Marble Falls, Texas

Name: Marble Falls, Texas
Address: Marble Falls, TX

Everything Marble Falls is known for

6 songs mention this city

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

Music in Marble Falls

Songs About Marble Falls

Marble Falls Sunset

Paul Baker

80%

"TITLE"

Marble Falls

Ray Hutchcraft

79%

"TITLE"

Marble Falls

Chris Shards

79%

"TITLE"

Marble Falls

Cornell Kinderknecht & Martin McCall

78%

"TITLE"

Marble Falls

Shmu

78%

"Down to Marble Falls"

Valium Waltz

Old 97's

40%

"Daughter of the mayor of Marble Falls"

Artists From Marble Falls

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Rivers & Roads in Song near Marble Falls

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Marble Falls.

Texas Colorado River 6 songs Texas State Highway 71 2 songs Pedernales River 6 songs Blanco River 4 songs Interstate 35 45 songs Guadalupe River 18 songs

History of Marble Falls

The Falls Beneath the Lake RoadyGoat

1817

The town is named for falls you cannot see. Travelers marked the great falls of the Colorado River here as early as 1817. The rock was a hard blue-hearted limestone, so glossy that people mistook it for marble, and the name stuck even though there was never any true marble. The falls dropped about 50 feet through three ledges at the head of a canyon. Then, in the mid twentieth century, the Lower Colorado River Authority dammed the river for hydroelectric power. Max Starcke Dam, finished in 1951, backed up the water and drowned the falls under Lake Marble Falls, the smallest of the six Highland Lakes. The falls still exist down in the dark. Every few years, when the lake is drawn low, the old ledges break the surface and the town briefly meets its namesake again.

Pie Happy Hour RoadyGoat

1929

The Blue Bonnet Cafe has been feeding Marble Falls since 1929, when it opened on Main Street. In 1946 it moved to its long-time home on Highway 281, a few blocks from the lake, and there it became a Hill Country institution. Contrary to what nearly everyone assumes, it is named not for the state wildflower but for a blue bonnet, an old-fashioned hat. The Kemper family took over in 1981 and made the pies famous. The kitchen goes through mountains of ingredients, tens of thousands of eggs and thousands of pounds of flour every month, and during Thanksgiving week alone it turns out roughly two thousand pies. Its best-loved tradition is Pie Happy Hour, Monday through Friday from three to five in the afternoon, when a slice of pie comes at a bargain.

The Blind Man's Town RoadyGoat

1854

In 1854 a young surveyor named Adam Rankin Johnson rode down the Colorado River from Fort Mason, saw the great falls here, and imagined a manufacturing city powered by the rushing water. The Civil War intervened. Johnson rose to brigadier general, but in August 1864 his own men accidentally shot him in a pre-dawn attack in Kentucky, and he was left totally blind. He came home to Texas and spent his remaining years chasing the dream anyway. He helped bring a railroad to nearby Granite Mountain, then platted the townsite and began selling lots on July 12, 1887. Locals called it the blind man's town. Johnson could no longer see the falls he loved, but he built a town around them. He died at Burnet in 1922.

Johnson, Adam Rankin

1861

Adam Rankin (Stovepipe) Johnson, frontiersman, Confederate general, and town founder, was born on February 8, 1834, in Henderson, Kentucky, the son of Thomas J. and Juliet (Rankin) Johnson. In 1854 he left the drugstore where he had worked since he was twelve and moved to Hamilton Valley in Burnet County, Texas, then the edge of the western frontier. There he gained a reputation as the surveyor of much virgin territory in West Texas, as an Indian fighter, and as a stage driver for the Butterfield Overland Mail . On January 1, 1861, he married Josephine Eastland of Burnet. The couple had six children. With the outbreak of the Civil War Johnson returned to Kentucky and enlisted as a scout under Nathan Bedford Forrest. He was one of the few members of the Fort Donelson garrison who escaped capture by evacuating the fort with Gen. John B. Floyd. His subsequent exploits as commander of the Texas Partisan Rangers within the federal lines in Kentucky earned him a colonel's commission in August 1862 and a promotion to brigadier general on June 1, 1864. One of his most remarkable feats was the capture of Newburgh, Indiana, from a sizable Union garrison with only twelve men and two joints of stovepipe mounted on the running gear of an abandoned wagon. This episode won him his nickname. When Gen. John Hunt Morgan and his men were surrounded on Buffington's Island during Morgan's famous raid, Johnson and his men escaped by swimming the Ohio River. On August 21, 1864, Johnson attacked a federal encampment at Grubbs Crossroads, near Canton in Caldwell County, Kentucky, before daylight; he was accidentally shot by his own men and became totally blind. After capture by the federals he was imprisoned at Fort Warren until the end of the war. Upon his release he returned to Texas, where he lived for his remaining sixty years and founded the town of Marble Falls, "the blind man's town." He worked to develop the water power of the Colorado River, founded the Texas Mining Improvement Company, and served as a contractor for the Overland Mail. General Johnson died at Burnet on October 20, 1922. His funeral services were held in the Senate Chamber of the Capitol in Austin, and he was buried in the State Cemetery there. His memoir, The Partisan Rangers of the Confederate States Army (1904), is one of the most interesting first-hand narratives of antebellum Texas and cavalry operations in Kentucky and Tennessee and was selected as one of the "Texas Basic Books" by John H. Jenkins III . Thomas S. Miller, formerly one of Johnson's troopers, wrote of his old commander: "Paladin of old was not more daring and heroic than this Southern knight on the field of battle. No man in the Southern army, no matter how high his rank, displayed more military skill. . . . He was literally the `Swamp Fox' of Kentucky. [In spite of his blindness] perhaps no man has led a more cheerful and happy life."

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Marble Falls, TX

1817

Marble Falls is on the Colorado River at the intersection of U.S. Highway 281 and Farm Road 1431, thirteen miles southeast of Burnet in southern Burnet County. The falls for which the town was named were used as a landmark by travelers and were referred to as the "great falls" or the "marble falls" of the Colorado River as early as 1817. Charles S. Todd made an effort to establish a town at the falls in 1854. Several lots were sold, but few people built homes there. "Todd's village" faded before it ever really got started, and Todd's land was sold for taxes in 1880. Adam Rankin Johnson saw the falls in 1854 and also wanted to build a city at the site. His project remained a dream, however, until the 1880s. Although there was some difficulty in establishing a clear title to the land, by 1886 Johnson had succeeded in buying one-half and controlling the rest of the original Baker grant, which included the falls area. The Texas Mining and Improvement Company was chartered in June 1887; Johnson and nine others were listed as owners. It handled the business of the new town for several years. Town lots were advertised for sale in July. The Austin and Northwestern Railroad built an extension to Marble Falls from Granite Mountain in 1889. A post office was also established that year with Robert Charlton as postmaster. By 1890 the community had Methodist and Baptist churches, a cotton gin, a gristmill, a tannery, a shoe factory, three general stores, a hotel, a weekly Gazette , and 400 to 600 residents. Population estimates reached 1,800 by 1896. Marble Falls Alliance University was chartered in 1892, but it was in operation only a few years; its facilities were purchased by the public schools when an independent school district was established in 1908. The first city officials were elected in 1907, when a mayor-alderman form of government was instituted. In 1917 the all-male voting population of Marble Falls elected Orphelia (Birdie) Crosby Harwood the first woman mayor in the United States. Some improvements to the city, such as paved streets and electric street lights came in the late 1920s; others, such as sewer systems, had to wait until after the Great Depression and World War II . The potential of the Colorado River falls as a source of power was seen by Johnson when he first arrived at the site in 1854, but it was many years before his dream was actually realized. Plans were made to harness the river at the Marble Falls site in 1871; the legislature authorized the building of a dam near Marble Falls to power a milling and manufacturing establishment, but nothing came of the project. The Marble Falls Cotton and Woolen Mills Company built a factory in 1895, but was unable to raise capital to purchase necessary machinery. A dam project was begun on the Colorado River below Marble Falls in 1910, but was not completed. Finally, in 1925 a dam was built to supply electrical power to the Marble Falls Textile Mills Company; the facility was used by Insull Companies in 1935 to supply power to the Hamilton Dam project. Max Starcke Dam, which formed Lake Marble Falls, was constructed in the early 1950s. Unfortunately, the natural falls were destroyed by the formation of the new lake, but the Marble Falls community benefited from the increased recreational and municipal water supply. Marble Falls served as the principal commercial center for numerous subdivisions and resorts that were built along the lakes after the 1960s. Population estimates for Marble Falls hovered around 1,000 during most of the first half of the twentieth century; after the late 1940s and early 1950s, however, the number of residents increased steadily. In 1940 the population was 1,021; by 1960 it was 2,161. As more people moved to the area to take advantage of lakeside subdivisions, the population and the supporting commercial center grew accordingly: Marble Falls had 2,209 residents and ninety-four businesses in the early 1970s, 3,252 residents and 210 businesses in t

Tsha Handbook →

Granite Mountain

1885

2 1/2 miles northwest to Granite Mountain. From it was cut the granite for the Capitol of Texas. Second in size to the United States Capitol. Built in 1885-1888 at a cost of three million acres of state land.

Historical Marker →

Dead Man's Hole

1861

Entomologist Ferdinand Lueders made the earliest recorded discovery of this cave in 1821. Notorious in the Civil War era, the hole is believed to have been the dumping ground for up to 17 bodies, including those of pro-Union Judge John R. Scott and settler Adolph Hoppe, several Reconstruction-era county government officials, and Ben McKeever, who had a conflict with local freedmen. An oak tree which once stood over the cave was said to have rope marks caused by hangings. Powerful gases prevented thorough exploration of the site until 1951. The hole was platted in 1968 by the Texas Speleological Society and was found to be 155 feet deep and 50 feet long. (1998)

Historical Marker →

Captain Jesse Burnam

1814

Texas Patriot Jesse Burnam (also spelled Burnham), born in Madison county, Kentucky, was the youngest son of seven children. In 1812, Jesse married Temperance Null Baker in Shelbyville, Tennessee. Jesse was a private in the Mounted Volunteers of Tennessee in the War of 1812, serving from Sep. 1814 to Apr. 1815, including the Battle of New Orleans. Jesse, Temperance and family arrived in Texas in 1821, settling at Pecan Point (Red River County). By 1823, they were among Stephen F. Austin’s “Old Three Hundred,” building a home, fortified trading post and ferry service on the Colorado River frontier. Austin commissioned Burnam as a captain of militia in May 1824. Temperance died in 1833, leaving Jesse with nine children. He later married Nancy Ross, who bore him seven more children. Jesse was a delegate to the Conventions of 1832 and 1833 and the Consultation of 1835. He aided Col. James W. Fannin in gathering volunteers and supplies during the Texas Revolution, and Gen. Sam Houston arrived at Burnam’ s Crossing on March 17, 1836, ordering the ferry, homestead and store burned ahead of the advancing Mexican army. Jesse was a Representative in the Republic of Texas’ provisional government and its first congress. Jesse and Nancy moved their family to Burnet County in 1855, following two older sons who had settled here. Jesse’s land was southeast of present-day Marble Falls on Double Horn Creek, where he established one of the first sheep raising operations in the area and a large wheat farm. The historic Burnam homestead, now in the family’s fifth generation, includes a log cabin, two-story home, spring house, and family cemetery where Jesse, Nancy and others are buried.

Historical Marker → · 4.2 mi away

Fox, Oscar Julius

1923

Oscar J. Fox, composer of western songs, was born on a ranch in Burnet County, Texas, on October 11, 1879. He was the son of Bennie and Emma (Kellersberger) Fuchs and grandson of Adolph Fuchs. Oscar’s mother died five months after his birth, and he was reared in the home of an uncle, Hermann T. Fuchs. He attended school in Marble Falls until 1893, when he went to San Antonio and began to study music. In 1896 he was sent to Zürich, Switzerland, by his grandfather, Getuli Kellersberger, to study piano, violin, and choral direction. After three years in Switzerland, he studied in New York City for two years before going to Galveston in 1902 as choirmaster of the First Presbyterian Church and later of St. Mary's Cathedral. He resigned in 1904 to accept a similar position at the First Presbyterian Church in San Antonio, where he served for ten years. He was conductor of the San Antonio Choir Club (1913–15) and director of the men's and girls' glee clubs and the University Choral Society at the University of Texas (1925–28). Fox was a member of the Texas Music Teachers Association, the Sinfonia Fraternity of America, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, the Composers–Authors Guild, and the Sons of the Republic of Texas. He published the first of his more than fifty songs in 1923. He never wrote lyrics but set existing poems to music. He first achieved fame through setting to music the cowboy songs collected by John A. Lomax. He drew strongly on his Texas background, as his best-known compositions illustrate: "The Hills of Home" (1925), "Old Paint" (1927), "The Old Chisholm Trail" (1924), "Whoopee Ti Yi Yo, Git Along, Little Dogies" (1927), "Will You Come to the Bower?" (1936), and "The Cowboy's Lament" (1923). Fox married Nellie Tuttle in 1905; they had three daughters. The last fifteen years of his life he taught voice and was organist and choir director at Christ Episcopal Church, San Antonio. He died on July 29, 1961, while visiting in Charlottesville, Virginia, and was buried in Mission Burial Park in San Antonio. On May 27, 1962, the state honored him by placing a red granite marker a mile south of Marble Falls on Highway 281. Inscribed on the marker beneath his name is the first line of "The Hills of Home," his own favorite song and one that has continued to be popular around the world.

Tsha Handbook →

Things to Do in Marble Falls

nature 9.6 mi away

Longhorn Cavern State Park

A cave system carved out of Hill Country limestone by an underground river that vanished thousands of years ago. The walls are polished smooth where the water…

quirky 16.4 mi away

Willie Nelson's Luck Ranch

Willie built his own ghost town on his Spicewood ranch for the 1986 movie Red Headed Stranger -- a whole frontier village with a saloon chapel livery and…

nature 17.4 mi away

Pedernales Falls

The Pedernales River drops over a staircase of tilted Cretaceous limestone here -- the rock layers dip about three degrees to the southeast and the river…

quirky 17.5 mi away

Hamilton Pool

A domed grotto of limestone where an underground river collapsed thousands of years ago and left a fifty-foot waterfall spilling into a jade-green pool.…

nature 17.5 mi away

Hamilton Pool Preserve

A natural swimming hole under a 50-foot waterfall in a collapsed grotto.

food 0.7 mi away

Blue Bonnet Cafe

Marble Falls institution since 1929. Famed for chocolate icebox pie and the daily 3-to-5 p.m. Pie Happy Hour — slice plus coffee for a couple bucks.

historical 2.3 mi away

Dead Man's Hole

A 155-foot limestone sinkhole south of Marble Falls in Burnet County -- discovered in 1821 by entomologist Ferdinand Lueders who was chasing bugs and found a…

nature 16.5 mi away

Westcave Preserve

A collapsed grotto two miles down the road from Hamilton Pool with a forty-foot travertine waterfall and a sealed-off ecosystem at the bottom. The temperature…

day trip

Day Trip to Marble Falls 🍰 (FULL EPISODE) S6 E2

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

Everything Near Marble Falls

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

Johnson, Adam Rankin · Tsha Handbook
Adam Rankin (Stovepipe) Johnson, frontiersman, Confederate general, and town founder, was born on February 8, 1834, in Henderson, Kentucky, the son of Thomas J. and Juliet (Rankin) Johnson. In 1854 he left the drugstore…
Marble Falls, TX · Tsha Handbook
Marble Falls is on the Colorado River at the intersection of U.S. Highway 281 and Farm Road 1431, thirteen miles southeast of Burnet in southern Burnet County. The falls for which the town was named were used as a…
Fox, Oscar Julius · Tsha Handbook
Oscar J. Fox, composer of western songs, was born on a ranch in Burnet County, Texas, on October 11, 1879. He was the son of Bennie and Emma (Kellersberger) Fuchs and grandson of Adolph Fuchs. Oscar’s mother died five…
Lake Marble Falls · Tsha Handbook
You're driving near Marble Falls, and right here, the Colorado River is held back by the Max Starcke Dam. This lake, Lake Marble Falls, was built between 1949 and 1951 by the Lower Colorado River Authority. Its main…
Reed, Malcolm Hiram · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, the birthplace of Malcolm Hiram Reed. Born in 1876, Reed got his start in business marketing goods in Marble Falls. He stayed there for fifteen years, even organizing the Marble…
Granite Mountain · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
2 1/2 miles northwest to Granite Mountain. From it was cut the granite for the Capitol of Texas. Second in size to the United States Capitol. Built in 1885-1888 at a cost of three million acres of state land.
The Falls Beneath the Lake · 0.6 mi
The town is named for falls you cannot see. Travelers marked the great falls of the Colorado River here as early as 1817. The rock was a hard blue-hearted limestone, so glossy that people mistook it for marble, and the…
Marble Falls Factory Site · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a massive cotton mill that once stood here in Marble Falls. Built in the 1890s by town developer Gen. Adam R. Johnson and the Farmers Alliance, this two-story stone factory was designed…
Blue Bonnet Cafe · 0.7 mi · Things to Do
Marble Falls institution since 1929. Famed for chocolate icebox pie and the daily 3-to-5 p.m. Pie Happy Hour — slice plus coffee for a couple bucks.
Brandt Badger House · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Marble Falls, and right here is the Brandt Badger House, built in 1888. Badger, a Confederate veteran, moved here in 1885 and helped found this town. He built this home using granite from nearby…
The Roper Hotel · 0.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past The Roper Hotel. George C. and Elizabeth Roper constructed this double-galleried hotel building about 1888. In the growing town of Marble falls, The Roper Hotel became a popular stop for visiting…
Pie Happy Hour · 1.0 mi
The Blue Bonnet Cafe has been feeding Marble Falls since 1929, when it opened on Main Street. In 1946 it moved to its long-time home on Highway 281, a few blocks from the lake, and there it became a Hill Country…

Show all 200 nearby places

Michel's Drug Store · 1.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Marble Falls, and right here on this site, a remarkable building once stood. In 1891, Ernst Gustav Michel, a German immigrant, opened his drugstore. But this wasn't just a place to pick up…
Otto Ebeling House · 1.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Otto Ebeling House, built in 1891 by a local banker for his family. This Victorian home, with its distinctive bay windows and stained glass, has served as a nursing home and a photo studio over…
Governor O. M. Roberts' House · 1.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the former home of Oran M. Roberts, a pivotal figure in Texas history. Roberts wasn't just any Texan; he presided over the 1861 Secession Convention, a crucial moment leading to the Civil War. He…
1910 Post Office Building · 1.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the 1910 Marble Falls Post Office. Appointed postmaster in 1901, William P. Cochran built this poured concrete structure in 1910 and leased it to the government. It served as the town's postal…
St. Frederick Baptist Church · 1.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Marble Falls, and right here is the site of St. Frederick Baptist Church. It was founded in 1893 in the home of Dicey Yett Johnson, a woman born into slavery who became a pillar of this community.…
Hoag-Faubion-Fuchs House · 1.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Hoag-Faubion-Fuchs House in Marble Falls. Built in 1910 by William Hoag, an electrical engineer from New York City, this home is a beautiful example of the Arts and Crafts bungalow style. It…
Marble Falls Depot · 1.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the historic Marble Falls Depot, a building that was the heart of this town's connection to the outside world. Erected in 1893 by the Austin & Northwestern Railroad, this depot wasn't just for…
Struve House · 1.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Struve House, a stone spring house built in 1869. Amand Von Struve, a Russian immigrant who amassed thousands of acres and livestock, added this structure to protect his food and water from…
The Blind Man's Town · 1.3 mi
In 1854 a young surveyor named Adam Rankin Johnson rode down the Colorado River from Fort Mason, saw the great falls here, and imagined a manufacturing city powered by the rushing water. The Civil War intervened.…
A Resort from Scratch · 1.3 mi
Imagine flying over this rugged, empty landscape in the late 1960s and seeing not a cattle ranch, but a luxury resort. That was the vision of Norman and Wayne Hurd. They bought this 2,700-acre piece of the old Coke…
The 'Hardest Course in Texas' · 1.3 mi
In the early 1970s, Horseshoe Bay was a remote dot on the map. To make it a destination the developers knew they needed a star, so they went after the biggest name in golf course design: Robert Trent Jones Senior. They…
The Engineered Oasis: Lake LBJ · 1.3 mi
The very existence of Horseshoe Bay is a feat of hydrological engineering. The beautiful waterfront you see is Lake LBJ, formed in 1951 by the construction of Wirtz Dam on the Colorado River. But this isn't just any…
The Lake That Made the Meadows · 1.3 mi
The lake that gives Meadowlakes its name and its beautiful waterfront views isn't natural. It's a product of a massive mid-century engineering project. You're looking at Lake Marble Falls, created in 1951 by the…
The City Behind the Gate · 1.3 mi
You almost certainly passed through a gate coming in, and that is the unusual part: Meadowlakes is a gated community that is also an incorporated Texas city. It began as a development in the 1970s on the shore of Lake…
Horseshoe Bay, TX · 1.3 mi
Horseshoe Bay is situated on Lake Lyndon B. Johnson and the south branch of the Colorado River, providing a unique geographical setting. The city is spread over a total area of 11.6 square miles, with 11.4 square miles…
Marble Falls, Texas (c. 1908) · 1.3 mi · Things to Do
Marble Falls School Building · 1.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Marble Falls School Building. Originally completed in 1891, this granite structure first served as Marble Falls Alliance University. A wooden boarding house stood nearby for students.…
A Town Built for Golf · 1.3 mi
Look at a map of Meadowlakes and you'll see the town's DNA. It's not a grid and it's not a random sprawl. The roads curve and wind around a huge green space at its heart. That green space is Hidden Falls Golf Club, and…
The Blind General Who Built a City · 2.0 mi
Imagine trying to map out a city you can't see. That was the reality for Adam Rankin 'Stovepipe' Johnson, the founder of Marble Falls. After being blinded in a Civil War skirmish in 1864, Johnson refused to let his…
The Mountain that Built the Capitol · 2.0 mi
The Texas State Capitol in Austin is famous for its 'sunset red' glow. That iconic color comes from right here. After the old capitol burned in 1881, the state set out to build a grand new one; the architect wanted…
Engineering the Highland Lakes · 2.0 mi
The lake you see in the middle of Marble Falls is not a natural lake; it's a feat of engineering. It was created by the Max Starcke Dam, a key component of the Highland Lakes system built by the Lower Colorado River…
Marble Falls, TX · 2.0 mi
Marble Falls feels like a big, warm hug, doesn't it? A real Texas kind of place. You know, beyond the charm, this town has a quiet history of shaping some remarkable people.
The Lost Falls of Marble Falls · 2.0 mi
You’re driving through a town named for something you can no longer see. Before 1951, the heart of Marble Falls was a series of waterfalls where the Colorado River dropped over ledges of marble-like limestone. They were…
The Flood of 2018 · 2.0 mi
The Highland Lakes usually look calm and controlled. In October 2018 they were not. Torrential rain deluged the Llano River watershed, and on October 16 the Llano at Llano, a river that normally moves about 150 cubic…
Dead Man's Hole · 2.3 mi · Historical Marker
Entomologist Ferdinand Lueders made the earliest recorded discovery of this cave in 1821. Notorious in the Civil War era, the hole is believed to have been the dumping ground for up to 17 bodies, including those of…
Dead Man's Hole · 2.3 mi · Things to Do
A 155-foot limestone sinkhole south of Marble Falls in Burnet County -- discovered in 1821 by entomologist Ferdinand Lueders who was chasing bugs and found a…
The Capitol Came From Here · 2.4 mi
The pink stone of the Texas State Capitol in Austin was quarried right here at Granite Mountain. In 1882 the three owners of the mountain, George Lacy, Nimrod Norton, and William Westfall, offered the state all the…
A Billion-Year-Old Dome · 2.4 mi
One mile west of town, Granite Mountain heaves up out of the ground as a single dome of pink stone, rising more than 860 feet. This is not a pile of boulders. It is one solid mass of Town Mountain Granite, a body of…
Christian-Matern House · 2.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Christian-Matern House in Marble Falls. Built in 1892, this home has roots stretching back to the very founding of the town. Juliet Johnson, daughter of Marble Falls founder Henry Johnson,…
Granite Mountain · 2.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising past Granite Mountain, a massive dome of pink granite that's the largest quarry of its kind in the entire United States! This isn't just any rock; it's a geological wonder, once molten magma that cooled…
The Dam That Built a Town · 2.8 mi
The peaceful lake that gives Cottonwood Shores its name and its purpose is a complete work of engineering. Before the 1950s this wasn't a lake at all; it was a deep, winding canyon carved by the Colorado River. The town…
Before the Lake, a Pecan Bottom · 2.8 mi
As you look at the homes and streets along Lake Marble Falls, try to picture this stretch of the Colorado River before the water backed up over it. This was river bottom - the low, rich ground a river leaves behind,…
Fuchs Cemetery · 3.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Horseshoe Bay, and if you look closely, you might spot the Fuchs Cemetery. This isn't just any graveyard; it's the final resting place for a family with deep Texas roots. Reverend Adolph Fuchs, a…
Bay View Restaurant · 3.4 mi · Things to Do
Bluff-top dining over Lake LBJ near Marble Falls. Hill Country sunsets, hand-crafted cocktails, and one of the best lake views in the state.
Conrad Fuchs House · 3.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, and right here is the site of the Conrad Fuchs House. Born in Germany in 1834, Fuchs came to Texas as a boy and settled in this area in 1853. He built this stone house in…
Captain Jesse Burnam · 4.2 mi · Historical Marker
Texas Patriot Jesse Burnam (also spelled Burnham), born in Madison county, Kentucky, was the youngest son of seven children. In 1812, Jesse married Temperance Null Baker in Shelbyville, Tennessee. Jesse was a private in…
Double Horn, TX · 5.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burnet County, and right here, you're passing through the area once known as Double Horn. This community sprang up in 1855, named for a rather unusual sight a pioneer stumbled upon: the locked…
Crownover Chapel · 5.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Backbone Valley, and right here is the site of its very first public building: Crownover Chapel. Construction started way back in 1859, on land donated by the heirs of settler Jefferson Barton. It…
Mormon Settlement · 6.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a fascinating Mormon settlement, right here near Marble Falls. In 1851, twenty families, led by Lyman Wight, packed up their lives and headed to this spot. They weren't just building…
Rockvale · 6.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Spicewood, and just ahead is the site of Rockvale, a pioneer settlement that boomed in the 1850s. It started with a log cabin serving as both school and church. By 1856, a Baptist church was…
The Tobey Community Cemetery · 6.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Backbone Valley, near Marble Falls. This cemetery, Tobey Cemetery, was opened in 1872 after the death of 12-year-old N. W. Tobey. A church and school once stood nearby, serving area ranches and…
Henry Thomas Lodge, A.F. & A.M. · 6.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Marble Falls, and just ahead is the Henry Thomas Lodge. This building has a unique history tied to the early days of this settlement. Noah Smithwick started this area back in 1855 with his water…
The Dam That Made a City · 6.7 mi
The very existence of Granite Shoals is an engineering story. The town sits on the shore of Lake LBJ, which isn't a natural lake. It was created in 1951 by the completion of the Alvin Wirtz Dam, a key component of the…
The City of Unpaved Roads · 6.7 mi
As you drive through the neighborhoods of Granite Shoals, look down. Some streets are smooth asphalt and some are still bare dirt, and that split is the whole story of this town. When the Sherwood Shores subdivision was…
Welcome to Sherwood Forest · 6.7 mi
If you find yourself on a street called Robin Hood, or driving down Sherwood Forest Drive, you're inside the original vision for Granite Shoals. In 1962 developers carved a subdivision out of three ranches — the…
Granite Shoals, TX · 6.7 mi
Granite Shoals was incorporated as a city in 1966, following a vote by area residents. The original city was formed from various sections of the Sherwood Shores subdivision, which was the largest platted subdivision in…
The Muckleroy Family Memorial Highway · 6.7 mi
This stretch of U.S. Highway Two Eighty One, between State Highway Seventy One and Ranch Road Nine Sixty Two, is the Muckleroy Family Memorial Highway. On the night of November twenty second, two thousand twenty three,…
Lake Lyndon B. Johnson · 6.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising past Lake Lyndon B. Johnson, a key part of the Lower Colorado River Authority's system. Originally called Granite Shoals, it was renamed in 1965 to honor President Johnson for his crucial work developing…
Lappe House · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Lappe House in Mason. Maurice Lappe, a Swiss immigrant, settled here in 1884. His home was an early seat of local court and one of the first in Llano County to feature wire fencing and orchards.…
St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church · 7.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Marble Falls. Catholic residents began worshipping in a local home in 1951, and by 1954, the community bought property for a mission.…
Smithwick Cemetery · 8.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Burnet County, and what started as a young woman's dying wish in 1854 is now the Smithwick Cemetery. Eighteen-year-old Rebecca Chambers asked to be buried on this pretty hillside while traveling…
Charles Haynes · 8.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Horseshoe Bay, and you're passing the site of a man who came to Texas to fight for independence. Charles Haynes arrived in 1836 with the Buckeye Rangers, ready to join the Texas Revolution. After…
The Engineered Lake That Made a Town · 8.4 mi
The beautiful lake defining Sunrise Beach Village isn't a natural feature; it's a massive feat of civil engineering. This is Lake LBJ, created in 1951 by the construction of Wirtz Dam, originally called Granite Shoals…
Sunrise Beach Village, TX · 8.4 mi
Sunrise Beach Village is located on the southern shore of Lake Lyndon B. Johnson, with 27.95% of its total area covered by water. The city's total area is 2.3 square miles, of which 1.6 square miles is land.
Sandy Mountain Cemetery · 8.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Sandy Mountain Cemetery, a resting place for this Llano County community. The oldest marked grave belongs to infant Marion Walter Allen, who died in 1873. His father sold the land, and it was…
Price, Robert · 9.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Round Mountain, and just off the road here is a marker for Robert Price. He was a man who saw history happen. On April 21st, <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1836</say-as>, he was detailed…
Longhorn Cavern State Park · 9.6 mi · Things to Do
A cave system carved out of Hill Country limestone by an underground river that vanished thousands of years ago. The walls are polished smooth where the water…
Longhorn Cavern Administration Building · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Longhorn Cavern Administration Building, a testament to the New Deal era. From 1934 to 1942, Company 854 of the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC, took on the task of exploring and developing…
Joseph and Eliza Bird Residence · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Joseph and Eliza Bird Residence, a home that grew and changed with a pioneer family over a century. Portions of this structure date back to the mid-1850s, starting as two separate log cabins.…
Longhorn Caverns · 9.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Longhorn Caverns, a place that’s seen it all! This young cave, only a few million years old, has been a hideout for Native Americans, Texas Rangers, and even the notorious Sam Bass gang in the 1870s.…
Bird, Joseph · 9.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Round Mountain, a community that owes its very name to the man honored here, Joseph Bird. Bird was more than just a pioneer settler; he was a Baptist minister, a Civil War soldier, a county judge,…
Elitha Smith Martin · 9.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Round Mountain, where a truly remarkable businesswoman made her mark. Elitha Smith Martin, born in Virginia in 1830, arrived in Texas in 1856 with her husband and four children. After her husband's…
Longhorn Cavern · 10.0 mi · Natural Landmark
Most caves in Texas are defined by what nature did to them. Longhorn Cavern is defined by what people did inside it. Native people knew the cave long before settlers arrived in the 1840s, and its constant temperature…
Hoover Point Outcrop · 10.1 mi
The dark green layers across the road are Cambrian sandstone rich in glauconite, an iron-bearing mineral that forms in shallow seawater. The sloping lines inside the sandstone are cross-beds, left behind by moving…
Goeth Ranch House · 10.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Cypress Mill, not far from where Carl A. Goeth settled back in 1865. He was a German immigrant who, in 1882, built this very house you might see nearby – a two-story limestone home built in the…
First Protestant Church · 10.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through New Braunfels, the heart of German Texas. Look around, because you're passing the site of the very first Protestant church chartered by the Republic of Texas. It was organized right here in 1845,…
Holland Springs · 11.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Burnet County, and right here, these springs were ancient watering holes for Native Americans long before settlers arrived. In 1847, Henry McCulloch set up a Ranger camp on Hamilton Creek. Just a…
Enloe's Outlaws and the Bridge at Kingsland · 11.7 mi
The bridge that carries Ranch to Market Road Twenty Nine Hundred over the Llano River arm of Lake L B J in Kingsland is the Enloe Memorial Bridge, named for David and Pat Enloe. In the early nineteen eighties the couple…
Texas Chainsaw Massacre House · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker
The white Victorian farmhouse where Leatherface and his cannibalistic family terrorized a group of young people in Tobe Hooper's 1974 film "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" originally stood in Round Rock, Texas. The movie…
Hoover's Valley Cemetery · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Hoover's Valley, just outside Burnet. This cemetery, established around 1850 by Reverend Isaac Hoover, holds the stories of early Texas pioneers. While many graves here are marked with names and…
Antlers Hotel · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Antlers Hotel, a railroad resort that opened in 1901. Built by the Austin and Northwestern Railroad to welcome passengers arriving by train, it offered lovely views of the Llano and…
Kingsland, TX · 11.8 mi
The granite slabs at The Slab are part of the larger geological process known as weathering and erosion. The clear waters of the Llano River, combined with the abrasive action of the water against the rock, have…
Haynie Flat Cemetery · 12.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Haynie Flat Cemetery, a quiet reminder of a community that settled near Red Bluff Creek in the late 1800s. The earliest graves here belong to siblings Sallie and Dennis Cox, who died just four months…
Kingsland, TX · 12.5 mi
This spot became a notable destination due to its unique natural confluence and subsequent development. Situated at the meeting point of the Colorado and Llano rivers, which form Lake Lyndon B. Johnson, the area offers…
The Academy on the Hill · 12.5 mi
In a town built on ranching, one of Round Mountain's proudest achievements was an intellectual one. In 1871 the community chartered an academy, and for a place this small and this far out on the frontier, that was an…
Round Mountain, TX (Blanco County) · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Round Mountain, a Texas community that owes its existence to a landmark and a stagecoach route. Back in 1854, Joseph Bird became the first settler here, building a log home near the creek. By…
Magill Family Cemetery · 12.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Magill Family Cemetery, a small pioneer graveyard surrounded by a rock wall. It's located on land that was once part of the William H. Magill homestead. Magill, a veteran of the Battle of San…
Ringo, John Peters · 13.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burnet, Texas, a town that once saw outlaw John "Johnny" Ringo fire a pistol across the town square. That was back in 1874, just one stop on his wild ride through the West. Ringo was a cattleman,…
Peter Kerr · 13.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Burnet, and just ahead is the site of Fort Croghan, where Peter Kerr made his home. Kerr was one of Stephen F. Austin's "Old 300" settlers, arriving from Pennsylvania. He fought for Texas…
The Cotton Sack in the Colorado · 13.4 mi
In the spring of eighteen ninety nine, one murder trial so gripped Burnet that the Burnet Bulletin said it almost made up the whole term of district court. It began in March, when two members of the Dorbandt family were…
The Girl in the Council Room · 13.4 mi
Inside Longhorn Cavern, southwest of Burnet, there is a chamber called the Council Room, and it comes with a rescue story. The state historical marker at the park, placed in nineteen sixty seven, says Rangers once found…
Holland, Samuel Ely · 13.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burnet County, the heart of Texas frontier country. Right here, you're passing through land once settled by Samuel Ely Holland. He arrived in Texas in 1846, just a young man, and quickly served in…
Kerr, Peter · 13.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burnet, a town founded by Peter Kerr. He arrived in Texas back in 1824, initially setting up a mercantile business in Victoria. But life wasn't easy for Kerr; he was robbed by Indians, lost his…
Vandeveer, Logan · 13.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burnet, the first county seat and the site of the first school in this area. And you owe a lot of that to Logan Vandeveer. He arrived in Texas in 1833, fought at the Battle of San Jacinto, and was…
Burnet, TX · 13.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burnet, a town that owes its existence to protection and granite. Back in 1849, folks near here huddled at Fort Croghan for safety from Indian raids. The area was known as Hamilton Valley, but…
The Name on Adams Bluff · 13.4 mi
In western Burnet County, on the highway toward Silver Creek, there are bluffs that still carry a frontier settler's name. Locals call them Adams Bluff. They are named for Robert Adams. The Burnet County Historical…
Burnet County · 13.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burnet County, a land shaped by its frontier past. Back in December of 1847, Texas Rangers under Captain Henry E. McCulloch set up camp right here, near the site of future Burnet. Their job? To…
McSween, John · 13.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burnet County, and right here is where Dr. John McSween made his home in his later years. Born in North Carolina, McSween came to Texas in 1855, serving as a civilian physician at Fort Mason on…
Old Thomas Ranch House · 13.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Old Thomas Ranch House, built by Frank Thomas, a rancher who settled here in 1864. He first built a log home and a spring house to keep his milk cool. Then, between 1880 and 1882, the…
Inks Lake State Park · 13.5 mi · Tpwd
The pink granite and grey gneiss at Inks Lake State Park are some of the oldest exposed rock in Texas. The Valley Spring Gneiss here is around 1.25 billion years old — it cooled deep underground when the Grenville…
Home County of Pioneer Leader Joseph Wilson Baines · 13.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, not far from Johnson City. Keep an eye out for the marker honoring Joseph Wilson Baines, a man whose life story is woven into the fabric of Texas history. Born in Louisiana…
Whitaker, George · 13.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the George Whitaker home, built right here in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1870</say-as> by one of Burnet's early settlers. Look for the distinctive hand-hewn rock construction. It even has…
Rocky Rest · 13.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Rocky Rest, a hand-hewn stone and log house built in 1860 by Confederate General Adam R. Johnson. Its high windows and thick walls weren't just for keeping cool; they were built to keep out Comanche…
Oldest Commercial Building in Burnet · 13.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Burnet, and look to your right! That native stone building is the oldest commercial structure still standing in town. It was built in 1854 by Logan Vandeveer, a veteran of the Battle of San…
Johnson, General Adam R. · 13.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Burnet, Texas, the home county of General Adam R. Johnson. He joined the Confederate Army in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1861</say-as>, scouting for General Nathan B. Forrest. Johnson…
Vandeveer, Logan · 13.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Burnet, and the house you see to your right belonged to Logan Vandeveer. He came to Texas from Kentucky in 1833 and fought for Texas independence, even being wounded at the Battle of San Jacinto…
The Badger Building · 13.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Burnet, and right here is the Badger Building, completed around 1883. It’s a classic limestone structure from the courthouse square's boom days. It started as a drugstore, run by Captain Brandt…
Fort Croghan Buildings · 13.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Fort Croghan, a U.S. Army post that stood guard over the Texas frontier from 1849 to 1853. Imagine soldiers here, keeping watch for trouble. After the army moved on, this place didn't go…
The President, The General, And A Grudge · 14.0 mi
The town of Burnet is named for a president who spent much of his career at war with the most famous name in Texas history. In the spring of eighteen thirty-six, David Burnet was chosen interim president of the…
The Cave A River Carved · 14.0 mi
Just outside Burnet lies one of the strangest caves in Texas, and it was made in a way most caves are not. When you picture a cavern, you probably imagine water dripping from the ceiling for ages, slowly building…
Gunpowder From The Dark · 14.0 mi
That same cave outside Burnet once helped make gunpowder, and the key ingredient came from bats. During the Civil War, a Union blockade choked off the South's supply of munitions, so Confederate crews went hunting for…
The Town That Used To Be Hamilton · 14.0 mi
Here is a twist most folks driving through Burnet never hear. This town did not start out as Burnet at all. When it was founded back in eighteen fifty-two, it went by the name Hamilton, or Hamilton Valley, after a…
The Man Behind The Name · 14.0 mi
The name Burnet honors David Gouverneur Burnet, the first interim president of the Republic of Texas. But before he ever led anything, his life read like an adventure novel. He was born in Newark, New Jersey, back in…
The Fort That Started It All · 14.0 mi
Before Burnet was Burnet, and even before it was Hamilton, there was a fort. On the eighteenth of March, eighteen forty-nine, the United States Army established Fort Croghan on Hamilton Creek, a few miles from where the…
Burnet, Durnit, Learn It · 14.0 mi
Here is your local's cheat sheet, and it is worth getting right. The town is not bur-NETTE, like a shade of hair color. Around here it is BURN-it, with the accent right up front. Locals will happily set you straight…
Fort Croghan · 14.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Fort Croghan, established way back in March of 1849. This wasn't just any outpost; it was a critical U.S. Army fort built to shield Texas frontier settlers from hostile Indian raids. For…
Burnet County Jail · 14.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the old Burnet County Jail, built way back in 1884. <break time="400ms"/> This place wasn't just for locking up outlaws; it had an apartment for the sheriff and his family right inside. <break…
Old Cook Home · 14.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Old Cook Home, built back in 1873. This Victorian beauty still stands, rocking its original floor plan even after remodeling. It's known for its large bay window, three fireplaces, and a solid…
Airy Mount Barn · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Airy Mount Barn, a stone structure built in the early 1880s. This barn was part of the homestead of Adam Rankin Johnson, a Kentucky native who arrived in Texas in 1854. After serving as a Confederate…
Red Brick School · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Burnet's Red Brick School. This building replaced an earlier schoolhouse that stood here from 1874. The current red brick structure, built in 1927, served as a high school until 1942 and…
The Russell-McFarland Homestead · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Russell-McFarland Homestead, a Victorian beauty built right here in Burnet between 1883 and 1884. The original owner, William H. Russell, was a Civil War veteran and led the Burnet school system…
How Oatmeal Got Its Name (Nobody's Totally Sure) · 14.4 mi
Here's the honest truth about the little community of Oatmeal, Texas, up in Burnet County: nobody can say for certain how it got that breakfast-table name, and that's half the fun. Two stories compete, and the history…
The Town That Threw a Party to Get Back on the Map · 14.4 mi
Picture this. It's nineteen seventy-eight, and the folks in Oatmeal, Texas, open up the fresh official state highway map and discover their town has vanished from it. The reason given was that Oatmeal did not have an…
How Oatmeal Got Its Name · 14.4 mi
The name Oatmeal has nothing to do with breakfast, and historians offer two theories for it. German families settled along a stream here in the late 1840s, and that stream became Oatmeal Creek. One story says the…
A Water Tower Dressed as a Box of Oats · 14.4 mi
If you ever roll through Oatmeal, Texas, look up. The community's water tank is not painted plain silver like most. It is styled to resemble a giant box of oatmeal, a proud and slightly absurd nod to the town's…
Why Oatmeal Is Good for Your Heart · 14.4 mi
The name Oatmeal invites a quick bit of food science, because there is a real reason your doctor keeps nudging you toward a bowl of it. Oats are rich in a soluble fiber called beta-glucan. When it hits your digestive…
The Grain That Started Out as a Weed · 14.4 mi
Since the name of this town points us at oats, here is a genuinely surprising fact about the plant itself. The oat, known to botanists as Avena sativa, did not get invited to farming the way wheat and barley did. When…
One of Burnet County's Oldest Towns · 14.4 mi
It is easy to drive past Oatmeal and see only a scattering of houses and that famous water tower. But this little spot is one of the oldest settled places in all of Burnet County, second only to the county seat itself.…
From Field Grain to the Cereal Box · 14.4 mi
First, a caveat this town would want you to keep straight: nobody named Oatmeal, Texas after a breakfast brand. The real story is contested and much older, either an English mangling of a German family's mill name,…
Burnet Bulletin · 14.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the home of the Burnet Bulletin, a newspaper that's been serving this town for over a century! Established in the early 1870s, it's seen it all. Its first editor, George Whitaker, left in 1874. Then,…
Packsaddle Mountain · 14.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving near Packsaddle Mountain, site of the last Indian battle in this region. On August 4th, <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1873</say-as>, a small group of Texans, led by Captain J. R. Moss, faced off…
Buchanan Dam · 14.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Buchanan Dam, a massive project that started in 1931 but went bankrupt. State Senator Alvin Wirtz revived it, promising to name it after U.S. Representative J.P. Buchanan. Built…
Oatmeal School · 14.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Oatmeal School, built way back in 1869. Oatmeal itself is the second oldest community in Burnet County, founded way back in 1849. This limestone building wasn't just a school; it also served as a…
Oatmeal Cemetery · 14.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Oatmeal Cemetery, the final resting place for early Oatmeal community pioneers. The oldest documented burials here are Mary Smith and her daughter, who died on September 16, 1854. The cemetery…
The Granite Railroad: Engineering a Capitol · 15.0 mi
The Texas State Capitol in Austin is one of the most iconic buildings in America, famous for its distinctive pink granite. But that granite came from here, and getting it there was a monumental feat of 19th-century…
Longhorn Cavern: Speakeasy, Gunpowder Factory, and Hideout · 15.0 mi
Just a few miles from here is a natural wonder with a history as wild as any Texas tale: Longhorn Cavern. Formed by an ancient underground river, this cave has been used by people for centuries. Legend says Texas…
Fort Croghan: The Town's Frontier Shield · 15.0 mi
Right here in Burnet, you can visit the spot where the town was born: Fort Croghan. Established in 1849, it wasn't a massive walled fortress, but a sprawling, open outpost—one of a line of forts marking the edge of the…
The Outlaw Sam Bass and His Burnet County Hideout · 15.0 mi
In the 1870s, the name Sam Bass struck fear and excitement across Texas. He was a charismatic outlaw, a former cowboy turned train robber. After a string of daring robberies, Bass and his gang were the most wanted men…
Burnet, TX · 15.0 mi
Burnet has always been a place where tradition runs deep, and you see that nowhere more clearly than on Friday nights in the fall. The rivalry with Marble Falls High School is something else. It’s not just a game; it's…
Galloway House · 15.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Burnet, and you're passing the Galloway House. The original part of this home was built way back in 1856, serving as both a residence and an inn for Major Hugh H. Calvert. Later, Enoch Brooks…
Mount Zion Cemetery · 15.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Mount Zion Cemetery, originally the Jennings Family Cemetery. <break time="400ms"/> John and Sarah Jennings settled here in 1851, and their farm became the Jennings Creek community. <break…
Buchanan Dam, TX · 15.4 mi
Buchanan Dam, a multiple arch dam on the Colorado River in Texas, forms Lake Buchanan and was the first dam completed in the Texas Highland Lakes chain. This dam serves multiple purposes, including generating…
The Highway Name That Took Seventy Years to Make Legal · 15.5 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…
Early Explorers in Llano County · 15.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Llano County, where Spanish explorers once searched for silver! Back in 1756, Bernardo de Miranda led a party of 23 men from San Antonio. Their mission: to investigate Cerro del Almagre, a red…
C. S. A. Salt Works · 15.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through the heart of the Texas Hill Country, and just off the road, beneath the waters of Lake Buchanan, lies a forgotten industrial marvel of the Confederacy. During the Civil War, this very spot was…
Granite Industry in Llano County · 15.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Llano County, a place with a rich granite history. The first quarry opened right here on the Llano River way back in 1888. When the railroad arrived a few years later, demand for this stone…
Maxey Cemetery · 16.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Travis County, not far from where the Pedernales River meets the Colorado. Look for the Maxey Cemetery, a resting place with a poignant beginning. The first burial here in 1873 was little Alfred…
Willie Nelson's Luck Ranch · 16.4 mi · Things to Do
Willie built his own ghost town on his Spicewood ranch for the 1986 movie Red Headed Stranger -- a whole frontier village with a saloon chapel livery and…
Longhorn Cavern · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burnet County, heading southwest of the town of Burnet, and you're passing by Longhorn Cavern. This isn't just any cave; it's been a refuge for millions of years. Imagine Comanche Indians using…
Slaughter, John Horton · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Arizona now, but John Horton Slaughter's story has deep Texas roots. He fought Comanches as a Texas Ranger before the Civil War, and after recovering from illness, he served with the Third…
Simmons, Martha Virginia Webster Strickling · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burnet County, and right here is the area where four-year-old Martha Webster and her family faced a brutal Comanche attack in 1839. Leaving their wagon fort near Brushy Creek, they were…
Westcave Preserve · 16.5 mi · Things to Do
A collapsed grotto two miles down the road from Hamilton Pool with a forty-foot travertine waterfall and a sealed-off ecosystem at the bottom. The temperature…
Strickling, TX · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
Strickling was on the North Fork of the San Gabriel River on Farm Road 1174 eight miles northwest of Bertram in northeast central Burnet County. John Webster received a land grant on the Charles Cavenah survey, but when…
Dead Man's Hole · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burnet County, not far from Marble Falls. Right here is Dead Man's Hole. This natural sinkhole gained a grim reputation during the Civil War. It was used as a dumping ground for the bodies of…
Fort Croghan · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burnet County, not far from the town of Burnet itself. Right here, you're passing the site of Fort Croghan. Established in 1849, this frontier post started as McCulloch's Station. It was chosen by…
Mormon Mill Colony · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burnet County, not far from Marble Falls, on the site of what was once Mormon Mill Colony. In 1851, a group of twenty Mormon families, led by Lyman Wight, seeking a new Zion after breaking from…
Struve, Henry Clay Von · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burnet County, near the old community of Shovel Mountain. Right here, in 1874, was born Henry Clay von Struve. He wasn't just any kid; he grew up to be a diplomat and lawyer, fluent in many…
Council Creek, TX · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
Council Creek was an early settlement on Council Creek and what is now Farm Road 2341, ten miles northwest of Burnet in western Burnet County. Local tradition has it that the creek and the community were named for a…
Fairland, TX · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
Fairland is on Farm Road 1855 six miles north of Marble Falls in Burnet County. In the early 1850s a group of families from the eastern states settled on a strip of level land between Backbone Ridge and the Slaughter…
Joppa, TX · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
Joppa, on Farm Road 210 and the North Fork of the San Gabriel River, seven miles northeast of Bertram in Burnet County, was first called Pool Branch, after a nearby pool formed by a waterfall. At that pool in the 1880s…
Oatmeal, TX · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
Oatmeal, Burnet County's second-oldest town, is on Farm Road 243 eight miles southeast of Burnet in southeast Burnet County. A German family reportedly named Habermill came into the area in 1849 and spent a season or…
Cox, Andrew McClure · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burnet County, Texas, and right here is a place that saw some political action back in the day. Andrew McClure Cox, a farmer and businessman, was elected to represent Burnet County in the Twelfth…
Inks Lake · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through the heart of the Texas Hill Country, and right here, you're passing Inks Lake. This wasn't always a tranquil spot. Construction on the Roy Inks Dam began in 1936 and finished up in 1938, creating…
Shady Grove, TX (Burnet County) · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burnet County, not far from the San Gabriel River. Right here is the site of Shady Grove. Settled in the 1850s and 60s, it was first known as Russell Gabriel, then Middle Fork of the Gabriel. The…
Burnet Bulletin · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
The Burnet Bulletin , a weekly newspaper first published in January 1873, was edited until 1874 by George Whitaker. According to other sources, T. A. Stone may have founded and first edited the paper as the Burnet…
Dobyville, TX · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
Dobyville was near U.S. Highway 281 twelve miles north of Burnet in northern Burnet County. Jacob and Adaline Wolf and Silas and Rebecca Shelburn were among the first settlers in the 1850s, soon after Burnet County was…
Lake Victor, TX · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
Lake Victor is on Farm Road 2340 ten miles north of Burnet in north central Burnet County. It began as a railroad camp in 1901 or 1902, when the tracks for the Burnet-Lampasas section of the Houston and Texas Central…
Mahomet, TX · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
The name Mahomet has been associated with two sites in eastern Burnet County. The first was two miles northeast of the site of Bertram, near the source of Bear Creek. George Ater, who settled in the area in 1853, named…
Naruna, TX · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
Naruna is on Farm Road 1478 eighteen miles northwest of Burnet and three miles south of the Lampasas county line in northwestern Burnet County. A post office was established there in 1878 with William M. Spitler as…
Oakalla, TX · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
Oakalla is at the confluence of Rocky Creek and the Lampasas River, off U.S. Highway 183 in far northeastern Burnet County. The first settlers arrived in the area in the 1850s. Oakalla officially came into being on May…
Sage, TX · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
Sage was on the North Fork of the San Gabriel River at the intersection of the old Burnet-Lampasas road and the old Austin-San Saba road, eight miles northeast of Burnet in north central Burnet County. It may have taken…
Smithwick, TX · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
Smithwick is on Farm Road 1431 eight miles east of Marble Falls in southeastern Burnet County. It was formed by the merging of three smaller communities-Hickory Creek, Elm Grove, and Smithwick Mills. The Hickory Creek…
Spicewood, TX · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
Spicewood is a mile north of State Highway 71 and nine miles southeast of Marble Falls in southeastern Burnet County. It was probably named for the spicewood timber on nearby Little Cypress Creek. A post office opened…
Tobey, TX · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
Tobey was off Farm Road 1431 near the Southern Pacific line and six miles from Marble Falls in southwestern Burnet County. It began in the early 1870s and was named for two brothers, Samuel J. and Avery Tobey. On March…
Wolf's Crossing, TX · 16.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
Wolf's Crossing was on the Colorado River seven miles west of Marble Falls in southwestern Burnet County. It grew up around a low-water crossing on the Wolf family farm. A post office was established there in 1874 with…
Levi Rock Shelter · 16.7 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Imagine standing where people stood 10000 years ago! Right here, near Lick Creek, is the Levi Rock Shelter, an archeological site that gives us a peek into the lives of some of the earliest Texans. Discovered in the…
Hopewell Cemetery · 16.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the last remnant of the Hopewell community. Pioneers settled here in the 1840s, facing down hardships and Indian raids. In 1863, tragedy struck the Johnson family; Wofford, Mary, and their daughter…
Luck Ranch — Willie Nelson's Old West Town · 17.3 mi · Local history
You're rolling near Luck Ranch, Willie Nelson's 500-acre spread in Spicewood on Bee Creek Road. In nineteen eighty-five the production crew for Willie's film Red Headed Stranger built a full Old West town as the set —…
Willie Nelson's Cut-N-Putt · 17.4 mi
Right here in Briarcliff is a golf course unlike any other, thanks to its famous owner, Willie Nelson. In 1979 he bought the bankrupt Briarcliff Yacht and Golf Club — a nine-hole course built in 1968 — for $250,000,…
Pedernales Falls · 17.4 mi · Things to Do
The Pedernales River drops over a staircase of tilted Cretaceous limestone here -- the rock layers dip about three degrees to the southeast and the river…
The Dam That Made the Town · 17.4 mi
The very ground Briarcliff is built on exists because of a monumental feat of engineering you can't see from here: Mansfield Dam. Before the 1940s, the Colorado River was notoriously flood-prone, devastating Austin…
The Fight to Become a Village · 17.4 mi
Briarcliff looks peaceful today, but it began as something else entirely: a resort laid out on a peninsula of Lake Travis in the 1960s, a place people drove out to for the weekend. For its first couple of decades it was…
Hamilton Pool Preserve · 17.5 mi · Things to Do
A natural swimming hole under a 50-foot waterfall in a collapsed grotto.
Hamilton Pool · 17.5 mi · Things to Do
A domed grotto of limestone where an underground river collapsed thousands of years ago and left a fifty-foot waterfall spilling into a jade-green pool.…
Hamilton Pool Preserve · 17.5 mi · Natural Landmark
Thousands of years ago, the ceiling of an underground river collapsed here, and what it left behind is one of the most surreal swimming holes in the United States. Hamilton Pool is a natural grotto carved into limestone…
John Walton Harrington · 17.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Round Mountain, where John Walton Harrington lived most of his life. But this stockraiser and father of thirteen children started young – really young. At just thirteen years old, Harrington was a…
Luck, Texas (Willie Nelson's Old West movie-set town) · 17.8 mi
About thirty miles west of Austin, on Willie Nelson's ranch, there's a whole Old West town — and Willie named it Luck. It went up in 1985 as Driscoll, Montana, the set for his film "Red Headed Stranger," with a church,…
Luck, Willie Nelson's ranch · 17.8 mi
West of Austin, near Spicewood, Willie Nelson has his own ranch and his own venue, and he calls the place Luck. This past May first, a crowd of heavy hitters came out to pay him tribute — Sheryl Crow, Steve Earle, Margo…
Spicewood, TX · 17.8 mi
Spicewood's history dates back to the late 19th century, with many residents tracing their lineage to early 19th-century settlers. The community's name may have originated from the spicewood timber that grew along…
South Gabriel · 17.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Burnet County, passing the site of what used to be South Gabriel. It started in 1871 as a mercantile store that also served as the post office, named for the nearby South San Gabriel River. The…
Barton, D. Wilborn [Doc] · 17.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burnet County, and right here is Bertram, the birthplace of D. Wilborn Barton, better known as Doc. Born in 1850, Doc learned the cattle business early, driving thousands of head north to Kansas…
McFarlin, John Green · 17.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Central Texas, maybe near Llano or Bertram, and you're passing through the homeland of John Green McFarlin. He was a Texas Ranger, born in Georgia but brought to Texas as a baby in 1825. By 1841,…
Bertram, TX · 17.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Bertram, a town that owes its existence to a railroad and a bit of irony. Back in 1882, the community of San Gabriel, just two miles east, packed up and moved lock, stock, and barrel to be closer…
South Gabriel, TX · 17.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burnet County, and right here, you're passing the site of what used to be South Gabriel. It started in 1871, first called Lewiston, but renamed South Gabriel because of its spot on the South Fork…
The Bryson Place · 18.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Bryson Place, built in 1906 by local builder Marcus Langford for John H. Bryson and his wife Milda. The land itself has a long history in Burnet County, first purchased by Milda's uncle in 1855.…
Bertram · 18.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising through Bertram, a town that owes its very existence to the railroad. Back in 1882, the Austin and Northwestern Railroad laid down tracks right here, and boom – a town was born. It was named for Rudolph…
The Line That Carried a Capitol, Stone by Stone · 18.3 mi
The same railroad that built Bertram did something monumental. The Austin and Northwestern started as a three-foot narrow gauge line, a track only thirty-six inches wide, which is cheaper to build through rough hill…
The Town That Walked to the Railroad · 18.3 mi
In 1882 the Austin and Northwestern Railroad laid its tracks about two miles past the little village of San Gabriel. Rather than be left behind, the residents picked up the whole town and carried it to the rails. They…

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