio River 2 songs Chisholm Trail 8 songs

History of Devine

The Dam That Watered These Fields by Gravity Alone RoadyGoat

1910

The water that transformed Devine's farms came from an engineering marvel about 30 miles north. Completed in 1912, Medina Dam stretched 1,580 feet long and rose 164 feet high, holding roughly 292,000 cubic yards of concrete. It was called the largest hydraulic engineering project west of the Mississippi and one of the largest dams in the nation at the time. Designed and financed by engineer Frederick Stark Pearson, it took around 1,500 workers laboring day and night. The clever part is what came next: the entire canal network was laid out to move water to farms around Devine, Natalia, and La Coste using gravity alone, no pumps. Engineers surveyed a gentle, continuous downhill slope so water flowed on its own across tens of thousands of acres.

Named for a Judge Who Never Lived Here RoadyGoat

1877

Devine was almost called Nicksville. John L. Nicks was the first known settler, running a trading post and stagecoach stop a couple of miles west of the modern town. He served as postmaster, storekeeper, and justice of the peace, so people sometimes called the place Nicksville. When the International and Great Northern Railroad pushed its line from San Antonio toward Laredo in 1881, it set a depot to the east, and Nicks moved his store and post office beside it. The railroad, not the residents, named the station for Judge Thomas Jefferson Devine, a San Antonio jurist who worked as the line's attorney. Here is the twist: Devine was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1820, spent his career on San Antonio's benches, and died in that city in 1890. He never lived in the town that carries his name. Despite the spelling, the name has nothing to do with the word divine. It honors a person. The town incorporated in 1904 with 504 residents.

RoadyGoat →

When Water Changed What Grew Here RoadyGoat

1900

For its first decades, Devine ran on cotton. That changed in 1915, when the Medina Irrigation Company began delivering gravity-flow water from distant Medina Lake to the fields below the Balcones Escarpment. With reliable water, farmers traded cotton for vegetables, corn, and small grains. The town's population roughly doubled to 1,000 as the new economy took hold, then held steady into the early 1940s. Devine grew into the largest Spanish peanut shipping center in South Texas, moving the small, oil-rich peanuts by rail. The area also became known for white corn, milled into meal for tortillas. It is a quiet lesson in how a single engineering decision upstream can rewrite what a whole town plants, ships, and eats.

Devine, Judge Thomas J.

1843

Born in Nova Scotia. Came to Texas in 1843. Became District Judge, 1851. On the powerful Public Safety Committee of the Texas Secession Convention, 1861. Named with Samuel A. Maverick and Philip N. Luckett to take possession of the federal property in Texas. Backed by Col. Ben McCulloch and 1,200 minute men, forced surrender of 3,000 troops with arms, ammunition, supplies and $30,000 cash. Served throughout the Civil War as one of two Confederate Judges in Texas. Tried cases of persons accused of Union sympathies; dispositions of goods owned by Northern enemy; and maritime disputes arising from the coastal blockade and shipwrecks. In 1864 was made Special Commissioner to settle disputes among foreign merchants handling cotton (South's only medium of trade for vital supplies) across the Mexican boundary. At war's end, left with other Texas leaders hoping to continue fight from Mexico. On his return became only Southerner besides President Jefferson Davis to be twice indicated for treason. Was pardoned in June 1867 by President Andrew Johnson. On Texas Supreme Court and University of Texas Board of Regents. This town named for him in 1882.

Historical Marker →

Devine Evergreen Cemetery

1872

Although a fire destroyed the earliest written records of this burial ground, it is known that the first graves are those of Elisha Whitley and Henry McCray who were killed by hostile Indians in 1872. Another early grave is that of Isaac Galbreath (d. 1874), killed by Indians at the age of seventeen. His father, Thomas Galbreath (1823-1902), a Texas Ranger and veteran of the Mexican War (1846-48), is also interred here. The town of Devine was established in 1881 when a line of the International and Great Northern Railroad was competed from San Antonio to Laredo. It was named for Judge Thomas J. Devine who served as the Attorney for the Railroad Company. J.M. Bright (b. 1830), owner of land platted for the townsite, is buried here. In 1891 P.C. Hattox conveyed the original 6.5 acres of land at this site for designation as Evergreen Cemetery. A cemetery association, formed the same year, was set up to sell lots and direct volunteer clean-up days. Additional property was later acquired to provide for future expansion. Reorganized in the 1960s because of the declining condition of the cemetery, the association provided for the collection of voluntary donations to be used for maintenance of the grounds. 1980

Historical Marker →

Natalia, TX

1912

Natalia is on the main line of the Missouri Pacific Railroad and Interstate Highway 35, sixteen miles southeast of Hondo in southeastern Medina County. It was founded by the Medina Irrigation Company in 1912 and named after Natalie Pearson, daughter of Fred Stark Pearson , prime motivator of the irrigation project and builder of the Medina Dam. The community has had a post office since 1913; Natalie's name was spelled wrong. After the deaths of Pearson and his wife, who were passengers on the Lusitania when it went down in 1915, the Medina Irrigation Company was forced into receivership. It was subsequently incorporated under the name of Medina Irrigated Farms in 1931 after several failed attempts at refinancing. Bonds in the amount of $2.5 million were issued to pay for Medina valley irrigation and to provide a loan fund for prospective land purchasers. Charles F. C. Ladd acted as chief sales agent for the developers. His campaign was successful, and the town grew with the prosperity of the surrounding agricultural venture. In 1939 it had 400 residents, as compared with 150 in 1933. In 1931 the Griggs Canning plant was established in Natalia. In peak seasons this plant employed 500 people to can the many varieties of vegetables grown in the surrounding irrigated valley. In 1950 Medina Irrigated Farms was sold for a token fee to a group of local residents and now operates as a virtual public utility under the name of Bexar-Medina-Atascosa Counties Water Control and Improvement District No. 1. In 1976 the canning company was sold and converted into the Gold Bond Manufacturing Company, which produces carpet padding. Natalia was incorporated in 1968 under an aldermanic type of government with a mayor and four aldermen elected by the residents. Natalia Independent School District maintains an accredited public school system for grades K-12. The town continued to increase in population, despite a downturn in the late 1960s. In 1988 it had 1,514 residents and twelve businesses. The population in 1990 was 1,545. By 2000 the population was 1,663.

Tsha Handbook → · 4.2 mi away

Devine, TX

1881

Devine, on old U.S. Highway 81, Interstate Highway 35, and State Highway 173, thirty miles southwest of San Antonio in southeast Medina County, was established in 1881 when the rails of the International-Great Northern Railroad were extended from San Antonio to Laredo. It was named for Judge Thomas Jefferson Devine of San Antonio, an eminent Texas jurist and attorney for the railroad. Devine had a population of 504 when it was incorporated in 1904. It operates under the aldermanic form of government. The surrounding area was placed under irrigation in 1915 by Medina Irrigation Company, which furnishes gravity-flow irrigation from the waters of Medina Lake. Vegetables, corn, and small grains replaced cotton, which had been the principal crop until the advent of irrigation. The area is still noted for its production of white corn, which is milled and used in making tortillas. The town's population doubled to 1,000 when irrigation became possible, and it held steady until the early 1940s. During the 1920s natural gas and oil were discovered in the Devine area. Since the 1940s the community's proximity to San Antonio and the military installations in that area made it an ideal semirural alternative to city living. The population increased from 1,400 in 1941 to 4,016 in 1988. Rated businesses numbered ninety from 1961 to the mid-1980s. Devine has a municipal airport, a public library, a golf course, a public swimming pool, and two nursing homes. It is the site of the largest Spanish peanut shipping center in South Texas. Among its other prominent businesses are Texas Tire Test Fleet, Levans Manufacturing Company that makes women's undergarments, two banks, a farmer's co-op, two weekly newspapers, and two feedlots. The Devine Independent School District had an enrollment of 1,400 students, and Devine had a population of 3,928 in 1990. The population grew to 4,140 by 2000.

Tsha Handbook →

Stroud's Blacksmith Shop

1903

Joe Stroud (1877-1966) came here from Bigfoot in 1903, and established a blacksmith shop on this site, continuing in the craft learned from his father. Stroud soon became known throughout the southwest for his branding irons, and had a reputation as an expert farrier, once shodding all four feet of a horse in nine minutes. He persisted in working in the shop until shortly before his death. Although the business has expanded, the original anvil still rings loud from the blows of Sherille Stroud, who maintains the Stroud family tradition. 1975

Historical Marker →

Winters, James Washington, Jr.

1836

James Washington Winters, Jr., soldier, was born in Giles County, Tennessee, on January 21, 1817, the son of James Washington Winters, Sr., and Rhoda Creel (Beal) Winters. After sojourning in Memphis for a time, Winters's father moved his wife and numerous children (as many as sixteen) to the Vehlein colony in present Montgomery County in 1834. In company with George A. Lamb , they settled on Winters Bayou in the Big Thicket between the forks of the San Jacinto River twelve miles below the site of present Huntsville. For a time Winters apprenticed to a blacksmith in Montgomery. In late 1835, with his father and brothers, he volunteered for service at the siege of Bexar . Upon reaching San Felipe de Austin, however, the party learned of the surrender of Martín Perfecto de Cos and so returned to their farm. On March 18, 1836, Winters enlisted in Capt. William Ware 's company of independent volunteers. Also serving in this company were his brothers, Sgt. William C. Winters and Pvt. John F. Winters. Ware's company tried to hold Dewees's crossing on the Colorado River against the army of Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna , but was ordered to fall back by Sam Houston , who was retreating from the Colorado. Ware's company then joined Houston's army and was designated the Second Company of Col. Sidney Sherman 's Second Regiment, Texas Volunteers. All three of the Winters men took part in the battle of San Jacinto , where William C. Winters was severely wounded. In 1837 Winters served under Capt. Jerry Washam in pursuit of a group of Indians who had raided near present Anderson. At Montgomery on September 14, 1837, he married Pearcy (Percy) Z. Tullis, a native of Jackson, Mississippi. By 1840 the couple owned 177 acres in Montgomery County. In 1842, in response to the Adrián Woll raid, Winter joined Capt. Albert Gallatin 's company of Brig. Gen. Alexander Somervell 's Army of the South West and took part in the Somervell expedition . He returned from the Rio Grande with Somervell, declining to take part in the infamous Mier expedition . About 1848 Winters moved his family to the site of present Wimberley to help his brother William build a saw and grist mill. He then went into the mercantile business in Prairie Lea, Caldwell County, but that venture was unsuccessful. Winters next opened a store at the site of present Moulton in Lavaca County. In 1852 he moved to a ranch on the Nueces River east of the Live Oak County community of Oakville. In August 1861, following the outbreak of the Civil War , Winters organized the Oakville Precinct Reserve Company, which later became part of the Twenty-ninth Brigade, Texas State Militia. During the war Winters served as enrolling officer and provost marshall for Live Oak and McMullen counties. After the collapse of the Confederacy he moved his family to Tuxpan, Mexico, where he built a sugar mill and farmed for eight years. In Mexico Winters lost two of his eight children and his wife, who died on February 7, 1874. Winters returned to Texas and settled in Beeville for two years, then bought a farm near Bigfoot, eighteen miles north of Pearsall in Frio County. In 1901 the Daughters of the Republic of Texas asked Winters to help them identify important points on the San Jacinto battlefield for the purpose of erecting historical markers. At that time several DRT members interviewed Winters about his early life and his experiences during the Texas Revolution . Winters's responses were recorded by Adina de Zavala and Adele L. B. Looscan and published in the Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association (later Southwestern Historical Quarterly ) in October 1902. After the death of his first wife Winters married Elizabeth Weir (Wier), who died in 1894 or 1895. Winters died near Bigfoot on November 13 or 14, 1903, and was buried in Brummett Cemetery, three miles northeast of Bigfoot. One of the last survivors of the battle of San Jacinto, Winters served as second vice president of the Texas

Tsha Handbook → · 6.6 mi away

Things to Do in Devine

quirky 14.6 mi away
A 400-Year-Old House Crosses the Ocean

The Steinbach Haus was originally built between 1618 and 1648 in Wahlbach Alsace France. In 1988 the Steinbach family carefully numbered every beam and…
quirky 14.6 mi away
The Frozen Dialect

For over a century visitors to Castroville were more likely to hear Alsatian than English in the homes stores and taverns. The remarkable thing is the dialect…
historical 14.5 mi away
Drought Locusts and Cholera

The Alsatian settlers who founded Castroville in 1844 faced a gauntlet of biblical proportions. First came Comanche raids. Then a fifteen-month drought…
historical 14.6 mi away
Henri Castros Impossible Dream

Henri Castro was born in 1786 to a prominent Jewish family in France. He became a US citizen then returned to Europe to recruit settlers for a Texas empresario…
historical 14.7 mi away
The Little Alsace of Texas

In 1844 a French-born empresario named Henri Castro led 700 Alsatian farmers across the Atlantic to settle 25 miles west of San Antonio. They built…
historical 14.4 mi away
The San Antonio-El Paso Road

By 1849 Castroville had become a vital water stop on the San Antonio-El Paso Road the main artery connecting civilization to the far western frontier.…
quirky 14.5 mi away
The Five-Language Cemetery

Cross Hill Cemetery stands like a sentinel overlooking the green Medina Valley below Castroville. Walk among the weathered headstones dating back to the 1840s…
historical 14.6 mi away
The Landmark Inn

In 1849 a way station was built on the Medina River to serve travelers heading west from San Antonio on the El Paso Road. Perched along the riverbank the…

Everything Near Devine

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

  • Devine, TX · Tsha Handbook

    Devine, on old U.S. Highway 81, Interstate Highway 35, and State Highway 173, thirty miles southwest of San Antonio in southeast Medina County, was established in 1881 when the rails of the International-Great Northern…

  • First Baptist Church of Devine · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Devine, and right here is the site of the First Baptist Church, organized way back in 1882. It was the very first church established in town, starting with 35 members who met under a big oak tree…

  • The Dam That Watered These Fields by Gravity Alone · 0.3 mi

    The water that transformed Devine's farms came from an engineering marvel about 30 miles north. Completed in 1912, Medina Dam stretched 1,580 feet long and rose 164 feet high, holding roughly 292,000 cubic yards of…

  • Named for a Judge Who Never Lived Here · 0.3 mi

    Devine was almost called Nicksville. John L. Nicks was the first known settler, running a trading post and stagecoach stop a couple of miles west of the modern town. He served as postmaster, storekeeper, and justice of…

  • Devine, Judge Thomas J. · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker

    Born in Nova Scotia. Came to Texas in 1843. Became District Judge, 1851. On the powerful Public Safety Committee of the Texas Secession Convention, 1861. Named with Samuel A. Maverick and Philip N. Luckett to take…

  • When Water Changed What Grew Here · 0.3 mi

    For its first decades, Devine ran on cotton. That changed in 1915, when the Medina Irrigation Company began delivering gravity-flow water from distant Medina Lake to the fields below the Balcones Escarpment. With…

  • The Underground River That Made a Garden · 0.5 mi

    As you drive through Devine, you're traveling over ground that only turned green because engineers went and got the water. The town itself was laid out in 1881, when the International-Great Northern pushed its rails…

  • Devine, TX · 0.5 mi

    Devine, Texas, sits a little higher than you expect, a rise of land above the surrounding plains. It’s peanut country, and you can smell that in the air sometimes, a rich, earthy scent. But more than just peanuts grow…

  • The Winter Garden of Texas · 0.5 mi

    Devine's farm boom didn't fall out of the sky — it came down a canal. The town started in 1881, when the railroad running from San Antonio toward Laredo reached this spot in southeast Medina County, and it took its name…

  • Stroud's Blacksmith Shop · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker

    Joe Stroud (1877-1966) came here from Bigfoot in 1903, and established a blacksmith shop on this site, continuing in the craft learned from his father. Stroud soon became known throughout the southwest for his branding…

  • Devine Lodge, No. 590 A.F. & A.M. · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Devine, and right here is the site of Devine Lodge, No. 590, chartered by the Masons way back on December 12, 1884. They first gathered upstairs in Josh Herring's general store. John Redus, a key…

  • Devine Evergreen Cemetery · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker

    Although a fire destroyed the earliest written records of this burial ground, it is known that the first graves are those of Elisha Whitley and Henry McCray who were killed by hostile Indians in 1872. Another early…

Show all 200 nearby places
  • How the Purple Heart Trail Grew Across Texas · 1.6 mi

    This highway is part of the Purple Heart Trail, a symbolic trail that runs through all fifty states to honor those killed or wounded in combat while serving in the armed forces. In Texas it started with one road. In two…

  • A Star in the Window, a Marker by the Road · 1.6 mi

    This road carries a Blue Star Memorial Highway designation, one of a string of them across Texas. The name comes from a family tradition. When someone in a household was serving in the armed forces, the family displayed…

  • Spanish Exploration in Medina County · 2.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Medina County, a place that's been on maps for centuries. Long before Texas was Texas, Spain ruled a vast empire, and they were always looking north of the Rio Grande. From the 1500s through the…

  • Natalia, TX · 4.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Natalia is on the main line of the Missouri Pacific Railroad and Interstate Highway 35, sixteen miles southeast of Hondo in southeastern Medina County. It was founded by the Medina Irrigation Company in 1912 and named…

  • From Natalia Fields to Ivy League President · 5.5 mi

    The little town you're rolling through carries a young woman's name, though a clerk's slip of the pen changed it forever. Back in nineteen twelve, an engineer named Fred Stark Pearson was busy dreaming up one of the…

  • Engineering an Oasis: The Medina Canal System · 5.5 mi

    The existence of Natalia is a direct result of a feat of civil engineering and hydrology. When Dr. Fred S. Pearson's company built the Medina Dam in 1911 and 1912 — the biggest irrigation project west of the Mississippi…

  • Natalia, TX · 5.5 mi

    Natalia, Texas, might seem like just another peaceful dot on the map as you drive through. The quiet streets and the fields stretching out toward the horizon tell a story of hard work and simple living, rooted in…

  • Selling a Dream Watered by the Medina Dam · 5.5 mi

    The town of Natalia is built on a powerful promise. Beginning in 1911, crews poured the Medina Dam north of here, a monumental feat finished in 1913 and, at the time, the largest hydraulic engineering project west of…

  • Winters, William Carvin · 5.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Bigfoot, Texas, the hometown of William Carvin Winters. He arrived in Texas back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1834</say-as>, fought and was wounded at the Battle of San Jacinto, the…

  • Bobbitt, Robert Lee · 6.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Medina County, passing the birthplace of Robert Lee Bobbitt, a man who wore many hats in Texas public service. After graduating from North Texas Normal College and UT Law, he served in World War…

  • Winters, James Washington, Jr. · 6.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    James Washington Winters, Jr., soldier, was born in Giles County, Tennessee, on January 21, 1817, the son of James Washington Winters, Sr., and Rhoda Creel (Beal) Winters. After sojourning in Memphis for a time,…

  • Bigfoot, TX · 6.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Bigfoot, Texas, a community named for a legendary Texas frontiersman. In 1883, James Connally secured a post office for this spot, then known as Connally's Store. He decided to rename it Bigfoot,…

  • Tomerlin Cemetery · 6.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Medina County, passing Tomerlin Cemetery. Washington Allen Tomerlin set aside this land for family and neighbors back when this area was pretty isolated. The oldest stone here dates to 1856, but…

  • Bigfoot, TX · 7.0 mi

    Bigfoot, Texas, has a rich history that dates back to its first settlement around 1865. Originally called Connally's Store, the community was renamed Bigfoot in 1883 by James Connally, in honor of Texas Ranger William…

  • William Alexander A. Wallace · 7.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Bigfoot, Texas, the stomping grounds of William Alexander Wallace, better known as Big Foot Wallace. He was a true defender of Texas, serving as a soldier, ranger, and mailrider, always protecting…

  • Trimble Cemetery · 7.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Trimble Cemetery, a final resting place for folks who met untimely ends. Edwin Trimble himself died here from a snakebite in 1869. His wife Dorothy was killed by a robber. Later, young Grace Lytle…

  • James Washington Winters · 7.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Bigfoot, Texas, the final resting place of James Washington Winters. Born in Tennessee in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1817</say-as>, Winters fought for Texas independence as a veteran of…

  • Refused allegiance to the Confederacy · 7.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Bigfoot area, where James Washington Winters lived. He fought in the Texas Revolution at San Jacinto and later served as a scout and Provost Marshall. Refusing to swear allegiance to the…

  • James Washington Winters · 7.1 mi · Historical Marker

    San Jacinto veteran, went on Somervell Expedition. Loyal to former general Sam Houston, did not sign Oath of Allegiance to the Confederate States at Oakville, July 4, 1861. Capt. 29th Brig. T.S.M., Provost Marshall,…

  • Brummett Cemetery · 7.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Brummett Cemetery, a resting place for pioneers and descendants of the Texas Revolution. Look for the grave of James Washington Winters, a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto, who lived from…

  • The Lignite That Fed the Locomotives · 8.1 mi

    About a mile southwest of Lytle, in southeastern Medina County, a settlement grew up around something buried in the ground: lignite. Lignite is a soft, young brown coal, formed from peat that never fully hardened into…

  • Moore Cemetery · 8.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Moore Cemetery. First public burial ground in community. Before its founding people were buried in private plots, church cemeteries, or in public graveyards outside this precinct. In 1896 Moses Veith…

  • Moore Catholic Cemetery · 8.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Moore Catholic Cemetery, a resting place established before 1902 when Ben Duncan deeded the land to the church. The earliest known grave here belongs to Christine Tehas, who died in 1894. This…

  • Moore, TX (Frio County) · 8.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Frio County, and right here is the town of Moore. Its origins are a bit murky, with two conflicting tales. One says it's named for R.W. 'Mustang' Moore, who died from an Indian raid in 1861.…

  • Benton City Cemetery · 8.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Benton City Cemetery, established back in 1870. This was the first public burial ground for a community that, in its day, boasted a great school, busy businesses, and its own newspaper, the Benton…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Lytle (Lytle) · 8.7 mi

    Lytle (Lytle, TX) placed on the 3A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Mason Hill (0.526 avg, 7 HR); Peyton Phillips (3 HR); Toby Davila (0.477 avg, 2 HR).

  • Lytle Methodist Church · 8.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're passing Lytle United Methodist Church, a place with roots stretching back to 1889. It all started with W.C. Newton, a farmer and preacher known as 'The Father of the Lytle Methodist Church.' He worked hard to get…

  • Lytle, TX · 8.9 mi

    Lytle's history began with 321 acres patented to Henry Volkner in 1856. In 1870, Volkner sold the land for $175 to Fitch S. Adams, who allowed the first school to be built on his property. The town's name originated…

  • First Baptist Church of Lytle · 8.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the First Baptist Church of Lytle. It all began in April of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1893</say-as>, when Dr. J.V.E. Covey and sixteen members held their first service under…

  • The Depot That Rode In on Two Flatcars · 9.0 mi

    Lytle owes its exact spot to a soured land deal. In 1881 the International-Great Northern Railroad struck a bargain with B. G. Andrews to place a depot on his land, called Andrews Station. The deed fell into dispute,…

  • The Man This Town Is Named For Blazed a Cattle Trail · 9.0 mi

    The name on the town belongs to John T. Lytle, one of the great figures of the open-range cattle era. Born in Pennsylvania in 1844, he came to Atascosa County as a young man and regained his health working on his…

  • Atascosa Lodge No. 379, A.F. and A.M. · 9.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Atascosa Lodge Number 379, chartered in 1873. These eleven Master Masons started their lodge in Benton City in 1872. Their first hall, built in 1876, wasn't just for meetings; it also…

  • Lytle, John Thomas · 9.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through South Texas, and right here is Lytle, a town named for a man who helped shape the Texas cattle industry. John Thomas Lytle, a Civil War veteran, started his own ranch near Castroville in 1867. But…

  • Great Western Trail · 9.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through South Texas, and right here, in the mid-1870s, a massive undertaking began: the Great Western Trail. This wasn't just any cattle drive; it was a 2,000-mile lifeline stretching all the way to…

  • Benton City Institute · 9.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Benton City Institute, a school that shaped young minds right here in Atascosa County. The building went up in 1875, and the very next year, the Masons bought the top floor. Educators…

  • Benton, TX · 9.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Lytle, and right here, the community of Benton once stood. Settled in 1876, it was a bustling place with a Masonic hall and its own newspaper, the Benton City Era. Residents even tried to carve out…

  • Lytle, TX · 9.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Lytle, a town named for John T. Lytle, a rancher and cattle driver who was active here as early as the 1840s. He helped establish Lytle Station on the railroad in 1882. When the post office opened…

  • The Town in Three Places at Once · 9.2 mi

    Here’s something you probably don't know about the town you're in. Your car might be in Atascosa County, but the gas station across the street could be in Medina County, and the school down the road in Bexar County.…

  • The Cattle King's Town · 9.2 mi

    The town of Lytle is named for Captain John T. Lytle, and unlike most namesakes, he was actually here. Born in Pennsylvania in 1844, he came to Texas in 1860, and by 1871 he had a cattle-trailing partnership with his…

  • Sand Branch Baptist Church · 10.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Rossville, past the site of the Sand Branch Baptist Church. It all began under a tree near here on August 27th, 1882, with just twelve members. Their first pastor was Elder C.B. Hukill. For a…

  • Edward Brown · 12.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Atascosa County, passing the site of a man who saw major Texas history unfold. Edward Brown fought in the Texas Revolution and later in the U.S.-Mexico War. He was even captured by Mexican forces…

  • LaCoste, TX · 12.5 mi

    In 2000, La Coste was the place in the United States with the highest percentage of its population reporting Alsatian ancestry, with 7.1% of the population reporting Alsatian ancestry. This unique cultural heritage sets…

  • Alsatian Echoes from Castroville · 12.5 mi

    While nearby Castroville is famous as the 'Little Alsace of Texas,' LaCoste is a chapter in that same story. It started as a settlement called Fernando — twenty-five residents, two general stores, two saloons, and a…

  • Lacoste, TX · 12.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Lacoste, Texas, a community with roots stretching back to 1893 when it was known as Fernando. <break time="400ms"/> It started small, with just a post office and a few businesses, but by 1896, it…

  • City Hotel · 12.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the City Hotel in La Coste, a place that offered more than just a bed back in the day. Built in 1912 by Emil Schmidt, it was the first public lodging in town, perfectly placed near the railroad depot…

  • Anchorage Cemetery · 13.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the historic Anchorage Cemetery, a place named by a former sea captain! In 1882, William and Mary Allen Stiggins, along with their daughter Mary Jane and her fiancé Thomas Whittet, arrived here from…

  • Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church · 13.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in La Coste. Established in 1911 after a petition the year before, this red brick, gothic-style building was a welcome sight for area Catholics who previously had to…

  • Atascosa, TX · 13.1 mi

    According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service 2007 census, there are more than 70 crop operations in Atascosa, with three operations valued at more than $250,000 each. There are also more than 125 animal…

  • The Science in the Soil · 13.1 mi

    The ground around Atascosa is mostly sandy loam, and that single fact organized everything that ever grew here. Unlike heavy clay that turns sticky and hard to plow, or pure sand that won't hold water, sandy loam is the…

  • Rossville Cemetery · 13.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Rossville Cemetery, a resting place established by a land grant from a famous Texan. Jose Antonio Navarro, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, transferred land here to his son. In…

  • Tehuacana Cemetery · 13.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Tehuacana Cemetery, a final resting place for many early Frio County pioneers. The first burial here was in 1875, and the community later added land for a church and school. Buried within are victims…

  • Ihnken Family Cemetery · 13.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Ihnken Family Cemetery, a final resting place for some of Castroville's earliest settlers. Marie Becker Ihnken, a Dutch immigrant, was buried here in 1847 by her son, Gerhard. Gerhard married…

  • Renken Cemetery · 13.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Renken Cemetery, a small burial ground with a story of love and community. German immigrant Henry Renken established this cemetery in 1876, right after his first wife, Lissette, died. She was…

  • Site of Idlewild Community · 13.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Idlewild, a farming community that saw its share of frontier drama. In July of 1867, Romanus Gross, 51, and his 19-year-old son George were attacked by Native Americans on horseback, just…

  • Old Rock Baptist Church · 13.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Old Rock Baptist Church, a place with roots stretching back to 1857. Originally organized as Medina Baptist Church near Macdona, services were held in homes and schoolhouses until members…

  • Rossville · 14.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Atascosa County, passing the site of what was once Rossville. This was the very first Scottish community in all of southwest Texas. It all started in 1873 when brothers William and John Ross, who…

  • The Man Whose Friends Are Written on the Street Signs · 14.1 mi

    Read the street signs here and you're reading the founder's address book. Henri Castro, born Moise Henriques de Castro in Bayonne in 1786 into a family of Portuguese-Jewish descent, laid out his colony and named its…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Medina (Medina) · 14.2 mi

    Medina (Medina, TX) placed on the 2A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Davis Peterson (0.514 avg, 1 HR).

  • St. Louis Cemetery · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the oldest Catholic cemetery in Castroville, founded way back in 1844. The original burial ground is right there, enclosed by that stone wall built in 1860. Look for the earliest marked grave:…

  • Mayer, Joseph, Homestead · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Joseph Meyer Homestead, a little piece of Alsace right here in Texas. Joseph and Katherine Meyer, pioneers from the Alsace region of Europe, bought this four-acre plot back in 1855. What's…

  • Yancey, TX · 14.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Yancey, Texas, a community with a few names before settling on this one. First called Tehuacana, then Moss, it finally became Yancey in 1897, named after the sons of the landowners. By 1914, this…

  • The San Antonio-El Paso Road · 14.4 mi · Things to Do

    By 1849 Castroville had become a vital water stop on the San Antonio-El Paso Road the main artery connecting civilization to the far western frontier.…

  • Schmidt, F. Xavier House · 14.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the F. Xavier Schmidt House, built around 1870 by a master German craftsman who shaped the look of Castroville. He floated cypress logs down the Medina River for the attic timbers and used local…

  • Yancey United Methodist Church · 14.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Yancey United Methodist Church, a building that brought two communities together. Back in 1875, a circuit preacher named A.J. Potter started holding services for one group. Meanwhile, a separate…

  • The House That Crossed the Ocean · 14.5 mi

    One of the most remarkable buildings in Castroville isn't originally from here at all. In fact, it's older than the United States. If you visit the grounds of the modern visitor center, you'll find the Steinbach House,…

  • The Inn at the Heart of Town · 14.5 mi

    To understand Castroville's history, you need to see the Landmark Inn. What's now a State Historic Site started in 1849, when the Frenchman Cesar Monod bought a lot here and put up a big one-story stone building with a…

  • The Lost Language of Castroville · 14.5 mi

    For generations, if you walked the streets of Castroville, you wouldn't hear much English or Spanish. You'd hear Alsatian. This unique Germanic dialect was the mother tongue of the original colonists, and they held onto…

  • Engineering an Engine on the River · 14.5 mi

    The Medina River was more than a water source for Castroville; it was the town's first engine, thanks to some clever nineteenth-century engineering. In 1853 the Irish merchant John Vance bought the property, and in 1854…

  • Drought Locusts and Cholera · 14.5 mi · Things to Do

    The Alsatian settlers who founded Castroville in 1844 faced a gauntlet of biblical proportions. First came Comanche raids. Then a fifteen-month drought…

  • Landmark Inn State Historic Site · 14.5 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    Imagine weary travelers in the mid-1800s, seeking rest and supplies after a long journey. This spot, now the Landmark Inn, was their haven. Swiss immigrants Cesar and Hannah Monod arrived in Castroville around 1849.…

  • Castroville Historic District · 14.5 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    Pull over for a minute and step back in time. You're entering the Castroville Historic District, a little slice of Alsace, France, right here in Texas. In the 1840s, Henri Castro, an empresario, brought families from…

  • The Five-Language Cemetery · 14.5 mi · Things to Do

    Cross Hill Cemetery stands like a sentinel overlooking the green Medina Valley below Castroville. Walk among the weathered headstones dating back to the 1840s…

  • The Frozen Dialect · 14.6 mi · Things to Do

    For over a century visitors to Castroville were more likely to hear Alsatian than English in the homes stores and taverns. The remarkable thing is the dialect…

  • A 400-Year-Old House Crosses the Ocean · 14.6 mi · Things to Do

    The Steinbach Haus was originally built between 1618 and 1648 in Wahlbach Alsace France. In 1988 the Steinbach family carefully numbered every beam and…

  • A 17th-Century Alsatian House That Sailed to Texas in Pieces · 14.6 mi

    The half-timbered house serving as Castroville's visitor center is older than the United States, older than Texas, older than almost anything you've ever stood inside in this state. The Steinbach Haus was originally…

  • The Stooges' Guitarist Who Helped Invent the Blu-ray Disc · 14.6 mi

    Castroville's most improbable native son is a proto-punk guitar hero who later helped standardize the Blu-ray disc. James Williamson was born here on October 29, 1949. As a young man he became the scorching lead…

  • A French-German Dialect That Time-Capsuled in Texas · 14.6 mi

    For its first hundred years, a stranger walking Castroville's streets was likelier to hear Alsatian than English in the homes, stores, and taverns. The settlers carried a Germanic dialect of Alsace, seasoned with French…

  • The Underground Mill Race That Powered, Then Electrified, the Town · 14.6 mi

    Down by the river behind the Landmark Inn sits one of Texas's quieter feats of frontier engineering. In 1854 George Haass and Laurent Quintle bought riverfront here and built a dam of limestone and cypress across the…

  • Highway One Seventy Three and Westmoreland's Fire Brigade · 14.6 mi

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

  • Castroville - Little Alsace of Texas · 14.6 mi · Historical Marker

    Henri Castro was a Portuguese-born Jewish immigrant who became a French citizen, then a Texas empresario. In 1842, the Republic of Texas gave him a contract to settle families west of San Antonio in exchange for land…

  • Henri Castros Impossible Dream · 14.6 mi · Things to Do

    Henri Castro was born in 1786 to a prominent Jewish family in France. He became a US citizen then returned to Europe to recruit settlers for a Texas empresario…

  • The Little Alsace of Texas, Founded on the Medina · 14.6 mi

    You're rolling into the town that calls itself the Little Alsace of Texas, and the name is no marketing slogan. In 1842 the Republic of Texas signed a colonization contract with Henri Castro, a French empresario who had…

  • The First Church in the County, Raised From River Limestone · 14.6 mi

    St. Louis Catholic Church, anchoring Castroville's old core, traces back to the colony's first year. In 1844 the settlers put up the first church in what would become Medina County, a simple one-story limestone building…

  • Spoon With a Ghost at the Landmark Inn · 14.6 mi

    Spend the night at the Landmark Inn and, if the local lore is to be believed, you may not have the room to yourself. This riverside building has put up travelers since the 1850s, when it grew from a Swiss immigrant's…

  • From Frontier Store to State Historic Site · 14.6 mi

    The Landmark Inn at 402 Florence Street has been watching the Medina River crossing for the better part of two centuries. It started in 1849 as a one-story limestone store and home built by Cesar and Hannah Monod, Swiss…

  • Castroville, TX · 14.6 mi

    Castroville is a place rooted in a very specific vision. Back in 1844, Henri Castro, an empresario, brought families all the way from Alsace in France to settle this part of the Medina River valley. He'd been granted…

  • Vance Hotel and Store · 14.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Vance Hotel and Store, built in 1849 with local limestone and cypress. It started as a home, store, and post office for Swiss merchant Caesar Monod. By the 1860s, the Vance family added a wing…

  • Landmark Inn Complex · 14.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Landmark Inn Complex. These limestone structures along the Eagle Pass - San Antonio Road at the Medina River ford were once centers of trade, travel, industry, and domestic life. Alsatian colonist…

  • General Wool and the Chihuahua Road · 14.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past General Wool and the Chihuahua Road. GENERAL WOOL AND THE CHIHUAHUA ROAD In 1846, General John Ellis Wool amassed an army of 3,400 troops in San Antonio to invade Chihuahua, Mexico. Departing from…

  • The Landmark Inn · 14.6 mi · Things to Do

    In 1849 a way station was built on the Medina River to serve travelers heading west from San Antonio on the El Paso Road. Perched along the riverbank the…

  • The Grand Daddy Church Festival · 14.6 mi · Things to Do

    What started in 1882 as a handful of families celebrating the feast of St. Louis has grown into Castrovilles signature event drawing 10000 visitors each…

  • Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church · 14.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, a testament to the faith of German immigrants who settled this area in the 1840s. They held worship services in their homes at first, but in 1852, Zion…

  • Moye · 14.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Moye, a place with a long history of service. It began as the first mother house in the United States for the Sisters of Divine Providence, founded by the Rev. John Martin Moye in 1762. Over the…

  • Dubuis House · 14.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Castroville, where you can see the Dubuis House. Built in 1847 by Father Claude Dubuis, it was the first example of French-Alsatian architecture in town. Dubuis, the first priest in Castro's…

  • The Little Alsace of Texas · 14.7 mi · Things to Do

    In 1844 a French-born empresario named Henri Castro led 700 Alsatian farmers across the Atlantic to settle 25 miles west of San Antonio. They built…

  • Haby's: Eighty Years of Alsatian Baking on Highway 90 · 14.7 mi

    No drive through Castroville is really complete without pulling over at Haby's Alsatian Bakery, right on the highway at 207 US Highway 90 East. The bakery first opened in 1940 under Stanley Haby, whose surname is one of…

  • Alsatians of Texas · 14.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Castroville, the heart of Alsatian culture in Texas! In 1842, Empresario Henry Castro brought his first settlers here, many from the Alsace region on the border of France and Germany. They founded…

  • Castro, Henri · 14.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Castroville, founded by Henri Castro, a fascinating figure who came from France. He served in Napoleon's army, married, and even became a U.S. citizen before returning to France to work in…

  • St. Louis Day · 14.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Castroville, and right here, you're passing the site of a tradition that's been going strong since 1847. It's St. Louis Day, celebrated around August 25th, the Feast of St. Louis. Imagine early…

  • St. Louis Church · 14.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past St. Louis Church, a cornerstone for Alsatian settlers in the Republic of Texas. Dedicated in 1846 by the first Catholic Bishop of Texas, it later hosted a significant moment in Texas education. In…

  • The Stone Dam That Still Stands · 14.7 mi · Things to Do

    In 1854 the Alsatian settlers built a rock dam across the Medina River to power a gristmill for grinding their grain. They hauled native limestone and stacked…

  • Cordier-Tschirhart-Seal House · 14.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past a piece of Alsatian history right here in Texas. Jean Baptiste Cordier, an immigrant from Alsace, built this pioneer home back in 1844 using local limestone. It started with three rooms downstairs…

  • St. Louis Catholic Church · 14.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the heart of Castroville, where a piece of French culture took root. This church, St. Louis Catholic Church, wasn't just built; it was a community effort. The first resident pastor, Claude Dubuis,…

  • Dolch-Hans Compound · 14.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Dolch-Hans Compound, a place that tells the story of Castroville's growth. Look for the stone house, built around 1860 by German immigrants Louis and Rosina Dolch. They didn't stay long, but…

  • Castro, Henri, Site of the Homestead of · 14.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Castroville, the heart of a unique Texas settlement. Look around – this town owes its existence to Henri Castro, a French-born immigrant who became a key figure in Texas colonization. In <say-as…

  • Biry-Ahr Property · 14.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Biry-Ahr Property, a fantastic example of early Alsatian immigrant architecture right here in Castroville. Jean Jacques Biry, an immigrant from Alsace, built this home between 1847 and 1850. The…

  • County Courthouse, First · 14.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the first permanent courthouse in Castroville, built way back in 1854. This limestone beauty, with walls 18 inches thick, served as the county seat for Medina County from 1848 until 1892. Before this…

  • Haller, Louis, House · 14.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Louis Haller House, a limestone home built around 1877 for his growing family. Haller arrived in Texas at just 17 years old, a native of France who came with his father in 1845. He served as a…

  • Steinle, Arcadia · 14.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the home of Arcadius Steinle, a Prussian mason who settled in Castroville in 1845. He built this house starting in 1847, where he and his wife Marie raised six children. Arcadius died in 1858, and…

  • St. Louis Day: The Granddaddy of Texas Church Festivals · 15.0 mi

    If you roll through Castroville in late August, you may hit the oldest party in town. St. Louis Day honors the Feast of St. Louis IX, the medieval French king who is the parish's patron, and locals have gathered for it…

  • Medina County · 15.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Medina County, a place with a unique origin story. Back in 1844, French-German settlers, led by Henri Castro and accompanied by the legendary Texas Ranger John Coffee Hays, set out to establish a…

  • Medina River · 15.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the heart of Texas, and right here, the Medina River has been a lifeline for centuries. Spanish explorer Alonso De León first mapped this stream in 1689, naming it after an engineer whose charts…

  • French · 15.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Texas, a land that's seen explorers and settlers from all over the world. Long before Texas was even a republic, French explorers like La Salle were charting these lands, establishing settlements…

  • Gentilz, Jean Louis Theodore · 15.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the heart of the Castro colony, and right here, in what became Castroville, is where artist Théodore Gentilz first laid out this village in 1844. Hired by Henri Castro himself, Gentilz was more…

  • Hadra, Ida Weisselberg · 15.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Castroville, the birthplace of Ida Weisselberg Hadra, a talented Texas artist. Born in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1861</say-as>, Ida showed early promise, studying with renowned Austin…

  • Landmark Inn State Historic Site · 15.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Castroville, right on the Medina River. What started as a home and dry-goods store for César Monod in 1849, quickly became the Vance Hotel. In fact, the first issue of the Castroville Era…

  • Seminary of St. Philip For Mexican Students · 15.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Castroville, Texas, a place that became a refuge for seminarians fleeing religious persecution in Mexico. <break time="400ms"/> In January of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1915</say-as>,…

  • Vance, John · 15.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Castroville, a town that owes a lot to John Vance. He came to Texas in 1846, following General Zachary Taylor's troops, and set up shop with his brothers in San Antonio. But Vance eventually moved…

  • Castroville, TX · 15.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Castroville, the "Little Alsace" of Texas. This town owes its existence to Henri Castro, who signed an empresario contract with the Republic of Texas back in 1842. He brought Catholic farmers all…

  • Feltin, Louise · 15.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Louise (Mother St. Andrew) Feltin, foundress of the Sisters of Divine Providence in Texas, was born to Jean Claude and Marie (Seiter) Feltin of Alsace on December 27, 1830, and educated in the villages of Geispolsheim…

  • Huth, August Ferdinand Louis · 15.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Louis Huth, entrepreneur, merchant, and public official, was born on January 3, 1813, in Baden, presumably in Neufreystadt, to Ludwig and Catherine (Leicht) Huth. The elder Huth was a wine merchant and insurance agent,…

  • Ranch Home of Charles De Montel · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the former ranch home of Charles De Montel, a man who arrived in Texas from Europe in 1838. He was a true frontiersman, helping to found Castroville and organize Medina County. De Montel served as…

  • Navarro, Jose Antonio · 15.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past land once granted to Mission San Jose, but left unsettled until the 1820s. In 1828, Jose Antonio Navarro, a key figure in San Antonio and a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, asked the…

  • Drilling for Water, They Struck Oil · 15.9 mi

    In 1913, town founder Carl Kurz sank a bore looking for artesian water and hit oil instead. That accident opened the Somerset field, which ran south toward Pleasanton and was called the largest known shallow field in…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Somerset (Somerset) · 15.9 mi

    Somerset (Somerset, TX) placed on the 4A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Josiah Gonzales (0.478 avg).

  • The Town That Moved to Meet a Railroad · 15.9 mi

    Somerset carries a Kentucky name. In 1848, Baptist families from Somerset, Kentucky, started a settlement about three miles south of here, in what is now Atascosa County. That first village is remembered as Old…

  • From Cotton Rows to a Growers Exchange · 15.9 mi

    Oil grabbed the headlines, but many Somerset families lived off the soil. During the 1920s, local farmers turned away from cotton toward dryland fruit and vegetable farming, the kind of small-scale produce raising known…

  • Bexar, TX · 16.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving past what used to be Bexar, Texas, also known as La Colorada. It started in 1854 when John Kinney settled here. By the 1880s, the Kinney family was mining coal, hauling it to San Antonio by ox-cart. The…

  • Somerset, TX · 16.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving southwest of San Antonio, and right here is Somerset. This town got its start in 1909 when the First Townsite Company laid out the land along the Artesian Belt Railroad. But the real boom came in 1913,…

  • Rambie-Lewis Family Cemetery · 16.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Rambie-Lewis Family Cemetery. This family cemetery, consisting of three graves, is a physical reminder of the hardships faced by 19th century pioneer families. Aaron Rambie, a Pennsylvania native who…

  • Mann's Crossing, TX · 16.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Mann’s Crossing is at the intersection of Old Pearsall Road and the Medina River in southwest Bexar County. It is named after the Mann family who immigrated to Texas from Alsace-Lorraine as part of the original Henri…

  • The Bloodiest Battle in Texas · 16.9 mi

    Somewhere in the woods and fields around you lies the site of the Battle of Medina, the deadliest battle ever fought on Texas soil. In August 1813, a group of about 1,400 revolutionaries—Tejanos, Anglo-Americans, and…

  • The Fight to Create Von Ormy · 16.9 mi

    The city of Von Ormy is one of the youngest in Texas, and its birth was anything but quiet. In the mid-2000s, as San Antonio grew south, residents here faced the prospect of being annexed. A small group, led by a young…

  • Crossing the Medina: From Ford to Freeway · 16.9 mi

    The spot where you're crossing the Medina River is a hundred and forty years of bridge-building stacked in one place. The river set the problem: it floods fast and hard. For generations the answer was Garza's Crossing —…

  • The Royal Road Through Town · 16.9 mi

    The interstate you're on follows a path that is centuries old. You're traveling along the corridor of the Camino Real de los Tejas, the 'Royal Road' that was the main highway from Mexico to Louisiana during the Spanish…

  • The Festival That Built a Town · 17.3 mi

    In Poteet, everything revolves around one weekend in April. That’s when the Poteet Strawberry Festival takes over. But this is more than just a party; it’s a piece of living history. It all started in 1948. The town's…

  • The Science of a Poteet Strawberry · 17.3 mi

    The reason Poteet is the 'Strawberry Capital of Texas' isn't luck; it's a perfect combination of soil science, hydrology, and horticulture. As you look at the fields, notice the ground. It’s not dark clay; it’s a…

  • The 'Dilly-Dally' Railroad · 17.3 mi

    Poteet owes a lot to a shoestring railroad. The Artesian Belt was chartered in November of 1908 and opened the following September, running down from Macdona toward Christine through the country made famous by its…

  • The Count Who Left a Misspelled Name Behind · 17.5 mi

    This town on the Medina River carries a nobleman's name, spelled wrong. The old limestone mansion here, called the Castle on the Medina, was built in 1861 by San Antonio merchant Enoch Jones. In 1886 an Austrian…

  • One River Crossing, Three Centuries of Traffic · 17.5 mi

    For well over a century, travelers have funneled across the Medina River near this one spot. In 1850 a man named Miguel de la Garza ran a ferry here to serve the new San Antonio to Laredo stagecoach line, and the ford…

  • The Little City That Voted Its Property Tax to Zero · 17.5 mi

    Von Ormy is tiny, but it ran a governing experiment that drew national attention. Voters approved incorporating the city in May 2008, about eighty eight percent in favor, partly to avoid being annexed by San Antonio.…

  • Eight Thousand Years Beside the Medina · 17.5 mi

    The freeway and the town are recent. Human life on this riverbank is not. Archaeological findings show that people have lived in the Von Ormy area for an estimated eight thousand years, long before any road or rail…

  • Von Ormy, TX · 17.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Von Ormy, Texas, a town with a name that sounds like royalty, and you'd be right. It all started back in 1861 when Enoch Jones built a grand home here, overlooking the Medina River. It was called…

  • Hendrick Arnold · 17.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through San Antonio, and right here is the story of Hendrick Arnold. Born in Kentucky in 1804, Arnold was a participant in the capture of Bexar, fighting in December of 1835. He lived a full life in…

  • The Poor Man's Oil Field · 17.7 mi

    When oil was struck here in 1913, it wasn't a gusher that made headlines around the world. Carl Kurz wasn't even looking for oil — he was drilling for artesian water. What he found was something different: oil sitting…

  • Drilling for 'Shallow' Gold · 17.7 mi

    The Somerset oil boom was a direct result of specific geology and the simple engineering it allowed. The oil here wasn't miles down; it sat in shallow porous sand only about 1,400 feet below the surface, and the field…

  • Somerset, TX · 17.7 mi

    Somerset's history is marked by significant economic shifts. In 1913, Carl Kurz struck oil while drilling for artesian water, leading to an economic boom. The Somerset oilfield became the largest known shallow field in…

  • The Macaroni Line · 17.7 mi

    Somerset owes its existence to a railroad that no longer runs — the Artesian Belt. It was chartered on the seventeenth of November, 1908, and it was never really about hauling other people's freight. It was chartered in…

  • The Man Who Built a Town · 17.7 mi

    Somerset didn't happen by accident. In 1909, three men — A. M. Pyron, Carl Kurz and Jonas A. Kerr — laid a town out along the right-of-way of the Artesian Belt Railroad, timing it so the new community would have rails…

  • Macdona, TX · 17.9 mi

    Macdona's history is marked by a significant event on June 28, 2004, when a train crash between BNSF and Union Pacific Railroad trains led to the release of 9,400 US gallons of liquid chlorine. The chlorine immediately…

  • The Iron Compass: Engineering a Town · 17.9 mi

    The railroad tracks that parallel the road here are a monument to 19th-century engineering, and the Sunset Route was a genuine undertaking: surveyors with transits and chains mapping the flattest line, graders building…

  • Frio County · 18.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Frio County, a place explored by the Spanish way back in 1690. It was officially created in 1858, but things really got going in 1871 when Frio City became the first county seat. Later, Pearsall…

  • Krause House/Mann's Crossing Post Office · 18.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Krause House, a testament to Texas pioneer grit. Anton and Johanna Krause arrived from Austria in 1854, walking much of the way to San Antonio. By 1875, they’d moved southwest of the…

  • A Sergeant and a Trooper, One Traffic Stop · 18.3 mi

    U S Highway Ninety in Bexar County, between State Highway Two Eleven and Montgomery Road, is the Sergeant William Kuhnle Junior and Trooper Ralph G. Zerda Memorial Highway. Both men were Texas Highway Patrol officers…

  • McCulloch Cemetery · 18.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past McCulloch Cemetery, a final resting place with deep roots in Texas history. Samuel McCulloch, Jr., wounded at the Battle of Goliad in 1835, was one of the Revolution's first casualties. He later…

  • The Wiemers Oak · 18.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Wiemers Oak, a living piece of Hondo history. It was under this very tree, back in 1854, that German migrant Johann Wiemers and his wife Aalke found their faith. Reverend John Schaper held…

  • Enoch Jones Farmstead · 18.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Enoch Jones Farmstead, also known as the "Castle on the Medina." Enoch Jones, a nationally known engineer from Ohio, purchased this land in 1837, though he didn't permanently move to Texas until…

  • Nichols Cemetery · 18.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Nichols Cemetery near Kerrville. This peaceful resting place began with a man named Rowland Nichols, who settled here and served as a county commissioner. He died violently in 1859, killed by Native…

  • Quihi · 18.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Quihi, a settlement founded way back in 1845 by ten families sent by Henry Castro, a big-deal pioneer. They were the first wave of Alsatian immigrants to this area. Life here was tough, though.…

  • General Woll's Road · 18.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the route of General Woll's Road, built in 1842. To sneak into Texas and capture San Antonio, Mexican troops under General Adrian Woll needed a new path. Colonel Jose Maria Carrasco carved out this…

  • Bethlehem Lutheran Church · 18.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Bethlehem Lutheran Church. The Rev. Christian Oefinger, serving as pastor of the Castroville Lutheran Church, led in founding this congregation in March 1852. The first church building was dedicated…

  • Bigfoot Wallace · 18.8 mi · Historical Marker

    William Alexander Anderson Wallace came to Texas in 1837 to avenge a brother killed at Goliad and stayed for sixty years. He stood six foot two in an era when that was giant, wore moccasins his entire life because boots…

  • Schuehle-Saathoff House · 18.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Schuehle-Saathoff House, a limestone cottage built in 1850 by German immigrant Henry Schuehle. It represents the vernacular building style of early German settlers in Texas. In 1900, S.H.…

  • The Jar of Black Beans · 19.0 mi

    The Bigfoot, Texas, sign carries this man's name, so here's the chapter that turned Wallace into a legend. In eighteen forty-two he joined the Mier Expedition, a ragtag Texan raid across the Rio Grande that ended in…

  • Now, About the Other Bigfoot · 19.0 mi

    You're passing through Bigfoot, Texas, a town named for a Ranger, not the creature in the woods. But the name begs the obvious question, so let's talk about that other Bigfoot for a minute. Here's a twist most people…

  • One Minute of Film, Sixty Years of Doubt · 19.0 mi

    You're rolling through Bigfoot, Texas, a town named for a Texas Ranger, not the creature. But that shared name earns the famous twin a detour, so here it is. The single most famous piece of Bigfoot evidence is a short…

  • Named for a Ranger, Not a Monster · 19.0 mi

    Here's a town name that sends every imagination straight to the wrong place. Bigfoot, Texas, sitting in northeastern Frio County about eighteen miles northeast of Pearsall, has nothing to do with a hairy giant in the…

  • How a Man Got Called Bigfoot · 19.0 mi

    Here in Bigfoot, Texas, the town wears a Ranger's old nickname, so where did a grown man pick up a name like Bigfoot? William Alexander Anderson Wallace was born in Lexington, Virginia, in eighteen seventeen, and he…

  • Twenty-Seven Eggs and a Best Seller · 19.0 mi

    That name on the Bigfoot, Texas, sign belonged to a man who kept living the kind of life that writes itself into tall tales. After the war Wallace drove a mail hack across the brutal run from San Antonio to El Paso, and…

  • Pull On One Small Name · 19.0 mi

    So pull on this one short town name and look at everything it holds. It holds a Virginia-born Ranger who came to Texas for revenge and stayed to become a folk hero. It holds a jar of beans that decided who lived and who…

  • Pearson, Frederick Stark · 19.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through South Texas, near the Medina River, a place that was once the focus of a massive irrigation project. Right here, Frederick Stark Pearson, a brilliant civil engineer who had already built electric…

  • Standing in the Cold Country · 19.0 mi

    Look at where you're standing for a second. Bigfoot sits in Frio County, and Frio is simply the Spanish word for cold. The county takes the name from the Frio River, which early travelers named for its clear, cool,…

  • Gallagher's Ranch, TX · 19.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Gallagher's Ranch, also known as Clifden, was on San Geronimo Creek two miles southwest of the junction of Park Road 37 and State Highway 16, in far northeastern Medina County. The site is the location of the oldest…

  • New Fountain, TX · 19.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    New Fountain is a rural community on Farm Road 2676 four miles northeast of Hondo in Medina County. In 1845 a number of original colonists in Henri Castro 's colony settled on Verde Creek at Vandenburg. Within a year…

  • Quihi, TX · 19.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Quihi is at the intersection of Farm Road 2676 and Quihi Creek, nine miles northeast of Hondo in northeastern Medina County. It was laid out on Quihi Lake in 1845 by Henri Castro and named for the white-necked Mexican…

  • German Vernacular Architecture · 19.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the heart of Texas, and the houses you see might just be telling a story of German ingenuity. When German immigrants settled here, especially in the Hill Country and Medina County, they didn't…

  • Log Architecture · 19.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Texas, and you might be passing structures built with a technique that's as old as the frontier itself. Log construction, brought here by settlers from places like the Delaware valley, became the…

  • Vandenburg, TX · 19.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Vandenburg, the second of empresario Henri Castro 's colonial frontier settlements, was located west of San Antonio in what is today Medina County six miles north of the site of present Hondo. After settling…

  • Fort Ewell Creek · 19.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Medina County, and the creek beside you is named after a road that's been a lifeline for centuries. This is Fort Ewell Creek, named for Fort Ewell Road. That road traces its history all the way…

  • Biry, TX · 19.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Biry, also referred to as Biryville and as Briar Branch, is on Farm Road 173 and Briar Branch Creek, twelve miles southeast of Hondo in Medina County. The settlement was situated within empresario Henri Castro 's…

  • Mico, TX · 19.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Mico is a fishing resort on County Road 271 just east of the main dam at Medina Lake in northeastern Medina County. The name Mico comes from the acronym for the Medina Irrigation Company. The community's post office was…

  • Riomedina, TX · 19.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Riomedina (Rio Medina) is a farming community on Farm Road 471 in the Medina River valley six miles north of Castroville in northeastern Medina County. The town is named for its location between two main branches of the…

  • New Fountain (Soldaten Kemp) Methodist Church · 19.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through what used to be called Soldaten Kemp, a historic meeting spot for soldiers and travelers on the old San Antonio Road. By the mid-1800s, German immigrants were settling here. In 1858, Reverend John…

  • Masonic Cemetery · 19.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Masonic Cemetery in Hondo, opened in 1864 when Junior Warden Rubin Smith was killed by Indians. Freemasons and others in the New Fountain Settlement had already built a stone church-lodge hall…

  • Amphion and Amphion Cemetery · 19.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the ghost of Amphion, a town that once buzzed with life right here. It all started around 1857, when the first Atascosa County courthouse was built nearby, making this the county seat of…

  • The Hondo Hurricane · 19.4 mi

    Hondo gave Major League Baseball one of its great what-if stories, and the nickname says it all: Clint Hartung, the Hondo Hurricane. Born here in 1922 to a German-descended farming family, Clinton Clarence Hartung grew…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Hondo (Hondo) · 19.4 mi

    Hondo (Hondo, TX) placed on the 3A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Kolten Alvarez (0.479 avg); Mason Barr (0.471 avg).

  • Medina County · 19.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Medina County, Texas. This county was formed from Bexar County back in 1848, and organized the same year. It's named for the river that flows through it, and its county seat was Castroville until…

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