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Hondo, Texas

Everything Hondo is known for

6 songs mention this city 2 artists from here

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Music in Hondo

Songs About Hondo

Waltzing At Hondo Tonight
Caleb Sutton
77%
"Waltzing At Hondo Tonight"
Runnin’ Buddy
Max Stalling
54%
"It's fifty miles from Leaky down to Hondo"
Student Visas
Corb Lund
51%
"They staged us out of Hondo al este El Salvador"
Condo in Hondo
Hank Thompson
50%
"(title) "Condo in Hondo" — title is the place signal; lyrics not publicly indexed"
all my ex's live in texas
george strait
10%
I’ve Been Everywhere...In Texas
Brian Burns
2%
"Hondo"

Artists From Hondo

J
Jordan Gauna
country
A
Allora Leonard
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Hondo

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

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

History of Hondo

The Night They Robbed Both Banks at Once RoadyGoat

Downtown Hondo earned a small footnote in outlaw history during the Roaring Twenties. The Newton Boys, four brothers out of the Uvalde country who became the most successful bank-and-train robbers in American history, knocked over banks across South Texas during a run from late 1921 through the fall of 1922, hitting San Antonio, San Marcos, New Braunfels, Boerne, Pearsall, and right here in Hondo. What set the Hondo job apart is that the gang cleaned out two banks in town in a single night, a feat they didn't pull off in most places. The Newtons prided themselves on being careful professionals; their boast was that they never killed anyone in a robbery, preferring to crack safes in the dark and ride out before the town woke up. Over their career the brothers and their crew took down more than 80 banks and six trains from Texas into Canada, walking away with a fortune. For one night in 1922, two of those banks stood on the streets of little Hondo. (Source: Handbook of Texas, Newton Boys.)

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Hondo, TX RoadyGoat

Hondo’s got a certain charm, a feeling you get driving in under those live oaks, knowing you’re somewhere special. It’s more than just the elevation giving you a good view of the plains stretching out around us. It’s knowing the land has always been the lifeblood here. You see it in the fields, the ranches, the way folks still depend on the seasons. The Southern Pacific coming through in '81 definitely changed things, spurred growth like you wouldn’t believe, even if the town was officially established a couple years later. But the land, that's the constant. And you know, for a town this size, we’ve had our share of folks who’ve gone on to do big things.

This Is God's Country, Please Don't Drive Through It Like Hell RoadyGoat

If you slow down rolling into town, the sign on the city limits is doing exactly its job. In 1930 the Hondo Lions Club put up a roadside sign that read, This is God's Country, Don't Drive Thru It Like Hell, a blunt plea aimed at travelers barreling through on the highway too fast. It worked as advertising better than anyone expected. The sign got photographed, printed on postcards, quoted by tourists across the country, and it grew into Hondo's unofficial motto. By the 1940s some townsfolk thought the wording was a touch rough, so the message was softened: thru became through, and a polite please was tucked in front, giving the line you can still read today, This is God's Country, Please Don't Drive Through It Like Hell. The slogan has turned up in travel magazines and even surfaced in the music video for Little Texas's song God Blessed Texas. It is a small-town speed-limit gimmick that accidentally became one of the most famous welcome signs in the state. (Source: Texas Hill Country; Barry Popik etymology research.)

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Pearson, Frederick Stark

1911

Frederick Stark Pearson, civil engineer, son of Ambrose and Hannah (Edgerly) Pearson, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on July 3, 1861. He graduated from Tufts College in 1883 and received a master's degree in 1884. Later he was awarded honorary doctor of science and doctor of laws degrees (in 1900 and 1905). He was instructor in mathematics and applied mechanics at Tufts from 1883 to 1886. Pearson developed the electric transportation system in Boston and in 1894 became chief engineer of Metropolitan Street Railways in New York City; he served as consulting engineer for other street railway systems in Canada, the United States, Cuba, Spain, and England. He developed electric power systems for São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Mexico City, and Winnipeg, Manitoba. In 1911 he was chief engineer of the building of the Medina Dam on the Medina River in Texas and established an irrigation district of more than 35,000 acres in Bexar, Medina, and Atascosa counties. In 1912 he organized a syndicate in Hale County near Plainview for drilling irrigation wells to irrigate about 60,000 acres. This acreage was to be divided into farming tracts with improvements, which included about eighty-five deep wells. Most of Pearson's financial backing came from British capital, and his Texas projects suffered setbacks when World War I broke out. In an effort to improve his financial condition, he and his wife took passage to England on the SS Lusitania . They died when the ship was sunk by a German submarine on May 7, 1915. Dr. Pearson had married Mabel Ward on January 7, 1887. They were the parents of two sons and one daughter. The town of Pearson, named for Fred Pearson, was established in 1912 by the Medina Valley Irrigation Company as a stop on the Southern Pacific Railroad between LaCoste and Noonan Switch in Medina County. It was the site of a shop, a machinery and materials yard, and a house for a caretaker. The proposed townsite was never developed.

Tsha Handbook →

Hondo Anvil Herald

1886

The Hondo Anvil Herald , a weekly newspaper serving Medina County since 1886, owes its origins to a nineteenth-century county seat dispute that divided the Southwest Texas towns of Castroville and Hondo City and to a man who later bought the principal papers from each town and put them together. The Castroville Anvil was established in July 1886, not long after Castroville defeated a move to make Hondo the county seat. Castroville supporters staged a large celebration of their hard-won victory. One of the features of the event was the firing of anvils, a process by which anvils are blown into the air by charges of gunpowder. The loud, cannon-like reports set the nearby hills ringing with echoes. The newspaper was named Anvil to suggest a metaphorical parallel. Two previous papers had operated in Castroville, the Era (1876–79) and the Quill (1879–82). With total capital of $2,500 the Castroville Printing and Publishing Company formed on May 24, 1886. Circulation was more than 500 within a year and 750 by 1888. W. B. Stephens, the first Anvil editor and printer, was succeeded after two years by P. J. Stephenson. In 1889 the paper was sold to the state Farmers' Alliance , which sought $5,000 in stock from members. John G. Hall served as editor. In 1892 Castroville lost to Hondo City in another county seat election. In 1891 Herman E. Haass, who as a boy had worked as an Era printer's devil, became the Anvil 's editor and business manager. He bought out the paper in 1893 but sold his interest in 1894, when he was elected county judge. Hall returned as editor and major owner, though the Anvil Printing Company was held by Haass's father, Valentin, a native of Bavaria. J. O. Holzhaus replaced Hall as editor in 1898. In 1900 Valentin Haass sold the Anvil for $275 to twenty-six-year-old Fletcher Davis of Marshall County, Mississippi, a partner of another of Haass's sons, Henry. In August that year Davis married Roberta Octavia Hopp, who became lifelong assistant editor. The Hondo Herald , established in March 1891 by H. S. Kirby with editors Sam and Jeff Jones, was Hondo's third paper. It was preceded by the short-lived Medina County News (1882–88) and the Hondo City Quill (1890). Louis J. Brucks became editor in 1893, left in 1895, and returned in 1897. Herald circulation was 470 by 1894 and 520 by 1896. Brucks, who became sole owner by 1897, later served as county and district attorney. The Herald 's only competition was the short-lived Hondo News (1900). Davis bought the Hondo Herald and consolidated it with the Anvil and named the paper the Hondo Anvil Herald . The first edition appeared on October 17, 1903. In July 1911 Texas citizens voted narrowly against a statewide constitutional amendment for prohibition . Beginning the previous September, in 1910, Davis's antiprohibitionist Anvil Herald saw local competition from a new weekly, the Hondo Times , edited by W. R. and J. H. Hardy. The new paper, financed by local prohibition supporters, took a strong dry stance and pushed for the amendment. The two papers warred through their editorial pages for eleven months. Shortly after the election vindicated Davis in majorities both statewide and in Medina County, the Hardys sold the Times to Edward J. Brucks. By 1914 Davis had bought out the Times and also acquired the Star in nearby D'Hanis. In addition to newspapers, Davis's office also handled job printing. In the 1930s and up to the mid-1940s Davis's daughter, Anne, ran the paper as managing editor. In 1946 the Davises sold the Anvil Herald to William E. Berger, an Illinois native who had worked for the Gonzales Daily Inquirer . Berger bought the Anvil Herald with backing from his Gonzales employers but like Davis soon became sole owner. Anvil Herald circulation, about 1,800 when the paper changed hands in 1946, grew to 3,600 by the late 1980s. In 1986 the paper celebrated its 100th anniversary with a ninety-four-page commemorative edition.

Tsha Handbook →

Hondo Army Airfield

1942

Hondo Army Airfield is in northwest Hondo off U.S. Highway 90 in Medina County. In early 1942 Hondo applied for a United States Army Air Force pilot-training facility. Citizens acquired guarantees of 400 housing units in less than two days. Authorization for construction of the navigation school arrived from Washington in March 1942. The Henry B. Zachry Company of San Antonio used 3,000 employees to construct more than 600 buildings, numerous streets, a utility network, and an airdrome with runways, taxiways, and aprons, in eighty-nine days and at a cost of nearly $7.25 million. A 330-unit housing project known as Navigation Village sprang up on fifty-two acres at the southeastern corner of the 3,675-acre base. The air field, commanded by Col. G. B. Dany, began operations on July 4, 1942, began student training on August 10, 1942, and graduated its first class of navigators on November 26 of that year. By that time more than 5,300 military personnel were stationed at the base. The aircraft included B-34s, B-18s, AT-7s, and AT-11s. The school was the largest United States Air Force navigation School in the world at the time. The Women's Air Force Service Pilots were assigned there in November 1943. Two notable woman pilots, Betty Heinrich and Hollywood stunt actress Mary Wiggins, were among the first WASPs to report for duty. Between July 1942 and August 1945 some 14,158 navigators were trained at Hondo. The base was closed on December 29, 1945, and the buildings and fixtures were sold as surplus. By 1950 the population of Hondo had dropped from its high of 12,000 in 1942 to 4,220. Between 1945 and 1951 civilian operators such as the Hollaway flying school trained student pilots at the former base under the GI Bill. The base was reactivated at the outset of the Korean War in 1951 with independent contractor Texas Aviation Industries, directed by H. B. Zachry, training pilots in T-6s, T-28s, and T-34s, in a joint effort with the United States Air Force. This arrangement ended when the base was closed again on June 30, 1958. During the 1960s the city of Hondo leased facilities at the base to the Hondo Livestock Auction and to Gary Aerospace, Universal Rundle, and Doss Aviation. The aviation companies worked with the United States Air Force to screen pilots, and Universal Rundle manufactured toilets. Sometime in the 1960s a golf course was constructed on the base through the efforts of base commander Lt. Col. Earl V. Riley. A golf tournament bearing his name remained a yearly event in the 1980s. In the spring of 1973 the Air Force began a flight-screening program at Hondo using the T-41 Mescalero, a militarized version of the civilian Cessna 172. The training program, still in operation in the 1980s, was attended by United States and foreign students. After the mid-1970s the base housed a number of businesses, including a fiberglass-products plant, a greenhouse, a national guard armory, and the Medina Electric Cooperative.

Tsha Handbook →

Mission Valley

1865

Following Texas Emancipation in 1865, many freed slaves remained in this area on their former masters' farms. By 1869 blacks had organized a church and a school on the north bank of Hondo Creek (about 2 mi. N). Beginning in 1876, landowner L.L. White (d. 1889) sold small farm plats on the north and south banks of Hondo Creek exclusively to blacks. White, an abolitionist before the Civil War, was a native of Massachusetts and settler in Henri Castro's colony. The community on the south bank was named Mission Valley by Austin Grant, one of the first settlers. Residents on both banks of Hondo Creek established common facilities within walking distance of both settlements. Before 1881 their church building housed both Methodist and Baptist congregations and the school. Cottonwood Cemetery overlooks the creek, its oldest tombstone dates 1886. Emancipation Oak was the site of Emancipation Day pilgrimages on June 19. Many of the settlers and the Methodist church moved to the new railroad town of Hondo (2 mi. SW) after 1881. The Baptist church moved to Hondo in 1904. Descendants of the first settlers lived at Mission Valley until 1942, when a U.S. Army air field was built here. The site was made a Hondo city park after 1948. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.

Historical Marker →

Hondo

1840

Spanish explorers passed this way several times in the centuries preceding Anglo settlement of the area. The original village that would become Hondo was situated on "El Arroyo Hondo," named by the Spanish. Permanent settlers to the area began arriving with Henri Castro in the 1840s. The Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio (GH&SA) Railroad began to consider the busy village on Hondo Creek for the location of a depot in the late 19th century. They ultimately chose 188 acres five miles west of the town. The first deeds were executed in 1881. A post office for Hondo City was approved in 1882. Knowing that the county seat might be moved from Castroville to a more central location, the GH&SA donated land for a courthouse in 1883. The county seat was relocated to Hondo City in 1892. In the early 20th century the town, by then known simply as Hondo, developed as a trade center and cotton shipping point. Oil was discovered in the area in the 1920s. The population grew steadily with commerce; by 1940 it reached 2,500. The town's population exploded in 1942 when an Army Air Corps base was built to the northwest. Hondo was incorporated that year and the federal government provided educational funds and installed a sewage system to accommodate the boom. At its peak Hondo had an estimated population of 12,000. The base was closed in 1946, but continued to operate as a civilian pilot training center through the 1950s. Hondo grew steadily in the late 20th century. Its population in 1998 was more than 8,000. The community continues to thrive. (1999) Incise on base: Dr. John and Mrs. Gail Meyer, J. A. Guedea Rios

Historical Marker →

Fohn-Bless Store

1878

Store-residence built in D'Hanis about 1878 by John Fohn (1839-91), a native of Prussia. In addition to a general mercantile store, the structure was also the site of D'Hanis elections and a Justice of the Peace Court. In 1897, Rolf Frerichs (1833-1913) purchased the building from the Fohn Estate and moved it to this location. Frerichs' son-in-law, C.J. Bless (1864-1944), operated a store here until 1939. Medina Electric Cooperative occupied the building until 1963. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1974.

Historical Marker →

Things to Do in Hondo

quirky 15.9 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 15.9 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 15.8 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 15.8 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 15.9 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 15.6 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 15.7 mi away
The Grand Daddy Church Festival

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…
historical 15.8 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 Hondo

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

  • The Night They Robbed Both Banks at Once

    Downtown Hondo earned a small footnote in outlaw history during the Roaring Twenties. The Newton Boys, four brothers out of the Uvalde country who became the most successful bank-and-train robbers in American history,…

  • Hondo, TX

    Hondo’s got a certain charm, a feeling you get driving in under those live oaks, knowing you’re somewhere special. It’s more than just the elevation giving you a good view of the plains stretching out around us. It’s…

  • This Is God's Country, Please Don't Drive Through It Like Hell

    If you slow down rolling into town, the sign on the city limits is doing exactly its job. In 1930 the Hondo Lions Club put up a roadside sign that read, This is God's Country, Don't Drive Thru It Like Hell, a blunt plea…

  • Named Deep, Built by a Railroad

    The name on the water tower is older than the town under it. Back in 1689 the Spanish explorer Alonso De Leon crossed this country on his way to East Texas and tagged the streams as he went, naming the Medina River and…

  • The German Cottage Behind a Hometown Name

    One of the oldest buildings in the Hondo area belongs to a family whose name still turns up around town. Henry Schuehle came over from Germany, bought land near here, and built a one-and-a-half-story cottage out of…

  • El Charro on the Old Highway

    If you want a plate of enchiladas in the town that begged you not to drive through like hell, El Charro is the local institution that fits the bill. It sits right on 19th Street, which is U.S. Highway 90 running…

  • Hondo · Historical Marker

    Spanish explorers passed this way several times in the centuries preceding Anglo settlement of the area. The original village that would become Hondo was situated on "El Arroyo Hondo," named by the Spanish. Permanent…

  • The Town That Stole the County Seat · 0.2 mi

    The limestone courthouse anchoring downtown is the prize from an old county feud. For decades the seat of Medina County sat at Castroville, the little Alsatian town near the eastern edge of the county. But when the…

  • Fohn-Bless Store · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    Store-residence built in D'Hanis about 1878 by John Fohn (1839-91), a native of Prussia. In addition to a general mercantile store, the structure was also the site of D'Hanis elections and a Justice of the Peace Court.…

  • Leinweber Building · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Hondo, and right here is the Leinweber Building, built in 1907 for Ernest Roland Leinweber, a big-time Hondo businessman. This three-story commercial building was constructed by Gus Birkner, a…

  • Medina County Courthouse · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Hondo, and right here is the Medina County Courthouse. It wasn't always here, though. Back in 1892, Hondo City won an election and became the new county seat, taking over from Castroville.…

  • Berger House · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Berger House in Hondo, a solid reminder of early Texas craftsmanship. Look for its brick construction, featuring inner walls made of solid brick too – that's some serious building for its time.…

Show all 159 nearby places
  • St. John The Evangelist Catholic Church · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Hondo. Built in 1912 from local Seco brick, this was the second church building for the town's Catholic community. San Antonio architect Fred Bowen Gaenslen…

  • Hondo Methodist Church · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Hondo, and right here is the Hondo Methodist Church. Imagine early Methodist settlers, way back in 1857, gathering under a big old live oak tree by the creek to worship. They officially organized…

  • The Hondo Hurricane · 0.5 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) · 0.5 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 · 0.5 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…

  • Southern Pacific Depot of Hondo · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the old Southern Pacific Depot in Hondo. The first train chugged into this area back in 1881, connecting Hondo City to the growing Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway, which was…

  • The World's Largest Navigation School · 1.0 mi

    Look toward the northwest edge of town, about two miles out, and you'll see the South Texas Regional Airport. During World War Two this was Hondo Army Air Field, and it was the largest air navigation school in the…

  • The Science of Finding the Way · 1.0 mi

    The large airfield on the edge of Hondo is more than just a runway; it’s a monument to a critical moment in technology and applied mathematics. During World War Two, this was the Hondo Army Air Field, and its mission…

  • The County Seat War · 1.0 mi

    The stately Medina County Courthouse in the center of Hondo is more than just a beautiful building; it's a trophy from a political war. When Hondo was platted in 1881, the county seat was in Castroville, the older…

  • Hondo Anvil Herald · 1.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    The Hondo Anvil Herald , a weekly newspaper serving Medina County since 1886, owes its origins to a nineteenth-century county seat dispute that divided the Southwest Texas towns of Castroville and Hondo City and to a…

  • Hondo Army Airfield · 1.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Hondo Army Airfield is in northwest Hondo off U.S. Highway 90 in Medina County. In early 1942 Hondo applied for a United States Army Air Force pilot-training facility. Citizens acquired guarantees of 400 housing units…

  • Mission Valley, TX (Medina County) · 1.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Medina County, not far from Hondo. Right here, in what's now Mission Valley, was once a thriving Black settlement. Many of the first residents arrived as slaves in the 1850s, but after…

  • Davis, Fletcher · 1.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Hondo, Texas, a town that owes a lot to Fletcher Davis. He wasn't a native Texan, arriving here in 1895 with fragile health. But by 1900, this former teacher, with no prior newspaper experience,…

  • Harper, George Weldon · 1.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Medina County, and right here along Hondo Creek, George Weldon Harper built his life. Arriving in 1856, he quickly became a major landowner, raising cotton and corn with a large enslaved…

  • Hondo, TX · 1.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving past Hondo, the county seat of Medina County. This town owes its existence to the railroad, which laid tracks through here in 1881. The very first sale of land from the Hondo City plat happened on October…

  • Pearson, Frederick Stark · 1.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Frederick Stark Pearson, civil engineer, son of Ambrose and Hannah (Edgerly) Pearson, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on July 3, 1861. He graduated from Tufts College in 1883 and received a master's degree in 1884.…

  • Gallagher's Ranch, TX · 1.9 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 · 1.9 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 · 1.9 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 · 1.9 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 · 1.9 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 · 1.9 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 · 1.9 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 · 1.9 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 · 1.9 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 · 1.9 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…

  • Highway One Seventy Three and Westmoreland's Fire Brigade · 2.0 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…

  • Mission Valley · 2.0 mi · Historical Marker

    Following Texas Emancipation in 1865, many freed slaves remained in this area on their former masters' farms. By 1869 blacks had organized a church and a school on the north bank of Hondo Creek (about 2 mi. N).…

  • The Biggest Navigation School in the World · 2.2 mi

    The airport on the west edge of Hondo was once the largest Army Air Forces navigation school anywhere on Earth. Authorized in March 1942, just months after Pearl Harbor, the base was thrown up at breakneck speed: the…

  • Teaching Pilots to Steer by the Stars · 2.2 mi

    There was a reason the Army parked its biggest navigation school out here in the dry South Texas brush: the sky. Celestial navigation needed clear, cloudless nights, and Hondo delivered them, so cadets could practice…

  • Masonic Cemetery · 4.0 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…

  • Vandenburg · 5.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Hondo, Texas, but just a few miles from here, a whole community called Vandenburg once thrived. Founded in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1846</say-as> by Empresario Henri Castro, this…

  • The Wiemers Oak · 5.4 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…

  • Arroyo Hondo, Battle of · 5.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of a forgotten battle from the 1840s. In 1842, Mexico launched three invasions into Texas, trying to reclaim land lost in the Revolution. After General Woll's forces captured San Antonio,…

  • New Fountain (Soldaten Kemp) Methodist Church · 5.9 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…

  • D'Hanis, Town of · 7.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Old D'Hanis, a town that vanished when the railroad decided to bypass it. Established in 1847 by 29 families, it was part of Henri Castro's ambitious colonization plan. The town was named…

  • Site of Saint Dominic Catholic Church and Cemetery · 7.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through D'Hanis, a town founded by Alsatian immigrants in 1847. Right here, you're passing the site of Saint Dominic Catholic Church and its original cemetery. The first church, built of limestone, went…

  • Quihi · 7.5 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 · 7.5 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 · 7.5 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…

  • D'hanis, TX · 7.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through D'Hanis, a community with a story that starts on the Texas frontier. Founded in the spring of 1847 by twenty-nine Alsatian families, it was the third settlement established by Henri Castro. These…

  • Fort Lincoln · 7.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Medina County, near D'Hanis, on the west bank of Seco Creek. Right here, in 1849, stood Fort Lincoln. It was part of the first federal frontier defense line in Texas, built to protect settlers and…

  • D'Hanis, TX · 8.4 mi

    D'Hanis has a rich ethnic heritage, primarily shaped by the German emigrants who first settled the area. The town was founded by Count von D'Hanis and was settled by 29 Alsatian families from present-day France and…

  • D'Hanis, TX · 8.4 mi

    D'Hanis was founded by Count von D'Hanis around 1845, and it was one of several towns established by Henri Castro. The town was initially settled by 29 Alsatian families from present-day France and Germany, who brought…

  • J. M. Koch's Hotel · 8.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through D'Hanis, and right here stood J. M. Koch's Hotel. The Kochs opened their hotel in 1898, but they built this very structure in 1906. Imagine, it was reportedly built by Chinese railroad laborers…

  • D'Hanis · 8.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through D'Hanis, a town with a story of relocation. Back in 1847, Henri Castro founded the original D'Hanis about a mile and a half east of here, named for a company official. Alsatian immigrants faced…

  • Site of Fort Lincoln · 8.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Fort Lincoln, established by the U.S. Army in July of 1849. It was part of a chain of forts built to protect the Texas frontier. The fort was named for Captain George Lincoln, who died…

  • Schuehle-Saathoff House · 8.8 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.…

  • Rothe-Rowe Ranch House · 8.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Rothe-Rowe Ranch House, built in 1882 by Louis Rothe. This native stone home sits on land that once bordered Fort Lincoln, a U.S. Army post from 1849 to 1853, and the busy Woll Road. Over the…

  • Nichols Cemetery · 12.7 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…

  • Old Ingram · 13.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Old Ingram, a town that thrived for fifty years before a new highway changed its fate. Settlers arrived here even before the Civil War, but the town itself really began in 1879. That's…

  • Yancey, TX · 13.8 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…

  • 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…

  • Ranch Home of Charles De Montel · 14.5 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…

  • The Man Whose Friends Are Written on the Street Signs · 15.4 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…

  • St. Louis Cemetery · 15.4 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:…

  • The House That Crossed the Ocean · 15.6 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 · 15.6 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 · 15.6 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 · 15.6 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…

  • Ihnken Family Cemetery · 15.6 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…

  • The San Antonio-El Paso Road · 15.6 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.…

  • Renken Cemetery · 15.6 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…

  • St. Louis Day: The Granddaddy of Texas Church Festivals · 15.7 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…

  • The Grand Daddy Church Festival · 15.7 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…

  • A 17th-Century Alsatian House That Sailed to Texas in Pieces · 15.8 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 · 15.8 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 · 15.8 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 · 15.8 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…

  • Castroville - Little Alsace of Texas · 15.8 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…

  • The Little Alsace of Texas · 15.8 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…

  • Henri Castros Impossible Dream · 15.8 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 · 15.8 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 · 15.8 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 · 15.8 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 · 15.8 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 · 15.8 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…

  • Castroville Historic District · 15.8 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…

  • Alsatians of Texas · 15.8 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…

  • St. Louis Day · 15.8 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…

  • General Wool and the Chihuahua Road · 15.8 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 Five-Language Cemetery · 15.8 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 Landmark Inn · 15.8 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…

  • Schmidt, F. Xavier House · 15.8 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…

  • St. Louis Catholic Church · 15.8 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,…

  • The Frozen Dialect · 15.9 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 · 15.9 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…

  • Dubuis House · 15.9 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…

  • Drought Locusts and Cholera · 15.9 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…

  • St. Louis Church · 15.9 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 · 15.9 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…

  • County Courthouse, First · 15.9 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 · 15.9 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…

  • Dolch-Hans Compound · 15.9 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…

  • Moye · 15.9 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…

  • Steinle, Arcadia · 15.9 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…

  • Castro, Henri, Site of the Homestead of · 16.0 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…

  • Haby Settlement · 16.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the Rio Medina area, passing through the historic Haby Settlement. In the 1840s, families from Alsace, France, like the Habys and Becks, arrived in Texas, seeking land to farm. They settled here…

  • Biry-Ahr Property · 16.0 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…

  • Cordier-Tschirhart-Seal House · 16.0 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…

  • Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church · 16.0 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…

  • Landmark Inn State Historic Site · 16.1 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.…

  • Castro, Henri · 16.1 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…

  • Vance Hotel and Store · 16.1 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 · 16.1 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…

  • Mayer, Joseph, Homestead · 16.1 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…

  • Haby's: Eighty Years of Alsatian Baking on Highway 90 · 16.3 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…

  • Cow Camp Massacre on Hondo Creek · 16.7 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Spanish Exploration in Medina County · 17.2 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…

  • Medina County · 17.3 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 · 17.3 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 · 17.3 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 · 17.3 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 · 17.3 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 · 17.3 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 · 17.3 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 · 17.3 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 · 17.3 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 · 17.3 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 · 17.3 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,…

  • Tehuacana Cemetery · 17.8 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…

  • Tomerlin Cemetery · 18.1 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…

  • Medina Dam · 18.3 mi · Scraped Hmdb

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

  • Its engineer died on the Lusitania · 18.4 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Medina Dam · 18.4 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Mountain Valley · 18.4 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Medina (Medina) · 18.6 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).

  • John M. Davenport · 19.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Uvalde County, near Sabinal. Look for the marker honoring John M. Davenport, a tough stock-raiser and captain of volunteer Indian fighters. His life, from 1827 to 1859, was spent on the Texas…

  • Sabinal · 19.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Sabinal, a town with a name that echoes from Spanish explorers. They called the river here 'Rio Sabina' for the cypress trees lining its banks. The town itself was officially founded in 1854 by…

  • The Underground River That Made a Garden · 19.5 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…

  • The Winter Garden of Texas · 19.5 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…

  • Devine, TX · 19.5 mi

    Devine, Texas, owes its name to Judge Thomas Jefferson Devine, a prominent figure in the area back in the late 19th century. He was a respected jurist, and when the International & Great Northern Railroad came through…

  • From Natalia Fields to Ivy League President · 19.6 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 · 19.6 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 · 19.6 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 · 19.6 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…

  • Devine Evergreen Cemetery · 19.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Devine Evergreen Cemetery. This quiet resting place holds the stories of early settlers who met violent ends on the Texas frontier. Look for the graves of Elisha Whitley and Henry McCray, killed by…

  • Sabinal, TX · 19.8 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,…

  • Sabinal Christian College · 19.8 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…

  • First Baptist Church, Sabinal · 19.8 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…

  • City Hotel · 19.9 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…

  • Devine, TX · 19.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Devine, Texas, a town born from the rumble of a railroad in 1881. <break time="400ms"/> The International-Great Northern Railroad pushed its tracks south from San Antonio, and right here, a new…

  • Devine Lodge, No. 590 A.F. & A.M. · 19.9 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…

  • First Baptist Church of Devine · 19.9 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…

  • Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church · 19.9 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…

  • LaCoste, TX · 20.0 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 · 20.0 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…

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