Live Oak, Texas

Everything Live Oak is known for

2 songs mention this city

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

Music in Live Oak

Songs About Live Oak

Live Oak Lullaby

Bleu Edmondson

77%

"Live Oak Lullaby"

I’ve Been Everywhere...In Texas

Brian Burns

"Live Oak"

Artists From Live Oak

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Rivers & Roads in Song near Live Oak

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Live Oak.

Interstate 35 45 songs US Route 90 9 songs Interstate 10 36 songs San Antonio River 2 songs Chisholm Trail 8 songs Guadalupe River 18 songs

History of Live Oak

Before the Subdivisions, This Was Ranch Land RoadyGoat

Long before the strip centers and subdivisions, this rolling ground at the northeast edge of Bexar County was German farm and ranch country. The original settler families carried names you can still find on the old rolls: Engleman, Riedel, Fey, Albrecht, Schumann and Friesenhahn. They worked the land, raised cattle, and worshipped in Selma. A trace of that older Live Oak is still standing. The oldest surviving house in the city sits on Far West Drive and originally belonged to Phillip Fey, one of those founding families. The Albrechts had deep roots too; the first mayor's grandfather bought a farm bordering what is now Toepperwein Road, and Clarence Albrecht and his five siblings were all born in the family farmhouse. The Friesenhahns held onto their original farmland for generations; the last piece wasn't sold off until 2004, when a developer built the Heritage Apartments on it. The pasture is mostly gone now, paved over by the suburb it became, but the family names live on in street signs and city records. (Source: City of Live Oak 60th Anniversary History.)

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How Live Oak Split From Selma and Named Itself RoadyGoat

1960

Live Oak began as a small farming and ranching community in northeastern Bexar County, thirteen miles northeast of downtown San Antonio near what is now the Interstate 35 and Loop 1604 interchange. Its early settlers carried German family names still known here: Engleman, Riedel, Fey, Albrecht, Schumann, and Friesenhahn. In 1960 the residents first joined a move to incorporate with neighboring Selma, then broke away to form their own city instead. With just 316 inhabitants, they needed a name. Wilbur Friesenhahn made the motion, consulting the Texas Almanac to confirm no other Texas town already claimed it, and the community became Live Oak. Growth was fast: the first census after incorporation counted 2,779 people in 1970, and by 2020 the city held 15,781.

Golf Range to Drive-In to Hospital, All on One Plot RoadyGoat

The big hospital campus on Judson Road has had three very different lives, and each one tells you something about how fast this suburb changed. According to longtime city accounts, the land where Methodist Hospital Northeast now stands at 12412 Judson Road started out as a golf driving range. When that gave way, the plot became the Judson 4, a four-screen outdoor movie theater where families parked and watched films under the stars on the edge of a growing town. Eventually the drive-in went the way of most Texas drive-ins, and the property was redeveloped into the hospital that anchors northeast San Antonio's medical district today, drawing in clinics and medical offices around it. It's a tidy little parable of Live Oak's whole arc, open pasture entertainment giving way to the institutions of a real city. Around the same era, the first major federal grant ever made in the northeast area came to Live Oak to build its street drainage system, which is exactly why the town holds up so well in a hard rain. (Source: City of Live Oak 60th Anniversary History.)

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Universal City, TX

1929

Universal City is located across the Union Pacific Railroad tracks from the main gate of Randolph Air Force Base in northeast Bexar County. Covering 5.7 square miles, the city is enclosed by Randolph and the cities of Converse, Live Oak, Selma, and Schertz. The genesis of Universal City occurred when three San Antonio doctors, Henry H. Ogilvie (1885–1945), Witten B. Russ (1874–1964), and Samuel P. Cunningham (1876–1930), bought farmland in late 1929 in speculation that the future military airfield across the tracks would attract businesses and homeowners. Developer Aubrey Milner named the tract Universal City in 1931 to recognize what he hoped would be the universal importance of the neighboring airfield. Randolph Field opened on October 25, 1931, and the first business to open across the railroad tracks was a service station in 1932. Another early business was Randolph Cleaners (then called Post Tailors), which was still in operation in 2013. Pat Booker Road (State Highway 218), which is the main street of Universal City and connects Interstate 35 to the main gate of Randolph AFB, was built in 1935 and named a year later in honor of Air Corps captain and San Antonio native Francis P. “Pat” Booker, a pilot who served at Randolph and was later killed in an airplane crash at Maxwell Field, Alabama. The first restaurant, Beaty's, opened in 1939. Until the late 1950s the town grew slowly; the population after twenty-five years was only a few hundred. The catalyst that fueled Universal City’s tremendous growth was when Headquarters, Air Training Command moved from Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, to Randolph in 1957. The influx of officers and enlisted could not be absorbed by on-base housing, as it had since World War II . Recognizing this, the owner of Acme Lumber Company, Johnnie Chuoke, began in late 1957 Rose Garden, the first profitable housing development of Universal City. Soon other builders followed, and the race was on. Some citizens were concerned that burgeoning San Antonio would soon attempt to annex unincorporated Universal City, so in March 1960 voters approved incorporation. The first mayor, Franklin Bless, along with five aldermen were elected on June 4, 1960, and the first city council meeting was held two days later. On September 6, 1960, the city council officially adopted the Texas code that made it a general law city. After months of holding meetings wherever space could be found, the city government occupied its new permanent city hall in March 1962. Small police and fire stations were added to the city hall later to create a municipal building. Also in 1962 the city’s first church, Universal City Methodist, was organized, and construction began on a building. Although the town was already growing rapidly, the transfer of the Air Force Military Personnel function from the Pentagon to Randolph, beginning in June 1963 and continuing over the next few years, accelerated the growth. In January 1964 the city got its first bank, and in 1965 its first shopping center Randolph Plaza opened, featuring a Piggly Wiggly supermarket. After a decade of having just a rural post office, Universal City received a full-fledged U. S. post office in 1970. Also in 1970 the town gained its own newspaper, the Weekly Herald (the newspaper relocated in 1998), and an H-E-B supermarket opened on the edge of town. McDonald’s arrived in Universal City in January 1972. A Sears catalog store opened later in the year. At the general election on April 1, 1972, citizens chose to be governed under a home rule charter, which provided for a council-manager form of city government . The city’s first school, Rose Garden Elementary, opened in 1960 and was followed by Northview Elementary, which opened in 1967 but later closed. Coronado Village Elementary School opened in 1971, Kitty Hawk Junior High (now Middle School) in 1976, and Olympia Elementary in 1980. The newest and probably last school within the city limits, Salinas Elementary, opened in

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Harrison, John Sobiesky Koontz

1836

John Sobiesky Koontz Harrison, partner in the Harrison & McCulloch Stage Lines which ran from Indianola and Galveston to Central Texas as far back as the mid-1840s, was born on August 20, 1818, in Kingston, Roane County, Tennessee. His parents were Dr. Benjamin and Elizabeth (Koontz) Harrison. His grandfather, John Koontz, was a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates and had served as a colonel in the War of 1812. His father died when he was five years old, and, with his mother and his siblings, Harrison moved to La Porte County, Indiana, in 1833. His mother remained in Indiana and was listed as a hotel keeper in the 1850 census of Porter County. John S. Harrison probably arrived in Texas around 1836. His two older brothers, Achilles Leonidas and Erasmus Darwin Harrison had left for Texas sometime before John. Erasmus served with James W. Fannin, Jr. , and was killed at the Goliad Massacre in March 1836. John's oldest brother, Achilles, a second lieutenant in the Army of the Republic of Texas , died in the Houston area about 1840. John Harrison served in Captain Burnett's Company, First Regiment, First Brigade, in the Texas Army Volunteers, commanded by Col. Edwin Morehouse , through the year 1836. In 1839 Harrison resided in Fort Bend County and received a second class certificate for 320 acres. On October 31, 1845, he filed a petition with the probate court at Conroe, Montgomery County, Texas for the estates of his brothers. Erasmus Harrison had received 640 acres in Donation Land Certificate #786 dated January 28, 1839, and 1,920 acres for service from December 25, 1835, to March 27, 1836, in Bounty Land Warrant #707. John Harrison married Martha Jane E. McCulloch Graves. She was born on September 8, 1828, in Alabama and was the daughter of William G. and Margery (Lee) McCulloch. Martha Jane had a daughter from her first marriage, and the Harrisons eventually had four children of their own. John went into the stage line business with his brother-in-law, William H. McCulloch , Martha Jane's older brother, and formed the Harrison & McCulloch Stage Line. By 1848 the Harrisons possibly lived in Victoria, Texas, as John Harrison advertised his operation of the Victoria Hotel on May 4, 1848, and was noted as "one of the proprietors of the San Antonio and Port Lavaca Stage Line." In November 1848 Harrison & McCulloch advertised the newly-established "Line of Stages" from Indian Point to Victoria. In 1849 Harrison was also in partnership with Dr. Caleb S. Brown out of Gonzales, Texas, as Harrison & Brown, and advertised a stage line between San Antonio and Port Lavaca (probably the same line that he promoted as proprietor of the Victoria Hotel). They dissolved their partnership, however, on June 17, 1850. Harrison & McCulloch began their third postal route in New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas, by 1851; the United States Post Office had awarded them the contract for Route 6285 on May 11, 1850. This route, combined with their other two routes 6154 and 6155, made up a continuous loop through the central "heart" of Texas-from Austin to San Antonio to Port Lavaca back up through Victoria to Gonzales and back to New Braunfels. The Harrison family was listed in the 1850 Comal County census records and lived in the New Braunfels area. In 1852 the Harrisons moved from New Braunfels to Cibolo (later to be renamed Selma) and bought a 127-acre farm from sections of properties owned by Johannes Kaderli, Henry Kempel, and Adam Wuest. Harrison established Selma's first post office when he became the postmaster on June 21, 1852, and served a two-year term until July 15, 1854. He and his family moved from Selma, and they sold their farm to Wilhelm Geier and Martin Schmid in 1854. By 1858 they were living in Pleasanton, Atascosa County, Texas, where Harrison was listed in the 1860 census records as a "stockraiser." In 1861 he was a private in the command of Capt. Edward Walker of the Mounted Minutemen of Atascosa County where he enlisted

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Harrison and McCulloch Stage Stop

1848

HARRISON AND McCULLOCH STAGE STOP THE HARRISON AND McCULLOCH STAGE LINE BEGAN RUNNING STAGECOACHES FROM THE TEXAS COAST TO CENTRAL TEXAS AS EARLY AS 1848. THE LINE WAS A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN BROTHERS-IN-LAW, JOHN S. HARRISON (1818-1864) AND WILLIAM McCULLOCH (1819-c.1854), AFTER DISSOLVING THEIR PARTNERSHIP WITH DR. CALEB S. BROWN OF GONZALES (HARRISON & BROWN STAGE LINE) IN 1850. THEIR STAGE LINE WAS PART OF A NETWORK OF COMPETING STAGE LINES AND “STAR ROUTES” THAT CONTRACTED WITH THE UNITED STATES POST OFFICE DELIVERING TRAVELERS AND MAIL THROUGHOUT CENTRAL TEXAS. STAR ROUTES 6285, 6154 AND 6155 RAN FROM INDIANOLA, PORT LAVACA AND GALVESTON TO NEW BRAUNFELS AND AUSTIN AND BACK. JOHN S. HARRISON ALSO OWNED THE VICTORIA HOTEL IN VICTORIA WHERE HE HOUSED HIS STAGE PASSENGERS OVERNIGHT ON THEIR WAY INLAND. IN 1852, HARRISON MOVED TO SELMA, MAKING IT HIS HOME. HIS HOUSE WAS LISTED ON THE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES IN 2006 AND DECLARED A STATE ARCHEOLOGICAL LANDMARK IN 2009. HARRISON WAS THE FIRST POSTMASTER OF SELMA AND HELD THAT POSITION FOR TWO YEARS. THE SELMA STAGE STOP, AS IT IS KNOWN TODAY, WAS ONE OF THE STOPS ON HARRISON & McCULLOCH’S STAR ROUTE 6285 THAT RAN FROM AUSTIN TO SAN ANTONIO. IN 1852, THE ROUTE TOOK 18 HOURS TO COMPLETE, LEAVING AUSTIN AT 3 AM AND TRAVELING THE OLD POST ROAD AND SECTIONS OF EL CAMINO REAL DE LOS TEJAS THROUGH OPEN PRAIRIE TO MANCHAC SPRING, SAN MARCOS, BONITO, NEW BRAUNFELS AND SELMA, ARRIVING IN SAN ANTONIO AT 9 PM THAT NIGHT. THE SELMA STAGE STOP IS A PRIME EXAMPLE OF “LIMECRETE CONSTRUCTION,” A PROCESS USING WOODEN FORMS AND “SLIP,” A MIXTURE MADE FROM SAND AND PEBBLES FOUND IN THE NEARBY RÍO CIBOLO. SHARDS OF WOOD AND CORNCOBS WERE FORCED INTO THE DRYING SLIP FOR ADDED STRENGTH.

Historical Marker →

Building 100 "Taj Mahal"

1928

In 1928 the San Antonio Airport Company purchased 2300 acres of land near the city and donated it to the United States Army Air Corps for development of a consolidated flight training facility. Called "the West Point of the air", Randolph Field was dedicated June 20, 1930. One month later, construction was begun on an administration building, designated as Building 100. Because of the structure's exotic appearance, student flyers nicknamed it "The Taj Mahal" soon after its completion in October 1931. With its height and location, the building dominated Randolph Field and the surrounding countryside. It was also a prominent feature in several motion pictures filmed here. To many Americans, "The Taj Mahal" came to symbolized military aviation at a time when air power was becoming vital to military strength. Building 100 was designed by San Antonio architect Atlee B. Ayres. Its unusual 170-foot tower conceals a 500,000-gallon water storage tank. A powerful beacon atop the tower can be seen by aircraft up to fifty miles away. The building also contains an 1100-seat movie theater. Its administrative offices now (1975) house the United States Air Force. (1975)

Historical Marker → · 3.7 mi away

José M. López Memorial Highway

1944

Honors Staff Sgt. José M. López, WWII Medal of Honor recipient for solo machine-gun stand at the Battle of the Bulge, December 17, 1944. Mexican-born, orphaned at 8, raised in Brownsville and San Antonio.

Historical Marker → · 3.9 mi away

Alamo Heights, TX

1691

Alamo Heights, off U.S. Highway 281 five miles northeast of the center of San Antonio in north central Bexar County, has always been economically and socially a part of San Antonio. The area below the headwaters of the San Antonio River in Brackenridge Park in Alamo Heights was an American Indian campground and haven for many explorers, travelers, and troops; visitors included Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca , Domingo Terán de los Ríos , and Fray Damián Massanet . Massanet celebrated Mass at the spot in 1691 and changed the name from Yanaguana to San Antonio de Padua. In 1718, with the founding of San Antonio de Béxar, the use of the headwaters was guaranteed to the missionaries and early settlers under the rules of the Recapitulation of the Indies. In 1731 the Canary Islanders were granted similar rights to the use of the river. In 1836 the land known as Alamo Heights was included as public land in the original survey of the city of San Antonio, but in December 1837 a city ordinance provided for sale of public lands at auction to provide funds for city improvements. Despite controversy over the proposed sale, the site of Alamo Heights was purchased by James R. Sweet . After several sales the property was bought by Mrs. Isabel Brackenridge in 1869. In 1897 her son, George W. Brackenridge , sold the family estate, Fernridge, and 200 acres of land containing the springs of the San Antonio River to the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word . Incarnate Word College is on the boundary line between San Antonio and Alamo Heights, and Fernridge is preserved by the sisters as a museum building. Alamo Heights was also the location of the "Arsenal Lot," donated by San Antonio to the federal government as an arsenal site in 1852 and returned to the donor in 1859. Charles Anderson bought the site in 1860, established a ranch, and built a home that subsequently became the Argyle Hotel . William McLane bought the property in 1861. Around 1890 his son, Hiram H. McLane , sold the area to a development company. Progress was slow until 1909, when Clifton George took over the company and began a program of expansion that included an adequate school building for the growing community. In the early 1920s, as San Antonio expanded, the city developed annexation schemes to bring Alamo Heights into the city government; but, following two mass meetings, in 1922 Alamo Heights was voted an independent municipality. Voters also approved an independent school system. The 1926 completion of the Olmos Reservoir provided a further impetus to development in Alamo Heights. Texas Military Institute was located in Alamo Heights from 1911 to 1989. Currently located in Alamo Heights are a public swimming pool, a post office, and a shopping center; the McNay Art Institute adjoins the municipality on the north. Adjacent to the Argyle Hotel is Cathedral House, headquarters of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas, with conference center and chapel housed in the Spanish-style former Harry Halff residence and offices in a contemporary stone building. On Cathedral House grounds are the headwaters of the San Antonio River, described in diaries of Mary Adams Maverick in 1839 and a visiting Englishman, James Freemantle, in 1863. Newspapers that have been published in Alamo Heights include the Alamo Heights Herald in the 1920s and the Alamo Heights News , from 1939 to the early 1960s. The population in 1950 was 7,950, 7,552 in 1960, and 6,933 in 1970. In 2000 Alamo Heights had a reported 7,319 residents.

Tsha Handbook → · 9.2 mi away

Things to Do in Live Oak

historical 12.6 mi away

The Alamo

In the spring of 1836 about two hundred Texas defenders held this old Spanish mission for thirteen days against a Mexican army of two thousand led by Santa…

historical 16.9 mi away

The Alamo

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

historical 19.7 mi away

Gruene Hall

Gruene Hall opened in 1878 and has never closed its doors making it the oldest continuously operating dance hall in Texas. The wooden floor is scuffed smooth…

nature 9.4 mi away

Bracken Cave

The largest bat colony on earth lives in this single sinkhole outside San Antonio -- somewhere between fifteen and twenty million Mexican free-tailed bats…

historical 15.6 mi away

Mission San José

The queen of the missions -- San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo -- was founded in 1720 just south of San Antonio and quickly became the largest wealthiest and…

nature 16.6 mi away

Comal Springs

Comal Springs in New Braunfels is the largest spring system in Texas -- more than two hundred and fifty individual vents pouring out three hundred million…

historical 19.0 mi away

Gruene Hall

Texas' oldest dance hall (1878). Still hosts live music every night.

historical 19.0 mi away

Where George Strait Got His Start

Before George Strait was the King of Country he was a young singer playing regular gigs at Gruene Hall in the 1970s and 80s. The tiny dance hall with no air…

Everything Near Live Oak

1213 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

Before the Subdivisions, This Was Ranch Land · 0.2 mi
Long before the strip centers and subdivisions, this rolling ground at the northeast edge of Bexar County was German farm and ranch country. The original settler families carried names you can still find on the old…
How Live Oak Split From Selma and Named Itself · 0.3 mi
Live Oak began as a small farming and ranching community in northeastern Bexar County, thirteen miles northeast of downtown San Antonio near what is now the Interstate 35 and Loop 1604 interchange. Its early settlers…
The Fastest Quarter-Miler in San Antonio Became Its Mayor · 0.5 mi
Live Oak's second mayor came out of the same family that helped name the town, and before he ran the city he could simply outrun almost anyone. Elton Ottmar Friesenhahn, called Fritz, was born in 1924 on the family farm…
Golf Range to Drive-In to Hospital, All on One Plot · 0.5 mi
The big hospital campus on Judson Road has had three very different lives, and each one tells you something about how fast this suburb changed. According to longtime city accounts, the land where Methodist Hospital…
The Interchange That Built a City · 0.7 mi
You're driving in a city whose shape was set by civil engineering. The heart of Live Oak isn't a traditional downtown square; it's the interchange where Interstate 35 meets Loop 1604. Live Oak incorporated in 1960 as a…
Named for the Trees the Aldermen Met Under · 0.7 mi
The suburb you're rolling into took its name from the trees overhead. Back when this was farm and ranch country northeast of San Antonio, a cluster of German families decided to incorporate their own town rather than be…
The City Run Out of the Friesenhahns' Living Rooms · 0.7 mi
Live Oak incorporated in 1960 for one main reason: to keep from being annexed into San Antonio, so residents would have a real voice in their own affairs. What they built in those first years was about as bootstrap as a…
The Suburb That Tripled in a Decade · 0.7 mi
Live Oak sits in the orbit of Randolph Air Force Base, in the band of fast-growing northeast San Antonio suburbs that filled in alongside Schertz, Universal City, Selma and Converse as the metro pushed outward. The…
The Tree That Built a Town · 0.7 mi
Before I-35 and Loop 1604 crossed out here, this was live oak country northeast of San Antonio, thirteen miles out from downtown, rolling and shaded and thick with the trees that gave the place its name. German farming…
The Hardware Store That Became the Town's Living Room · 0.8 mi
For years the city's main gathering hall was, of all things, a former hardware store. The Live Oak Civic Center at 8101 Pat Booker Road started life as a Handy Dan Lumber store, one of a regional chain of…
The Main Street Named for a Lost Aviator · 1.5 mi
The busy commercial spine you're driving, Pat Booker Road, carries the name of an aviator who never came home. Officially State Highway 218, the road was built in 1935 to connect the highway from San Antonio straight to…
Living Next to the 'Taj Mahal' · 2.0 mi
From almost anywhere in Universal City, you can feel the presence of its powerful neighbor. Randolph Air Force Base isn't just an employer; it's a landmark. Its most famous feature is the main administration building,…

Show all 200 nearby places

Universal City, TX · 2.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
Universal City is located across the Union Pacific Railroad tracks from the main gate of Randolph Air Force Base in northeast Bexar County. Covering 5.7 square miles, the city is enclosed by Randolph and the cities of…
A Texas Town That Borrowed Kitty Hawk · 2.0 mi
More than a thousand miles from the North Carolina dunes where the Wright brothers first flew, Universal City planted a piece of Kitty Hawk in the Texas Hill Country. Living in the shadow of an Air Force pilot-training…
Universal City, TX · 2.0 mi
The earliest portion of what would later become Universal City, Texas, was platted on January 30, 1931. The city was later incorporated as a home-rule city on April 20, 1960.
Site of Geier and Schmid Farm · 2.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Geier and Schmid farm, a testament to German immigration and early Texas settlement. Wilhelm Geier, his wife Theodora, and daughter Johanna arrived in Texas in <say-as…
The City-Owned Course With 50-Foot Drops · 2.3 mi
At 12900 Mount Olympus you'll find something unusual for a flat-sounding suburb: a golf course with genuine elevation. Olympia Hills Golf & Event Center opened in February 2000 and is owned and run by the City of…
Edens Cemetery · 2.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Edens Cemetery, the final resting place for a pioneering Texas family. It all began in 1856 when Mary Edens was buried here, marking the start of this small family graveyard. Her family,…
Harrison, John Sobiesky Koontz · 2.6 mi · Tsha Handbook
John Sobiesky Koontz Harrison, partner in the Harrison & McCulloch Stage Lines which ran from Indianola and Galveston to Central Texas as far back as the mid-1840s, was born on August 20, 1818, in Kingston, Roane…
The Stage Stop on the San Antonio-Austin Run · 2.8 mi
Before the freeway, before the outlet malls, this crossroads was a place where tired horses got swapped and dusty passengers stretched their legs. Around 1849 to 1850 the Harrison and McCulloch stage stop was built here…
Digging Up the Stage Stop · 2.8 mi
When Selma decided to turn its surviving stagecoach stop and old post office into the heart of a historic park, the city didn't just sand the floors, it called in archaeologists. In 2000 the Center for Archaeological…
Harrison and McCulloch Stage Stop · 2.8 mi · Historical Marker
HARRISON AND McCULLOCH STAGE STOP THE HARRISON AND McCULLOCH STAGE LINE BEGAN RUNNING STAGECOACHES FROM THE TEXAS COAST TO CENTRAL TEXAS AS EARLY AS 1848. THE LINE WAS A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN BROTHERS-IN-LAW, JOHN S.…
Rocket Pride · 2.9 mi
In Texas, high school football is a religion, and in Converse, the church is D.W. Rutledge Stadium, home of the Judson Rockets. Judson High School, which serves the Converse area, isn't just a school with a football…
The Perfect Speed Trap · 2.9 mi
For a stretch in the 1970s, this two-mile sliver of highway was one of the most feared spots in Texas for a heavy right foot. Selma had quietly incorporated in 1964 on a petition signed by just 29 people, several of…
Converse, TX · 2.9 mi
Converse is more than just a comfortable suburb of San Antonio; it’s a place where the echoes of the past mingle with the promise of the future.
The Shadow of the Taj · 2.9 mi
While you're in Converse, you're in the orbit of one of the most famous landmarks in the U.S. military: Randolph Air Force Base. Just a few miles away, its presence has shaped this town more than almost any other single…
The Engineer's Line · 2.9 mi
As you drive across the railroad tracks in Converse, you're crossing a line drawn by a man named James Converse. He wasn't a politician; he was a civil engineer for the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway, and…
The Stagecoach Crossroads · 2.9 mi
Imagine this busy highway is just a dusty, rutted track. It is the 1850s, and you have been traveling for hours by stagecoach out of San Antonio. Up ahead is a welcome sight: the Harrison and Brown stage stop, built…
And They're Off! The Race that Remade Selma · 2.9 mi
For 150 years, Selma was a quiet little town. Then, in 1995, came the sound of thundering hooves. That was the year Retama Park, a Class 1 horse racing track, opened its doors. It was a huge gamble, a multi-million…
The Concrete River That Built a City · 2.9 mi
The highway you’re driving on, Interstate 35, is more than just a road—it’s the single most important piece of engineering in Selma’s modern history. Think of it as a river of concrete. For decades after it was built,…
Selma, TX · 2.9 mi
The town was famous as a speed trap, as referenced in the Steve Earle song 'Guitar Town'. Texas Monthly published a feature on Selma in 1974, describing it as 'the perfect speed trap'.
A German Name on a Texas Crossroads · 2.9 mi
The little city wrapped around the Interstate here doesn't take its name from Selma, Alabama, the way a lot of travelers assume. Selma, Texas, was first settled around 1847 by immigrant families from several European…
The 1852 Harrison House Still Standing on Cibolo Creek · 2.9 mi
Tucked on a 12-acre site along Cibolo Creek at 14997 Evans Road sits one of only two original structures left from old Selma: the John S. Harrison House. The one-story home was built in 1852 by John and Martha Harrison,…
Retama Park and the Long Bet That Never Paid Off · 2.9 mi
The grandstand rising off the access road here is Retama Park, the horse-racing track that opened with its first live race on April 7, 1995, about a year and a half behind schedule. The name comes from the retama, a…
From 100 People to a Retail Corridor · 2.9 mi
Few places in Texas have flipped from ghost town to boomtown as sharply as Selma. After its 1896 peak near 600 people, the town withered; the post office shut in 1906, and by 1940 Selma reported a church, a school,…
The Surgeon's Country Retreat · 2.9 mi
One of Selma's founders held the mail, the road and the horses. John S. Harrison and his wife Martha Jane came to this spot on Cibolo Creek in 1852 and built a stone house that is still standing today, on the National…
The Buffalo in the Creek's Name · 2.9 mi
The waterway threading through Selma is Cibolo Creek, and its name carries a memory of the animals that once shaped this whole region. Cibolo comes from a Native term, absorbed into Spanish, meaning buffalo or bison,…
The Tower That Secretly Holds Half a Million Gallons · 3.0 mi
Just inside the gate of the airbase next door stands one of the cleverest pieces of engineering camouflage in Texas. Building 100, the headquarters everyone calls the Taj Mahal, was finished in 1931 with a 170-foot…
Named for the Man Who Built the Tracks · 3.0 mi
The town you're rolling through carries a railroad engineer's name. Converse was named for Major James Converse, chief engineer of the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway, the line that pushed west from Houston…
Named for the Man Choosing the Name · 3.0 mi
The field that gave this town its reason to exist carries the name of a pilot who never saw it built, and who died while helping pick what to call it. Captain William Millican Randolph was an Austin native and a…
A City Built Like a Wheel, Read From the Air · 3.0 mi
Universal City grew up beside one of the most deliberately designed places in Texas, a base laid out to be admired from a cockpit. In 1927, Lt. Harold Clark, an architect by training, sketched an idea on dispatch paper:…
Cotton, Gins, and a Depot Big Enough to Sleep In · 3.0 mi
Once the rails arrived, Converse became a shipping point for the farms around it, and cotton was king. By 1896 the little settlement had a saloon, a grocery, and two cotton gins humming through the harvest, baling the…
The Air Base That Grew the Town · 3.0 mi
Converse spent its first half-century as a sleepy farm stop of a few hundred people. What changed it was the United States Air Force. Just to the northeast, Randolph Field opened in 1931 as a pilot-training school so…
The German Farmhouse That Became the Town's Museum · 3.0 mi
Converse was first settled by German farmers, and one of their homes still stands as the town's history museum at 10565 Old Cimarron Trail. Anton Otto Schumann, born near New Braunfels in 1875, married Ida Siebold, a…
The Town Named for a Hope · 3.0 mi
The town you're rolling into was a real-estate bet on an airfield that hadn't opened yet. In late 1929, three San Antonio physicians, Henry H. Ogilvie, Witten B. Russ, and Samuel P. Cunningham, bought farmland across…
From a Converse Driveway to the WNBA · 3.0 mi
One of the best basketball players Bexar County has produced in years was born right here. NaLyssa Smith came into the world in Converse on August 8, 2000, the daughter of Rodney Smith, a forward who'd played college…
When Hollywood Filmed the West Point of the Air · 3.0 mi
The airfield beside Universal City was so striking that Hollywood built a movie around it. In the spring of 1934, an MGM crew came to Randolph Field to shoot West Point of the Air, a drama about Army Air Corps flight…
The Depot That Outran the Wrecking Ball · 3.0 mi
The original masonry depot at Converse didn't survive, but its replacement did, by getting up and leaving town. As rural passenger traffic withered, Southern Pacific tore down the big 1890s station and put up a modest…
A German Singing Club and the Oldest 4-H in Texas · 3.0 mi
For a place now wrapped in San Antonio's suburbs, Converse held onto its old-country roots a remarkably long time. The German farm families who settled here founded the Salatrillo Liederkranz, a community singing…
Davenport Cemetery · 3.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Davenport Cemetery, established in 1852 when William Davenport buried his wife, Mary, near their home. Davenport was a community leader, helping found Selma's first school in 1859 and a combined…
How a Marketing Idea Became a Christmas Tradition · 3.6 mi
Windcrest's most famous tradition began as a sales pitch. In the late 1950s, co-founder Barbee Winn needed a way to draw buyers to the brand new community. Her idea was simple. Buy strings of Christmas lights, hand them…
The Planned Town That Grew Fastest in Texas · 3.6 mi
Windcrest was not a town that simply grew. It was designed. Developers Murray and Barbee Winn wanted a quiet, orderly place where families could put down roots northeast of San Antonio. The first house went up in 1954…
Bueche Cemetery · 3.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Bueche Cemetery. Swiss immigrants Abram Louis (1824-1921) and Anna Barbara (Kaderli) (1825-1905) Bueche, and family, settled in this area, known as Fratt, in 1854. Their infant granddaughter, Frieda…
The City of Lights · 3.7 mi
If you're here between Thanksgiving and New Year's, you're in for a treat. You're in the 'City of Lights.' This isn't just a nickname; it's a core part of Windcrest's identity, and it goes back to the very beginning.…
Building 100 "Taj Mahal" · 3.7 mi · Historical Marker
In 1928 the San Antonio Airport Company purchased 2300 acres of land near the city and donated it to the United States Army Air Corps for development of a consolidated flight training facility. Called "the West Point of…
Windcrest, TX · 3.7 mi
Windcrest, perched just a bit higher than San Antonio, has always felt like a quiet pocket, even as the city around it boomed. You see those old live oaks, sturdy and sprawling? They've watched the whole story unfold.…
The Founder's Blueprint · 3.7 mi
The city you're driving through didn't happen by accident; it was the plan of one couple, Murray Winn Jr. and his wife Barbee. Winn bought seventy-eight acres out here northeast of San Antonio in 1953 and put up the…
Robert B. Evans Home · 3.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising through San Antonio, and just ahead is the Robert B. Evans Home, built way back in 1882. Look for the old smokehouse on the east side, dating all the way back to 1865. Robert Evans himself came to Texas…
Rocket Football and the NFL Pipeline · 3.8 mi
At 9142 FM 78 stands one of the most decorated high school football programs in Texas. Judson High School opened in 1959, and beginning in 1977 the Judson Rockets reeled off one of the longest winning-season streaks in…
Randolph Field Historic District · 3.9 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Ever wonder where the U.S. military first started training pilots on a large scale? You're passing it! Randolph Field, now part of Randolph Air Force Base, was the first permanent flight training facility for the U.S.…
José M. López Memorial Highway · 3.9 mi · Historical Marker
Honors Staff Sgt. José M. López, WWII Medal of Honor recipient for solo machine-gun stand at the Battle of the Bulge, December 17, 1944. Mexican-born, orphaned at 8, raised in Brownsville and San Antonio.
The Water Tower Disguised as a Palace Near Live Oak · 4.1 mi
Just east of Live Oak, at Randolph Air Force Base, stands one of the cleverest pieces of engineering in Bexar County. The base's landmark administration building, opened in 1931 and nicknamed the Taj Mahal, looks like…
The West Point of the Air Next Door · 4.2 mi
You can't understand Schertz without understanding its powerful next-door neighbor: Randolph Air Force Base. When it opened in 1930, it was the largest and most advanced air training facility in the world, a…
From Cotton Fields to Concrete Giants · 4.2 mi
As you drive along Interstate 35, look at the enormous warehouses that dominate the landscape. These buildings tell the STEM story of modern Schertz. For over a century this land grew cotton; today its value is…
Schertz, TX · 4.2 mi
Schertz, Texas, while now a bustling suburb, owes much of its character to its agricultural roots, particularly its long association with cotton farming. The fertile land surrounding Cibolo Creek, combined with a…
Schertz · 4.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Schertz, a town that owes its start to German immigrants arriving in the 1840s, looking for good farmland. This community, known then as Cibolo Pit and Cutoff, really took off when the railroad…
Cibolo Pit, Then Cut Off, Then Schertz · 4.3 mi
The town you're rolling into has worn three names. It started as Cibolo Pit, for a gravel pit and water well dug beside the new railroad here in southwestern Guadalupe County. Then it became Cut Off, because whenever…
Where Steve Earle Got His First Guitar · 4.3 mi
The hard-bitten alt-country songwriter Steve Earle, the man behind Guitar Town and Copperhead Road, grew up right here in Schertz, about 17 miles north of San Antonio. Born on an Army post in Virginia in 1955 where his…
From Alsace to the Cibolo Bottoms · 4.3 mi
Before this was a San Antonio suburb, it was German-speaking farm country, and the family that gave the town its name had crossed an ocean to get here. Joseph and Anna Schertz left Alsace-Lorraine in 1843; Anna and a…
The Town With an Official Sweetheart · 4.3 mi
Most towns have a festival; Schertz has a Sweetheart. Every May the city crowns a Schertz Sweetheart, a young ambassador chosen through the Sweetheart Pageant who then represents the town through the year, riding in…
Georg Heinrich Buchsenschutz Family Cemetery · 4.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Georg Heinrich Buchsenschutz Family Cemetery. Buchsenschutz, a veteran of the Mexican-American War, arrived in Texas in 1850. He settled on over 200 acres right here in 1860, the same year he…
The Rockets Forward Out of Samuel Clemens High · 4.5 mi
Before he spent 13 seasons in the NBA and helped the Houston Rockets reach the Finals, Robert Reid was a kid playing ball at Samuel Clemens High School right here in Schertz. Born in Atlanta in 1955, Reid moved to Texas…
How a Texas High School Ended Up Named for Mark Twain · 4.5 mi
There's no obvious reason a high school in a German-Texan farm town should be named for the author of Tom Sawyer, and the real explanation is gloriously practical. When the Schertz-Cibolo district built a new high…
The Dead Mall That Became a Tech Castle · 4.6 mi
The biggest building in Windcrest once sold shoes and sodas. Windsor Park Mall opened in 1976 at Interstate 35 and Walzem Road, thrived for decades, then died in 2005 as shoppers drifted away. In 2007 the web-hosting…
The Perrin Home · 4.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Perrin Home, built in 1875. Alphonse Perrin, born in New York City, came to Texas with his bride, Mina, searching for a better climate. After living near Leon Springs, they settled here, right on…
The Burying Ground Under the 200-Year Oaks · 5.4 mi
Near Cibolo Creek, in the shade of oak trees now reckoned to be more than 200 years old, lies the Schertz-Cibolo Cemetery, and it began with one farmer's act of decency. German immigrant brothers Ferdinand and August…
The World's Largest Bat Colony · 5.9 mi
Just a few miles from where you're driving is one of the most incredible wildlife spectacles on the planet. Tucked away in the limestone hills is the Bracken Bat Cave, home to the largest colony of bats in the world.…
The Fight to Save the Bats · 5.9 mi
The Bracken Bat Cave, a global treasure, was at the center of a major environmental battle just over a decade ago. In January of 2013, word got out that a developer, Galo Properties, planned a high-density subdivision —…
Living on San Antonio's Sponge · 5.9 mi
The beautiful, rocky landscape of Garden Ridge isn't just for looks—it's a critical piece of natural infrastructure for the entire region. You're driving over the recharge zone of the Edwards Aquifer, the primary source…
Garden Ridge, TX · 5.9 mi
Garden Ridge, a city in Comal County, Texas, has a rich history rooted in German emigration. The area was settled by German immigrants in the mid-1800s, and many current residents are descendants of these early…
The Town the Freeways Built · 6.0 mi
For most of its life this was a sleepy farm town of a few hundred people. As late as the 1950s only about 350 people lived here, and when Schertz incorporated as a city in 1958 the count was just 351. Then the…
The Dawson Massacre · 6.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through the area where a brutal ambush took place in 1842. Captain Nicholas Dawson and 53 men from La Grange were on their way to join a battle near Salado Creek. But before they could reach their…
Cibolo · 6.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Cibolo, Texas, a town that owes its very existence to the railroad. Back in 1875, the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad laid tracks right through this area. Almost immediately, a…
The Town Named for the Buffalo · 6.5 mi
The creek you just crossed gave this town its name, and the name means buffalo. Cibolo comes from cibolo, the Spanish word for the American bison that once moved through this country in herds, a term Spanish explorers…
Fromme's Store and the Railroad That Made the Town · 6.5 mi
Cibolo began as a country store beside a railroad. Jacob Schlather bought land out here in 1867, and his son George opened a general store to supply the surrounding farmers, who were mostly German immigrants working the…
From 400 People to One of America's Fastest-Growing Towns · 6.5 mi
Almost everything around you here is new, and that is the whole story. When Cibolo voted to incorporate in 1965, it was a sleepy farm town of only about 400 people, the kind of place where a single general store had…
O. Henry and the Smiling Valley of the Cibolo · 6.5 mi
The short-story master O. Henry left a small literary fingerprint on this valley. Born William Sydney Porter, he spent years in 1880s Texas, much of it on South Texas ranches, soaking up the cowhands, range wars, and…
Zions Kirche · 6.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Zions Kirche, a testament to German heritage in Comal County. Organized in 1871 with 52 German members by Reverend William Felsing, this Methodist Episcopal Church began with a simple limestone…
The Battle of the Salado · 6.6 mi
You're driving past the site of the Battle of the Salado, a fight that decided the fate of the Republic of Texas. On September 18, 1842, Mexican General Adrian Woll had captured San Antonio. But Colonel Mathew Caldwell…
Cibolo, TX · 6.8 mi
Cibolo's history is marked by significant growth and development. The community was first established when the Southern Pacific Railroad cut through the area, en route to major cities like Houston and San Antonio. This…
Where the Sermons Were German for Fifty Years · 6.8 mi
The congregation at St. Paul Evangelical Church on South Main Street started the way most things in early Cibolo did, around the kitchen tables of German farmers. About 1876, Reverend T. Frehner and a layman named Oscar…
The Tough Ombres, Texas' Own · 6.8 mi
In Bexar County, U S Highway Ninety from Loop Four Ten out to Farm to Market Road Fifteen Eighteen is the Ninetieth Infantry Division Memorial Highway. The Ninetieth Division was activated at Camp Travis on August…
St. Paul Church · 6.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of St. Paul Church in Cibolo, a testament to German immigrant faith. Services began around 1876, held in homes and a schoolhouse, with worship conducted in German. The congregation formally…
From Sleepy Town to Booming City · 6.9 mi
For most of its history, Cibolo didn't really need much government. It was a tiny, unincorporated railroad stop. It wasn't until 1965 that the town, with a population of about 500, voted to officially incorporate as a…
Forging an Identity: Steele Knights Football · 6.9 mi
How does a brand-new suburb create a soul? In Cibolo, the answer was football. When Byron P. Steele II High School opened its doors in 2005, the town was in the middle of its explosive population boom. New families were…
The Jet Engine of Suburban Growth · 6.9 mi
The city you’re driving through was fundamentally reshaped by the technology of flight. Just a few miles away is Randolph Air Force Base, a massive hub of aerospace engineering and pilot training. Opened in 1930,…
The Town That Refused to Disappear · 6.9 mi
San Antonio spent the 1950s swallowing everything around it, and Kirby should have been an easy bite. It had started as farmland along the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio tracks, a place with a cotton gin, a…
The Railroad Junction That Became a City · 6.9 mi
The very existence of Kirby is a lesson in 19th-century transportation engineering. Before any houses or roads were here, this was open prairie. Then in 1877 the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway put a…
The Town Named for Railroad Ties · 6.9 mi
Kirby sits about eight miles northeast of downtown San Antonio, and its name has nothing to do with the famous East Texas lumber baron John Henry Kirby. This Kirby is railroad-born. A station opened here on the…
The Heart of Old Cibolo: Schultz's Store · 6.9 mi
As you pass through Cibolo's old downtown, picture it a century and a half ago. The center of life here wasn't a city hall or a park — it was a general store. Jacob Schlather bought land out this way in 1867, and his…
Kirby, TX · 6.9 mi
Kirby is a major producer of pecans, which grow naturally in the soil. Pecans produce in large quantities between September and November. Certain trees do not produce every four years; 1996, 2000, and 2004 were all…
The Chemistry That Made Kirby Ties Last · 6.9 mi
The Kirby ties that gave this town its name were not plain lumber. A bare wooden crosstie, sitting in Texas rain and heat, rots and splits in roughly five years. The fix was chemistry. Ties were pressure-soaked in…
Cole High School (Shaquille O'Neal) · 7.1 mi
Robert G. Cole High School on Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, TX (1900 Winans Rd.) is where Shaquille O'Neal dominated Texas high school basketball. The son of an Army staff sergeant stationed at the base, Shaq led…
Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Cole (San Antonio) · 7.1 mi
Cole (San Antonio, TX) placed on the 3A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Carson Kay (0.458 avg, 3 HR).
Schoenthal School · 7.2 mi · Historical Marker
Hey road trippers, look to your right! You're passing the Schoenthal School, built way back in 1872. This building is a fantastic example of German fachwerk architecture, a style brought over by immigrants. It's amazing…
Route of El Camino Real · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past a piece of Texas history, folks! This is the route of El Camino Real, the 'King's Highway.' Imagine this 1,000-mile road, stretching all the way from Mexico to what's now Louisiana. It started as an…
King's Highway · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the historic King's Highway, also known as Camino Real or the Old San Antonio Road. This route was a vital artery, connecting settlements across Texas. It was officially marked back in 1918 by the…
Cibolo, TX (Guadalupe County) · 7.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Cibolo, a town whose name comes from the Spanish word for buffalo. This area along Cibolo Creek was known for its steep banks, so steep that Native Americans would reportedly stampede buffalo over…
Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Steele (Cibolo) · 7.5 mi
Steele (Cibolo, TX) placed on the 6A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Andrew Tschoepe (2 HR).
The High School That Sends Players to the NFL · 7.5 mi
For a suburb that was a village within living memory, Cibolo turns out a remarkable amount of NFL talent, and most of it traces to one campus: Byron P. Steele II High School. Running back Malcolm Brown rewrote the…
Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery · 7.5 mi · Scraped Hmdb
This isn't just a cemetery; it's hallowed ground, a final salute to those who defended our country. Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery was established in 1926 to provide burial space for veterans, primarily those who…
The Man Behind the Name on the High School · 7.5 mi
The high school that put Cibolo on the football map is named for an educator most people outside the district never heard of. Dr. Byron P. Steele II spent nearly half a century in Texas schools, working as a teacher, a…
Dodd Field (Fort Sam Houston) Enemy Alien Detention Station, World War II · 7.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Dodd Field in San Antonio, a place that played a role in World War II on the home front. Shocked by the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government began detaining thousands of people…
Brooke Army Medical Center · 8.0 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Ever wonder where the Army’s best medical minds train and heal? You’re driving right by it: Brooke Army Medical Center, a cornerstone of military medicine. This story begins back in 1846, during the Mexican-American…
A City Within a City · 8.7 mi
As you cross into Terrell Hills you might not notice a change, but legally you've entered a different city. Terrell Hills is an enclave, an independent municipality of about a square mile and a half, completely…
Engineering an Enclave · 8.7 mi
Terrell Hills didn't grow. It was organized. In 1919 six families and three bachelors got together to settle a twenty-four acre tract called Terrell Farms, out past the edge of San Antonio. On January 5, 1920, they…
Terrell Hills, TX · 8.7 mi
Terrell Hills, Texas, has a rich history that dates back to its namesake, Frederick Terrell, a local bank president and former mayor of San Antonio in 1901. The community's development began in 1919 when Terrell sold…
Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Alamo Heights (San Antonio) · 8.7 mi
Alamo Heights (San Antonio, TX) placed on the 5A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Luke Spielhagen (0.469 avg, 4 HR).
The Architect's Showcase · 8.7 mi
Pay attention to the houses as you drive, especially the grander, older estates. You're looking at the work of one of Texas's most important architects, Atlee B. Ayres, and his son, Robert. In the 1920s and 30s, when…
Haag Cemetery · 8.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through the historic Haag Settlement, southwest of New Braunfels. This cemetery was established for the pioneering Haag Brothers: Friedrich, Peter, and Mathias. They made a long, dangerous voyage from…
Hill Country Village, TX · 8.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving north of San Antonio, and right here is Hill Country Village. Before World War II, this was just a hog farm. But in 1946, developers started building 'Village Estates,' offering spacious nine-acre lots…
The Battle of the Dinky · 9.0 mi
Imagine this: it's 1922, and the folks in this leafy little pocket north of San Antonio are nervous. The big city wants to annex them, swallow up their tax base, and give little in return. So the residents of Alamo…
The River's Sacred Source · 9.0 mi
Right on the edge of Alamo Heights, on the campus of the University of the Incarnate Word, lies the very beginning of San Antonio. It's a place called the Blue Hole, a natural spring that is the historic headwaters of…
From Quarry Scar to Shopping Center · 9.0 mi
If you look toward the smokestacks rising near the highway, you're looking at a ghost of industry. From 1908 to 1985 that spot was the Alamo Cement Company, a quarry and factory that chewed up the limestone landscape to…
Fort Sam Houston · 9.0 mi · Scraped Hmdb
These grounds have trained soldiers for almost 180 years, playing a crucial role in American military history. Established in 1845, Fort Sam Houston was initially an outpost for the U.S. Army, just as Texas was being…
Jefferson Davis Smith · 9.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the San Antonio area where Jefferson Davis Smith, a boy known as Jeff, lived out a wild chapter of his life. In 1871, when Jeff was just nine years old, he and his eleven-year-old brother Clint were…
Natural Bridge Caverns · 9.2 mi · Things to Do
Four Saint Marys University students on a lark in 1960 crawled into a sinkhole north of San Antonio and discovered two miles of live limestone caves with…
Alamo Heights, TX · 9.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
Alamo Heights, off U.S. Highway 281 five miles northeast of the center of San Antonio in north central Bexar County, has always been economically and socially a part of San Antonio. The area below the headwaters of the…
John "Jack" Coker · 9.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Coker community, founded by John "Jack" Coker, who came to Texas from South Carolina in 1834. He fought in the crucial Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. But his most impactful deed? He…
Coker Cemetery · 9.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Coker Cemetery. South Carolina native John "Jack" Coker came to Texas in 1834 and fought in the Battle of San Jacinto. In gratitude for his service, Coker received from the Republic of Texas a…
The Highway Name That Took Seventy Years to Make Legal · 9.2 mi
Every mile of U S Highway Two Eighty One inside Texas is the American Legion Memorial Highway, and the name is much older than the law behind it. On April thirtieth, nineteen thirty five, the Texas Highway Commission…
The Town That Built a Wall of Law · 9.3 mi
You’re driving through a city that exists because its founders drew a line in the sand—or rather, on a map. In the mid-1950s, San Antonio was growing fast, and the independent-minded landowners here saw the writing on…
The Accidental Water Guardians · 9.3 mi
The founders of Hill Country Village wanted space and privacy, and they did not do it halfway. When Village Estates went in here in 1946 — the first subdivision north of San Antonio — the minimum tract was nine acres.…
Bracken Cave · 9.4 mi · Things to Do
The largest bat colony on earth lives in this single sinkhole outside San Antonio -- somewhere between fifteen and twenty million Mexican free-tailed bats…
Untangling the 281 Corridor · 9.4 mi
U.S. 281 just north of here has been the site of one of the most ambitious transportation projects in San Antonio's recent history. For decades the freeway ran out past Hollywood Park and everything above Loop 1604…
Hollywood Park, TX · 9.4 mi
Hollywood Park's history is marked by a strong sense of community and autonomy. Incorporated on December 7, 1955, the town's residents sought to preserve their neighborhood's independence from San Antonio. The town has…
Discovered by college students in 1960 · 9.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the entrance to Natural Bridge Caverns, a geological wonder still forming today. Discovered by college students in 1960, this cave system is named for the rock bridge marking its entrance. Inside,…
Natural Bridge Caverns · 9.4 mi · Historical Marker
Discovered March 27, 1960, by four students of St. Mary's University, San Antonio. Named for the rock bridge that marks entrance. Dedicated on August 5, 1964 by Governor John Connally. Of early cretaceous age; still…
Hollywood Park's Four-Legged Residents · 9.4 mi
As you drive through the neighborhoods of Hollywood Park, keep your eyes peeled for the town's most famous residents: the white-tailed deer. There's a large, semi-tame herd that treats these shady yards and quiet…
Comal Community · 9.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Garden Ridge, in Comal County, passing through a place with roots stretching back to the mid-1800s. This area was settled by German families, some of the first to arrive in Texas in the 1840s.…
Natural Bridge Caverns · 9.5 mi · Natural Landmark
In March 1960, four students from St. Mary's University in San Antonio crawled through a narrow opening beneath a sixty-foot natural limestone bridge and discovered the largest cavern system in Texas. They spent eight…
The Argyle · 9.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the historic Argyle mansion in Alamo Heights. It started life in 1859 as the headquarters for a massive 1400-acre ranch, built by Charles Anderson. After Anderson left town on the eve of the Civil…
The Pershing Chinese · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past The Pershing Chinese. In March, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson ordered General John J. Pershing to lead an expedition into Mexico to punish Pancho Villa, the Mexican revolutionary whose troops…
Incarnate Word College · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the historic site of Incarnate Word College in San Antonio. This wasn't just any school; it grew from a teaching charter granted in 1881 to the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word. By 1893, they…
The Mayor's Freeway That Took an Act of Congress · 9.9 mi
The McAllister Freeway, U.S. Two Eighty One heading north out of downtown San Antonio, is named for Walter W. McAllister Senior. He was born in San Antonio in eighteen eighty nine and earned an electrical engineering…
Brackenridge Park Bridge · 10.0 mi · Scraped Hmdb
This unassuming bridge tells a story of San Antonio's growth and ingenuity. Constructed in 1890, this Lenticular truss bridge was built to improve access within Brackenridge Park. It's a relatively rare design, with…
Ludwig Mahncke · 10.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Mahncke Park in San Antonio. This park is named for Ludwig Mahncke, an immigrant who became a key figure in shaping the city's green spaces. Arriving from Germany in 1882, Mahncke was a…
The Dam That Made a City Safe · 10.3 mi
The beautiful homes and serene streets of Olmos Park exist thanks to a massive piece of engineering just to the north: the Olmos Dam. Before it was built, high water off Olmos Creek was a standing threat to San Antonio.…
A Developer's Park-Like Vision · 10.3 mi
The winding roads and park-like feel of Olmos Park aren't an accident; they're one man's design. In the 1920s the developer H. C. Thorman — an oilman turned real estate tycoon — bought this land from an Austrian count…
Olmos Park, TX · 10.3 mi
Olmos Park, a city in Bexar County, Texas, was developed in the 1920s as an exclusive suburb of San Antonio. The area was once the site of Camp John Wise, a US Army balloonist training site built in 1917, which shut…
The Island City · 10.3 mi
Olmos Park is its own city for one main reason: it did not want to become part of San Antonio. You're driving through an independent municipality, a small island of self-governance surrounded by a major metropolis. An…
Alamo Portland and Roman Cement Company · 10.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a Texas first! Back in 1879, an Englishman named William Loyd stumbled upon a unique blue limestone right here. A local chemist confirmed it was perfect for making portland cement. Loyd…
Portland Cement Plants · 10.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a Texas industrial first! Right here, the Alamo Roman and Portland Cement Company fired up the first Portland cement plant west of the Mississippi River. Incorporated in 1880, this plant…
Alamo Stadium · 10.5 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Ever wondered where the heart of San Antonio's high school sports beats? Look no further than Alamo Stadium, affectionately known as 'The Rock Pile.' This isn't just a stadium; it's a monument to community spirit and…
Brackenridge Park · 10.6 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Believe it or not, this peaceful park was once a strategic point during a war. During the Mexican-American War, in 1846, U.S. troops under General Zachary Taylor camped near here, using the San Antonio River as a water…
Confederate Tannery · 10.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a Confederate tannery, established in 1863 to equip soldiers. <break time="400ms"/> This wasn't your average operation; they used a unique tanning agent made from chopped mesquite wood.…
The Island City · 10.8 mi
Castle Hills is what's called an 'island city' — a small, independent town ringed by a larger one. And it didn't happen by accident. Families had settled these hills in the early 1920s, many of them tied to the oil…
The Highway That Reshaped a City · 10.8 mi
As you drive near Castle Hills, you're almost certainly going to use Loop 410 — signed as Interstate 410, officially the Connally Loop, the freeway that rings San Antonio for nearly fifty miles. Building it was a…
Bullis House · 10.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the former home of General John Lapham Bullis, a man who made his name on the Texas frontier. <break time="400ms"/> In 1873, he took command of Seminole Scouts, a company renowned for tracking and…
Acequia de Arriba · 10.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Acequia de Arriba. In the late 1700s, residents of the Villa de San Fernando petitioned the King of Spain for permission to furrow an acequia (irrigation ditch) to water the land for the growing…
Castle Hills, TX · 10.8 mi
Castle Hills is home to a diverse population, with 38.9% of residents identifying as Hispanic or Latino of any race, primarily Mexican American. This rich cultural heritage adds a unique flavor to the community.
The Nineteen Thirty Seven Road From Texline to Orange · 10.8 mi
On May eighteenth, nineteen thirty seven, a Texas highway minute order gave the name Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial Highway to a chain of roads. The route started at the New Mexico state line at Texline and ran to…
Belgian Transit of Venus Observation Site · 10.8 mi · Historical Marker
Hey road trippers! You're cruising past a spot in San Antonio that played a small but significant role in understanding our solar system. Back in 1882, Belgian astronomer Jean-Charles Houzeau brought an international…
Zambrano House · 10.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Zambrano House, a home built in San Antonio in the 18th century. It's a classic example of rammed earth construction, built by Macario Zambrano, an early landowner. But the Zambrano family's…
Pershing House · 10.9 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Pull over for a moment! You're about to pass a house that witnessed the birth of modern American military power, right here in San Antonio. Since 1881, this very residence has housed the commanding officers of Fort Sam…
St. Paul's Epsicopal Church · 10.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past St. Paul's Episcopal Church in San Antonio. Formed in 1883 to serve soldiers at Fort Sam Houston, the parish immediately planned this building. The first Bishop of West Texas donated the land, and…
Belknap Place · 11.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Belknap Place in San Antonio, the oldest existing concrete pavement in Texas. Built in 1914 using a patented 'granitoid' process, this street features a unique stamped brick pattern that was non-slip…
Second Baptist Church of San Antonio · 11.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Second Baptist Church in San Antonio, a congregation born from the ashes of slavery. In 1879, just a few years after emancipation, eleven formerly enslaved people felt the sting of…
Houston Road · 11.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the historic Houston Road, a vital artery connecting San Antonio to the ports of Houston and Galveston. For decades, this was the main route for freight and passengers, linking the Spanish Texas…
An Engineered Town · 11.4 mi
The town of Marion owes its shape to 19th-century civil engineering, but not its name. When the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway ran its line west in 1877, the engineers were solving for grade and for…
The German Cornerstone · 11.4 mi
If you want the historical anchor of Marion, look for a steeple, but start with the name. The town dates to 1877, when the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway ran its line through a plantation owned by Joshua…
The Heartbeat of a Small Town: Bulldog Football · 11.4 mi
In a town like Marion, some of the biggest stories aren't in the distant past; they're happening right now, under the Friday night lights. The Marion Bulldogs are the heartbeat of this community. When you drive past the…
The Song That Made a Town Famous (By Accident) · 11.5 mi
You're in a town made famous by a song that isn't even about it. Back in the summer of 1972, the Doobie Brothers were out on tour, driving themselves into San Antonio, and somewhere along the way guitarist Tom Johnston…
The Man-Made Lakes and Power Plants Next Door · 11.5 mi
Just a few miles south of here sits one of the biggest pieces of energy infrastructure in Texas: the Calaveras power complex. Look at a map and you'll see two large lakes down in southeast Bexar County, Calaveras and…
China Grove, TX · 11.5 mi
China Grove gained fame in 1973 when the Doobie Brothers' song 'China Grove' became a hit. The song was written and sung by Tom Johnston, who passed through the town on tour and later used its name for the song's title…
Becoming a City to Stay a Small Town · 11.5 mi
Why is China Grove a city? The answer is its much larger neighbor, San Antonio. For nearly a hundred years, this was just an unincorporated area of farms and ranches. But after World War II, San Antonio started to boom,…
Elmendorf, Emil · 11.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Emil Elmendorf residence in San Antonio. Built in 1884, this house was designed by Alfred Giles, a notable architect. It's a fantastic example of the 'raised cottage' style, meaning the main…
St. Anthony Catholic School · 11.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of St. Anthony Catholic School in San Antonio. Back in 1907, neighbors wanted a local school, so they asked the Sisters of the Divine Providence to open one. They bought land, and while…
Monte Vista Historic District · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising through San Antonio's Monte Vista Historic District, a neighborhood that really blossomed between 1890 and 1930. Look around, and you'll see the grand homes built by some of the era's biggest names: Otto…
The Bank That Opened Behind a Saloon · 11.8 mi
The Marion State Bank at 301 West San Antonio Street is one of the oldest community-chartered banks in Texas, and its first home was about as small-town as it gets. The bank received its state charter on October 26,…
Old Lone Star Brewery · 11.8 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Raise a glass to the history of brewing in Texas at this former Lone Star Brewery, now a landmark of San Antonio's industrial past. Originally built in 1884 as the San Antonio Brewing Association, the complex later…
Gould-Onderdonk House · 11.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the home of a distinguished Texas art dynasty. In 1878, Robert J. Onderdonk, a leading landscape and portrait painter, settled here, bringing a realistic style to Texas art. His children, Julian and…
Marion State Bank · 11.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Marion State Bank, a financial institution that's been a cornerstone of this community for over a century. Chartered on October 26, 1906, it was one of the first state-chartered banks…
Ford, John Salmon "Rip" · 11.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the final resting place of John Salmon "Rip" Ford, a man who truly lived by his motto: "Ready, ay, ready!" Born in South Carolina in 1815, Ford came to Texas and became a jack-of-all-trades and a…
Site of the Camp of Stephen F. Austin · 11.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through San Antonio, right where Stephen F. Austin camped in October of 1835. He was gathering troops, getting ready to attack the Mexican garrison right here in town. Just a few weeks later, Austin was…
Bee, Hamilton P. · 11.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the marker for Hamilton P. Bee, a man who saw a huge chunk of Texas history unfold. He was a legislator, serving as Secretary of the 1st Texas Senate and even Speaker of the House. But Bee was also a…
Confederate Cemetery · 11.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through San Antonio, and right here is the Confederate Cemetery. This land was originally granted by the King of Spain, then divided into city cemeteries. But in 1885, the Albert Sidney Johnston Camp of…
The Southwell Company · 11.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the legacy of a San Antonio business that's literally shaped history. The Southwell Company started way back in 1866 as the San Antonio Rubber Stamp Company, originally making stencils. It wasn't…
Petty House · 11.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Petty House in San Antonio, a home that saw a dramatic architectural transformation. Originally built in 1895 with Queen Anne style, it was purchased in 1901 by Van Alvin Petty, Sr. Then, in 1910…
Jay Adams House · 11.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Jay Adams House in San Antonio, a stunning example of Queen Anne architecture. Developer Jay Adams built this home in 1888 to set the standard for his new Laurel Heights neighborhood. Notice the…
Founding of Town of Marion, 1877 · 11.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising through Marion, Texas, a town born from a railroad boom. Back in 1870, the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway was pushing west, aiming to connect interior Texas to the coast. Colonel Thomas W.…
Herrington, Joseph · 11.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Angelina County, and right here, in what was once the Republic of Texas, you're passing through the birthplace of its county government. Joseph Herrington, just twenty-two years old, was appointed…
Roy and Madge Hearne House · 11.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Roy and Madge Hearne House in San Antonio. Roy Hearne, a cotton broker, and his wife Madge, a granddaughter of Sam Houston, bought this property in 1910. They hired architect Atlee B. Ayres to…
Marion, TX (Angelina County) · 11.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Angelina County, and right near here was Marion, once known as McNeill's Landing. Back in 1828, this was the northernmost steamboat stop on the Angelina River, a vital link bringing cotton down to…
Christ Episcopal Church · 11.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Christ Episcopal Church in San Antonio. Episcopalians started worshipping in this neighborhood back in 1907, under another church's wing. Christ Church itself was officially formed in 1911, with John…
Hall, Lee, Captain · 12.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the marker for Captain Lee Hall, a man who spent his life defending Texas and the U.S. honor. Born in North Carolina, Hall came to Texas in 1869 and quickly made a name for himself. By 1871, he was…
Central Catholic High School · 12.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through San Antonio, where you're passing the site of Texas's oldest and largest private boys' school: Central Catholic High School. It all began in 1852, when San Antonio had no schools for boys at all.…
Otto Koehler House · 12.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Otto Koehler House in San Antonio. Built in 1901, this was one of the first homes in this neighborhood. Otto Koehler, the man behind the Pearl Brewing Company, hired local architect Carl Von…
Saint Philip's Episcopal Church · 12.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a pioneering institution in San Antonio. Back in 1877, Bishop R.W. Elliott dreamed of a church for Texas's newly freed Black citizens. His vision was carried on by Bishop James Steptoe…
Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. Building · 12.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company Building in San Antonio. It opened in 1923 as the Woodlawn Exchange, serving the city's growing north side neighborhoods. Imagine thirty-five…

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