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Spring Branch, Texas

Everything Spring Branch is known for

2 songs mention this city 1 artist from here

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

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Music in Spring Branch

Songs About Spring Branch

gadalupe days
gary p. nunn
10%
Spring Branch
Ken G-713
4%
"TITLE"

Artists From Spring Branch

l
lane smith
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Spring Branch

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Spring Branch.

Guadalupe River 18 songs Blanco River 4 songs Interstate 10 36 songs Interstate 35 45 songs Pedernales River 6 songs San Antonio River 2 songs

History of Spring Branch

The Great Flood of 2002 RoadyGoat

The Guadalupe River may look peaceful today, but it has a history of terrifying power. In the summer of 2002 that power got loose. More than thirty-four inches of rain fell over the upper watershed in about a week, and a torrent came down the river. Right here at the Spring Branch gauge, upstream of Canyon Lake, the Guadalupe peaked at just over forty-one and a half feet on July 5th — short of the forty-five-foot record set in August 1978, but plenty. It scoured the riverbed, ripped out hundred-year-old cypress, washed out crossings and took houses off their slabs. And all of that water kept going, into Canyon Lake, until on July 4th the lake began pouring over its spillway for the first time since the dam was finished in 1964. That overflow cut a brand-new canyon out of solid limestone below the dam and uncovered dinosaur tracks in the floor of it. In the Hill Country, the beautiful, life-giving rivers are also a force of unimaginable destruction.

RoadyGoat → · 3.6 mi away

The Knibbe Ranch: A Living Legacy RoadyGoat

As you travel through this area of new subdivisions, it's hard to imagine a ranch surviving here for more than 170 years, but that's the story of the Knibbe Ranch. It was founded in 1852 by Hans Heinrich Dietrich Knibbe, a German immigrant out of Bissendorf who had landed in Texas in 1848, and it has been owned and worked by his direct descendants ever since -- the fifth generation runs it now, with the seventh generation living on the place. The state recognizes it as a Century Heritage Ranch for that unbroken line of cattle work. This isn't a museum; it's a working ranch. The Knibbes were the first settlers here, and Spring Branch's original post office ran out of their store. For generations the family has weathered droughts, floods, market swings and now urban sprawl, moving between cattle, sheep and goats as the land and the market demanded. Today the ranch hosts visitors and shares that history.

RoadyGoat → · 3.6 mi away

Taming the Guadalupe: The Engineering of Canyon Dam RoadyGoat

People assume the Guadalupe you see at Spring Branch is a managed river. It isn't. Canyon Dam -- the Army Corps of Engineers' rolled-earthfill wall, built between 1958 and 1964, a carefully compacted mound of soil and rock standing 224 feet high -- sits DOWNSTREAM of here, not above. The stream gage at Spring Branch is in fact one of the main measures of what's flowing INTO Canyon Lake: the water under you is running about forty feet higher than the lake's surface and is still headed for it. So the dam's three jobs -- catching floods and letting them out slowly, storing a water supply for downstream towns, and creating a lake for recreation -- all start below this point. Everything the Corps did reshaped the river from Canyon Dam down to New Braunfels. Up here, the Guadalupe still runs the way it always has: spring-fed, clear, and capable of rising fast and hard in a Hill Country storm. Which is exactly why the dam got built.

RoadyGoat → · 3.6 mi away

Spring Branch, TX (Harris County)

1848

Spring Branch is in the Memorial Villages area of the western edge of Houston in west central Harris County. It began as a religious community settled by German farmers in the mid-to-late 1840s, many of whom owned dairies. Some of the earliest settlers included August Bauer and his wife Emilie from Wiesa, Germany, and Carl Julius Kolbe from Gotha, Germany. Kolbe settled along a spring-fed creek which flowed into Buffalo Bayou, nine miles from Houston. According to local legend, a stranger stopped by Kolbe’s place, and they walked along the creek until they reached the spot where the creek emptied into the bayou. The stranger inquired as to the name of the creek, and Kolbe replied that it did not have one. The stranger then christened it “Spring Branch.” In 1848 farmers cleared the surrounding forestland for farms and built St. Peter's United (Lutheran) Church with lumber set aside from one of three local sawmills on a site donated by the Bauer family, who owned the mill. The Spring Branch school district began with the Spring Branch School Society, sponsored by St. Peter's Church in 1856. The first public school was opened in 1889, and in 1905 the local white school had forty-nine pupils and one teacher and the local black school twenty pupils and one teacher. In the mid-1950s, when efforts to form a corporation known as Spring Branch failed, a group of affluent communities known as the Villages, including Hedwig Village, Bunker Hill, Piney Point, Hunter's Creek, Spring Valley, and Hillshire Village, were formed from the town and its surrounding region. Any remaining area was annexed by the city of Houston in 1957. In 1973 the Spring Branch Independent School District, which represented the six communities, had 40,200 students and 2,276 teachers. By the 1980s more than 80 percent of Spring Branch graduates continued their education at the university level. The 1980s and 1990s saw a large influx of immigrants from Central America as well as the emergence of a Korean population. Spring Branch was still a named neighborhood in the early twenty-first century and contained a mix of older subdivisions and newer developments. Less expensive property rates attracted new buyers and the resulting urbanization and gentrification of some areas.

Tsha Handbook →

Esser's Crossing at Wesson

1850

IN THE MID-1800s, A WAGON TRAIL CALLED FREDERICKSBURG ROAD RAN 19 MILES NORTHWEST OF NEW BRAUNFELS TO ONE OF THE FIRST SAFE GUADALUPE RIVER ROAD CROSSINGS. ESSER’S CROSSING AT SPRING BRANCH SERVED ALMOST ONE HUNDRED FIFTY YEARS AS A PLACE DESIGNATED FOR SECURE PASSAGE INTO THE NORTHWEST PORTION OF THE STATE FROM NEW BRAUNFELS AND SAN ANTONIO TO JOHNSON CITY AND FREDERICKSBURG. THE CROSSING PROVIDED A SAFE, SHALLOW SOLID ROCK RIVER BOTTOM CROSSING FOR PIONEERS AND THEIR OX-DRAWN WAGONS AND HORSE-DRAWN CARRIAGES. AS EARLY AS 1850, THIS CROSSING ON THE GUADALUPE RIVER WAS KNOWN AS HENDERSON CROSSING. A GERMAN IMMIGRANT, CHARLES ESSER, SR. (1827-1902), SETTLED IN THE AREA IN 1858 AND PROVIDED A PUBLIC WAY-STATION ALONG THE ROUTE. ESSER WAS A JUDGE, JUSTICE OF THE PEACE, AND SCHOOL TEACHER, AND WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN GETTING A POSTAL STATION, CALLED WESSON, IN THE AREA. CHARLES BEIERLE, SR. WAS THE POSTMASTER BETWEEN 1893 AND 1907. WHEN THE CROSSING WAS FLOODED, TEAMSTERS DROVE TO FISCHER’S STORE, DEVIL’S BACKBONE OR PURGATORY ROAD TO CROSS OVER THE 1887 FAUST STREET BRIDGE IN NEW BRAUNFELS. BY 1903, THE PUBLIC AND COMAL COUNTY OFFICIALS BEGAN DISCUSSIONS TO BUILD A SECOND BRIDGE TO PROVIDE HIGH WATER CROSSING OVER THE GUADALUPE RIVER. IN 1904, THE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT SELECTED ESSER’S CROSSING TO RECEIVE THE BRIDGE. AFTER ITS CONSTRUCTION, AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS WERE BROUGHT TO THE NEW BRAUNFELS AREA FROM AS FAR AWAY AS JOHNSON CITY. THE WROUGHT IRON WHIPPLE TRUSS BRIDGE, A POPULAR STYLE OF THE TIME, WAS COMPLETED IN 1904. THE BRIDGE DESIGNED FOR ONE-WAY TRAFFIC DISPLAYED A SIGN FORBIDDING FAST DRIVING OR RIDING OR DRIVING MORE THAN TEN HEAD OF LIVESTOCK ON THE BRIDGE AT ANY ONE TIME. ESSER’S CROSSING BRIDGE WAS DESIGNATED AN OFFICIAL UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL STATION IN 1923. AREA RESIDENTS SERVED AS GAUGE ATTENDANTS TO RECORD ANNUAL DATA. THE 1904 BRIDGE WAS LATER CONDEMNED AND REMOVED IN 1979. (2012)

Historical Marker → · 3.5 mi away

Julius Bremer Family and Rebecca Creek School

1845

Julius August Hermann Bremer (1848-1894) was an early settler on land that is now part of the Mystic Shores neighborhood. He was born in Comal County to German immigrants who, in 1845, were among the Adelsverein’s first founders of New Braunfels. In 1867, at age 19, Julius claimed his land grant of 160 acres near Cranes Mill. The following year, he married German immigrant Emma Amalie Foerster (1850-1923). Between 1869 and 1892, they had nine children; eight survived. The family built a two-story stone house, located at this site. They raised livestock, farmed and provided butcher and dairy services. The Bremers expanded their land holdings to 1,069 acres. Five family members were buried in a family cemetery near this site. 
 In 1882, Julius deeded 5.4 acres of land west of his home for a school and served as a school trustee. The one-room Rebecca Creek School, built of wood, opened that same year. Students walked or rode horses or mules from both sides of the Guadalupe River to attend first through eighth grades. Albert Wunderlich (1853-1889) served as the first teacher from 1882 to 1888, living in the log teacherage. His maternal grandfather, Joachim Pantermuehl, founded the Rebecca Creek settlement in 1854. 
 After nearly 60 years in operation, the school closed in 1941. In 2002, the Comal Independent School District honored the 1882 school’s contributions and heritage by naming a new Rebecca Creek Elementary School nearby. (2020)

Historical Marker →

Herman and Ada Knibbe Home

1910

IN 1910, HERMAN KNIBBE (1884–1954), GRANDSON OF THE FIRST SETTLER OF SPRING BRANCH, GERMAN IMMIGRANT DIETRICH KNIBBE (1817–1896), BUILT THIS HOUSE WITH HIS WIFE, ADA (OHLRICH) KNIBBE (1889–1980). THE HOUSE WAS ONE OF THREE RESIDENCES ON THE SAME ROAD OWNED BY HERMAN AND HIS TWO BROTHERS, ARNO KNIBBE (1889–1984) AND HARRY KNIBBE (1886–1974). THE KNIBBE FAMILY PLAYED AN INTEGRAL ROLE IN THE GROWTH OF SPRING BRANCH, OPERATING THE LOCAL GENERAL STORE AND SERVING AS POSTMASTERS. THE KNIBBES CONSTRUCTED THIS HOUSE USING LARGE QUARRIED ROCK, OBTAINED FROM THEIR RANCH ON A HILLSIDE EAST OF THE PROPERTY. THE OVERALL STRUCTURE OF THE HOUSE IS INTACT FROM ITS ORIGINAL 1910 CONSTRUCTION, INCLUDING ORIGINAL EXTERIOR WALLS, ALL EXTERIOR ENTRANCE DOORS WITH TRANSOMS AND FULL–LENGTH OVAL BEVELED GLASS PANES, AND SINGLE-PANE WINDOWS WITH WAVY GLASS. ALONG WITH THE MAIN HOUSE, THE KNIBBES BUILT A CHICKEN HOUSE, A PARTIALLY UNDERGROUND CISTERN WITH AN ATTACHED HAND PUMP, A WOODEN SMOKEHOUSE, AN ADDITIONAL CARETAKER’S HOUSE BUILT IN 1930, A TIN–COVERED OUTBUILDING WHICH ORIGINALLY SERVED AS A CARRIAGE HOUSE, AND A TWO–ROOM WOODWORK SHOP AND STORAGE AREA. UTILIZING ALL THE RESOURCES SPRING BRANCH HAD TO OFFER, THE KNIBBES MILLED WOOD, FARMED COTTON, RAISED CATTLE, CHICKENS, AND GOATS, QUARRIED ROCK AND PROVIDED WATER AND ELECTRICITY TO THE AREA. OVER A CENTURY OF KNIBBES LIVED IN THIS HOUSE, WHICH STANDS AS A TESTAMENT TO THE HARDSHIPS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE EARLIEST SETTLERS OF SPRING BRANCH AND THE LEGACY OF THEIR DESCENDANTS. RECORDED TEXAS HISTORIC LANDMARK – 2018

Historical Marker →

Smithson Valley - 2025 Texas 5A Division I state football champion

2025

Smithson Valley defeated Frisco Lone Star 28-6 for the 2025 Texas 5A Division I state football championship.

Sports News → · 7.4 mi away

Gruene, TX

1878

Gruene was originally three miles north of New Braunfels at a crossing on the Guadalupe River in Comal County. In recent decades it has been brought within the city limits of New Braunfels. The community was once a prosperous commercial and supply center for blackland cotton farmers of eastern Comal County. German farmers settled the area in the 1850s, and the town took shape in subsequent years under the name Goodwin Community. In 1872 the Gruene family purchased 6,000 acres north of the Guadalupe River, and in 1878 Henry D. Gruene built a mercantile store to serve the several dozen families sharecropping his family's land. The profitable river-crossing store was also on the stage route between Austin and San Antonio. Gruene provided land for Thorn Hill School and soon added a cotton gin and dance hall to his business concerns. With completion of the International-Great Northern Railroad through Comal County in the 1880s, the community's commercial development accelerated, and it took the name of its leading citizen. In 1900 Gruene was the banking, ginning, and shipping center for area cotton growers. Its dance hall and saloon became the focus of social activities. By the early 1900s the town was served by the Goodwin post office and by passenger and freight depots for both the International-Great Northern and the Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroads. Gruene began a decline with the boll weevil blight of the 1920s. It is reported that late in that decade the Gruene family's 8,000-acre holdings failed to produce a single bale of cotton. The mercantile store and rail depots were closed with the onset of the Great Depression . As post- World War II highway construction bypassed the community, its decline was completed. An estimated population of seventy-five in the 1930s had dispersed by 1950, leaving the once thriving community a ghost town. Gruene began a revival in the 1970s with restoration of the nineteenth-century settlement as a center for arts, crafts, and tourism. Within a few years the Gruene Dance Hall-touted as the oldest operating in the state-once again attracted weekend crowds. A live theater company, craft and antique shops, restaurants, a hotel, and a winery occupied historic structures and served tourists attracted by the scenic Guadalupe River. The entire town is on the National Register of Historic Places. Since redevelopment the resident population is estimated at twenty.

Tsha Handbook → · 11.4 mi away

Things to Do in Spring Branch

historical 21.1 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…
historical 24.2 mi away
The Alamo

Remember the Alamo. The 1836 last stand that became Texas' most sacred site.
nature 14.5 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 16.6 mi away
Devil's Backbone Tavern

Perched on the haunted limestone ridge that gives the road its name, Devil's Backbone Tavern is one of the great Texas Hill Country dive bars. The first stone…
quirky 20.5 mi away
Jacob's Well

An artesian spring flows up through a vertical cave in Wimberley so clear and so deep that from the surface you can see straight down a hundred feet into the…
nature 21.2 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 21.9 mi away
Gruene Hall

Texas' oldest dance hall (1878). Still hosts live music every night.
historical 21.9 mi away
The Oldest Dance Hall in Texas

Gruene Hall was built in 1878 by a German cotton farmer named Henry D. Gruene and it has never stopped hosting dances. That makes it the oldest continuously…
day trip
Is this PBJ Burger Gross? 🍔 FUN BUNS - Spring Branch, Texas

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

Everything Near Spring Branch

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

  • Julius Bremer Family and Rebecca Creek School · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    Julius August Hermann Bremer (1848-1894) was an early settler on land that is now part of the Mystic Shores neighborhood. He was born in Comal County to German immigrants who, in 1845, were among the…

  • Herman and Ada Knibbe Home · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    IN 1910, HERMAN KNIBBE (1884–1954), GRANDSON OF THE FIRST SETTLER OF SPRING BRANCH, GERMAN IMMIGRANT DIETRICH KNIBBE (1817–1896), BUILT THIS HOUSE WITH HIS WIFE, ADA (OHLRICH) KNIBBE (1889–1980).…

  • Knuepper Chapel · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Kneupper Chapel, built in 1878 by German settlers in the Honey Creek community. They quarried local stone for this one-room building, which served St. Joseph's Catholic Church until…

  • Spring Branch Post Office · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the original Spring Branch Post Office. Gottlieb Elbel built this cabin in 1852, and by 1867, it was serving as the local post office. Elbel, who kept a detailed postal journal, served as…

  • Spring Branch, TX (Harris County) · 1.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Spring Branch is in the Memorial Villages area of the western edge of Houston in west central Harris County. It began as a religious community settled by German farmers in the mid-to-late 1840s, many of whom owned…

  • Adam Becker Homestead · 1.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Adam Becker Homestead. German native Adam Becker arrived in Texas in 1845, joining Prince Carl Solms-Braunfels to help establish a colony. After contributing to Fredericksburg and…

  • Specht's Crossing · 1.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Specht's Crossing, a place that served as a vital connection for early Texas travelers. For decades, settlers in horse-drawn carriages navigated this low water crossing on the San Antonio-Blanco…

  • Esser's Crossing at Wesson · 3.5 mi · Historical Marker

    IN THE MID-1800s, A WAGON TRAIL CALLED FREDERICKSBURG ROAD RAN 19 MILES NORTHWEST OF NEW BRAUNFELS TO ONE OF THE FIRST SAFE GUADALUPE RIVER ROAD CROSSINGS. ESSER’S CROSSING AT SPRING BRANCH SERVED ALMOST ONE…

  • The Great Flood of 2002 · 3.6 mi

    The Guadalupe River may look peaceful today, but it has a history of terrifying power. In the summer of 2002 that power got loose. More than thirty-four inches of rain fell over the upper watershed in about a week, and…

  • The Knibbe Ranch: A Living Legacy · 3.6 mi

    As you travel through this area of new subdivisions, it's hard to imagine a ranch surviving here for more than 170 years, but that's the story of the Knibbe Ranch. It was founded in 1852 by Hans Heinrich Dietrich…

  • Taming the Guadalupe: The Engineering of Canyon Dam · 3.6 mi

    People assume the Guadalupe you see at Spring Branch is a managed river. It isn't. Canyon Dam -- the Army Corps of Engineers' rolled-earthfill wall, built between 1958 and 1964, a carefully compacted mound of soil and…

  • Fischer House · 3.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Fischer House in Spring Branch, a rare survivor from the days of German immigration to Texas. About 1860, John Heinrich Fischer, a German immigrant, built this log cabin himself from hand-hewn…

Show all 200 nearby places
  • Fischer Homestead · 3.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Fischer Homestead, a little piece of German heritage right here in Comal County. John Heinrich Fischer, a native of Germany, bought this land in 1860, but he was likely leasing it…

  • The Comfort Caverns Nobody Visits · 4.4 mi · Things to Do

    The limestone beneath Comfort is riddled with caves that most people drive right past without knowing. Ranchers have been finding new cave openings after heavy…

  • 711 Ranch · 5.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through what was once the sprawling 711 Ranch, established in 1949 by oilman L.A. Nordan and his wife, Pearl. They transformed this land along the Guadalupe River into a world-class operation, focusing on…

  • Anhalt Halle and the Germania Farmer Verein · 6.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Spring Branch, an area that started as a German settlement called Krause Settlement in the 1850s. By 1875, the settlers here formed the Germania Farmer Verein, partly to fight cattle rustling.…

  • Kendalia, TX · 6.5 mi

    Kendalia is part of the Texas-German belt, indicating a strong German cultural influence in the area. This ethnic heritage is a defining characteristic of the community and contributes to its unique identity.

  • The Lawmaker Who Never Moved His Desk · 6.5 mi

    State Highway Forty Six carries the name Representative Edmund Kuempel Memorial Highway. Edmund Kuempel was a steel company salesman from Seguin who served in the Texas House from nineteen eighty three until his death.…

  • Hermann Jonas Homestead · 6.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Hermann Jonas Homestead, a massive four-story farmhouse that was once the largest residence in the early German settlements of Comal County. Hermann Jonas, born in Germany in 1836, and his wife…

  • UIL 5A Football State Champions — 2 titles · 7.2 mi

    Smithson Valley High School (New Braunfels, TX): Most recent: 28-6 over Frisco Lone Star · 2025 5A Division 1 final.

  • Joseph Scheel House · 7.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Joseph Scheel House, a classic example of German pioneer architecture in the Texas Hill Country. Built in the late 1860s by Bernhard Joseph Scheel, this home showcases the resourcefulness of…

  • Smithson Valley - 2025 Texas 5A Division I state football champion · 7.4 mi · Sports News

    Smithson Valley defeated Frisco Lone Star 28-6 for the 2025 Texas 5A Division I state football championship.

  • The Sponge Beneath Your Wheels · 7.6 mi

    The ground you're driving on right now is more than just rock—it's the roof of a vast underground reservoir. Bulverde sits directly on top of the recharge zone for the Edwards Aquifer, the primary water source for…

  • The Town That Said 'No' to the Big City · 7.6 mi

    The modern city of Bulverde owes its existence to one of the strangest incorporation fights in Texas. For decades this was a quiet, unincorporated stretch of Comal County settled by German farmers. Then San Antonio's…

  • Bulverde, TX · 7.6 mi

    Bulverde, a city in Comal County, Texas, has a rich history shaped by German immigrants. It was originally named Pieper Settlement after Anton Pieper, a prominent German pioneer. The town was mainly settled by German…

  • Saint Mary's Help of Christians Catholic Church · 7.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving near where Saint Mary's Help of Christians Catholic Church stands. Catholic families first worshipped in homes here in the 1850s. The church itself was built and dedicated in 1889, with stone quarried…

  • Kendall, George Wilkins, C.S.A. Home Front Producer · 8.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Kendalia, and right here is the story of George Wilkins Kendall, a man who knew how to spin a yarn – and wool! Born up in New Hampshire, Kendall learned the printing trade and ended up co-founding…

  • Smithson Valley Cemetery · 8.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, near New Braunfels, and you're passing the Smithson Valley Cemetery. This place started in 1876 as a family ranch cemetery, the final resting spot for baby Karl Ohlrich,…

  • Kendalia Community Church · 8.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Kendalia, a community with roots going back to the late 1800s. Look for the Kendalia Community Church. It all started in 1882 when Carl Gustav Vogel and his wife Ettie bought land here. They later…

  • Koch Cemetery · 8.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving by the Koch Cemetery, established way back in 1874. It was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2004.

  • Pantermuel House · 8.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Pantermuehl House, a pioneer home built around 1865. Heimrich and Pauline Pantermuehl, German immigrants, built this place using local limestone and cedar. It’s a great example of the small…

  • Blanco County's first chief justice · 8.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Kendalia, and right here we're passing the final resting place of Samuel Boyd Patton. He was a veteran of the War of 1812 who moved to Texas in 1837, serving in the Congress of the Republic.…

  • The Hon. Samuel Boyd Patton · 8.9 mi · Historical Marker

    Born in South Carolina in 1787, Samuel Boyd Patton moved to Tennessee as a youth. After serving in the war of 1812, he moved to Alabama, where he held public office and served in the state legislature. In 1837 Patton…

  • Old Lex Homestead · 9.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Old Lex Homestead, built between 1873 and 1874. Peter Lex, a German immigrant pioneer, and his wife Carolina built this stone cottage. Every rock in the original structure was hand-cut and faced.…

  • The Hon. Samuel Boyd Patton · 9.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the resting place of Samuel Boyd Patton, a man who wore many hats across three states. Born way back in South Carolina in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1787</say-as>, Patton served in the…

  • Startzville Community · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the heart of what used to be Startzville, a community that grew up around a simple intersection. It all started in 1940 when Bruno and Viola Elbel opened a store and cedar yard right here. Then,…

  • Canyon Lake, TX · 9.8 mi

    Canyon Lake, a census-designated place in Texas, is part of the San Antonio Metropolitan Statistical Area. This area, which includes several small communities, began to develop residentially and commercially after the…

  • The Store That Named a Town · 9.9 mi

    The community of Startzville, on the south side of the lake along FM 2673, started as a single building. The Startz family had farmed the Tom Creek valley here since the 1850s, when Heinrich Startz settled in alongside…

  • Engel Store · 10.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past what used to be the Engel Store in Bergheim. Andreas Engel, originally from Austria, arrived in Texas in 1885. By 1900, he bought this land and built a cotton gin, sparking the growth of a small…

  • The Vox Organ That Defined Tex-Mex Lived Out Here · 10.2 mi

    If you've ever heard that cheap, swirling Vox organ riff on Sir Douglas Quintet's She's About a Mover or Mendocino, you've heard Augie Meyers, and in his last years he made his home right here in Bulverde. A San Antonio…

  • There's a Stone Arrowhead Named After This Town · 10.2 mi

    Long before any Pieper or Bulverdo, hunters worked this country for thousands of years, and they left a signature behind that archaeologists named for this very place. The Bulverde point is a recognized type of stone…

  • From Pieper Settlement to a Name Nobody Can Quite Spell · 10.2 mi

    The crossroads you're rolling through started out in 1850 with a plainer name: Pieper Settlement, after Anton Pieper, one of the German pioneers who put down roots along Cibolo Creek in southwestern Comal County. The…

  • The Hill Country Crossroads Where German and Tejano Families Built a Town · 10.2 mi

    Bulverde grew up as a true crossroads community, the kind of place that lived on the traffic where U.S. Highway 281, State Highway 46, and Farm-to-Market 1863 still meet today. After 1850 the area filled with German…

  • The Stone Houses the Pioneers Left Standing · 10.2 mi

    When the first German families reached this stretch of Cibolo Creek, they threw up quick shelters from what was on hand, post oak and cedar logs. But as soon as they could, they built in stone, because the Hill Country…

  • Mr. Inside Spent His Last Years in Bulverde · 10.2 mi

    One of the great names in college football history spent his final years in this quiet Hill Country town. Felix Anthony Blanchard, known to everyone as Doc, won the Heisman Trophy in 1945 as the bruising fullback for…

  • A Working Rodeo Every Saturday Night · 10.2 mi

    Plenty of Texas towns claim cowboy roots; Bulverde actually puts on a rodeo nearly every Saturday night for most of the year. The Tejas Rodeo Company was started by Yancey James, a former bull rider who hung up his rope…

  • A 130-Year-Old Store That's Still Pouring Beer · 10.2 mi

    Sitting right on the old Bexar-Comal county line in the Bulverde area, Specht's Texas is one of those Hill Country places that has been serving the community in one form or another since before cars. It began in 1887 as…

  • The Pioneer Homesite That Became the Town Playhouse · 10.2 mi

    For a settlement that spent most of its life as a farming crossroads, Bulverde grew a surprisingly stubborn arts streak. In 1979, two residents, Sharon Knibbe and Betty Baker, floated the idea of a community theater…

  • Bulverde's First Interim Mayor Has a Bridge · 10.2 mi

    The Warren Alston Bridge on Farm to Market Road Eighteen Sixty Three carries the name of a man the Texas Senate called a leading Bulverde citizen. Warren Alston was born in Lamar, Arkansas, on June fourth, nineteen…

  • Vogel Cemetery · 10.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Vogel Cemetery, established in 1915. It was designated a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2008.

  • The Flood That Cut a Canyon in Three Days · 11.0 mi

    In the first week of July 2002, almost three feet of rain fell on the Guadalupe watershed, and for the first time since the dam was built in 1964, Canyon Lake rose so high it poured over the emergency spillway. That had…

  • The Flood Uncovered a Dinosaur's Footprints · 11.0 mi

    When the 2002 flood stripped the soil and rubble off the rock below Canyon Dam, it exposed ground no living person had ever seen. Pressed into the freshly scoured limestone of the gorge are the tracks of an…

  • The Lake That Drowned Two Towns · 11.0 mi

    The water spreading out around you isn't natural. After killer floods on the Guadalupe River in 1936 and 1938, area leaders begged the federal government for help, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers answered with…

  • The Southernmost Trout River in America · 11.0 mi

    There is something below this dam that has no business existing in Central Texas: a cold-water trout river. Canyon Dam draws its releases from deep in the lake, where the water stays near 60 degrees even in August, so…

  • How a Dam Turned Into a Tubing Capital · 11.0 mi

    The dam wasn't built for fun, but it accidentally created one of the great float trips in Texas. Because Canyon Dam releases steady, cool water out of the bottom of the lake, the Guadalupe below it runs predictably…

  • The Graves They Moved Up the Hill · 11.0 mi

    When Canyon Lake filled in the 1960s, the dead of Cranes Mill faced the same eviction as the living. The town itself went under, but its hilltop burying ground stood high enough to survive, perched off Cranes Mill Road…

  • Family-Run Since 1946 · 11.0 mi

    If you want a meal with actual roots in this place rather than the resort era, Startz Cafe at 10350 Startz Road is the one. The same family has run it since 1946, which makes it older than the lake itself by nearly…

  • Fischer Store · 11.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Fischer's Store, a place that became the heart of this Texas community. It all started back in 1853 when brothers Hermann and Otto Fischer, who'd emigrated from Germany, settled here.…

  • Canyon Lake, TX · 11.3 mi

    Canyon Lake, nestled in the Texas Hill Country, is more than just a pretty reservoir – it's a testament to the enduring spirit of adapting to change. For generations, this area along the Guadalupe River was ranching…

  • Gruene, TX · 11.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Gruene was originally three miles north of New Braunfels at a crossing on the Guadalupe River in Comal County. In recent decades it has been brought within the city limits of New Braunfels. The community was once a…

  • Natural Bridge Caverns · 11.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, not far from New Braunfels, and right under your feet lies a Texas-sized secret. In <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1960</say-as>, four spelunkers from St. Mary's…

  • Riley's Tavern · 11.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Hunter, Texas, and right here on FM 1102 is Riley's Tavern. This place has a claim to fame you might not expect: on September 19, 1933, seventeen-year-old James Curtis Riley opened this very…

  • Anhalt Hall · 11.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Comal County, and right here is Anhalt Hall, a place that's been a gathering spot for German Texans since the late 1800s. Founded by German immigrants who settled the area in 1855, this community,…

  • Brahman Cattle · 11.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Texas, a state that's become the heartland for a unique breed of cattle: the Brahman. These aren't your typical longhorns. Originating in India over 4,000 years ago, Brahmans were first brought to…

  • Devil’s Backbone Tavern · 11.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, and right here in Comal County, you've passed the Devil's Backbone Tavern. Established way back in 1932, this place is more than just a music venue; it's a local legend.…

  • New Wied · 11.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near New Braunfels, right here in Comal County, you're passing through the site of what was once called New Wied. In 1846, a terrible epidemic swept through New Braunfels, leaving over 300 settlers dead…

  • Canyon Lake · 11.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Comal County, and right here is Canyon Lake. It used to be called Canyon Reservoir, and it's a massive flood control and water conservation project on the Guadalupe River. Construction on the dam…

  • Limekilns · 11.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, and right here, you might be passing by the remnants of a vital part of pioneer life: the limekiln. Especially after the 1840s, German colonists perfected the art of making…

  • Honey Creek, TX · 11.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Honey Creek, in far western Comal County, was settled by Catholic German immigrant families in the late 1840s as a result of the mass migration initiated by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels . George Friedrich and…

  • Bear Creek (Comal County) · 11.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Comal County, near the Balcones Escarpment, an area known for its steep slopes and limestone benches that give the landscape a stairstep look. Back in the 1800s, this was the site of a farming and…

  • Fischer, TX · 11.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Fischer, twenty miles northwest of New Braunfels in the Hill Country of northern Comal County, developed in the 1850s as a supply center on the Devil's Backbone section of the road between San Marcos and Blanco. The…

  • Hunter, TX · 11.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Hunter, on York's Creek in eastern Comal County, was named for Andrew Jackson Hunter, who in 1867 settled nearby and operated a thousand-acre cotton farm. The townsite was established and named with the arrival of the…

  • Smithson Valley, TX · 11.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Smithson Valley is fifteen miles northwest of New Braunfels in central Comal County. The Smithson Valley post office opened in 1857 in the home of Charles Ohlrich and was named for Ben Smithson, who settled in the area…

  • Fischer Cemetery · 11.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Fischer, a community of German heritage that got its start with a school. In 1886, Otto Fischer donated land for that school. Just four years later, in 1890, this graveyard was established with…

  • Agricultural Society of Fischer · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Fischer, a town that owes its name and its early success to the Fischer family. Back in 1853, pioneers Hermann and Otto Fischer arrived here. Hermann opened a mercantile in 1866, selling supplies…

  • The Courthouse That Lost Its County · 13.7 mi

    That beautiful stone building in the middle of the square is the Old Blanco County Courthouse. It looks like the proud heart of the town, and it is now, but it holds a history of a major civic defeat. Built with local…

  • The Blanco River's Wall of Water · 13.7 mi

    The Blanco River, which you see flowing so peacefully through town, is capable of unimaginable power. On Memorial Day weekend in 2015, the science of hydrology became a terrifying reality. A stalled weather system…

  • The CCC Boys and the Blanco River · 13.7 mi

    If you follow the river through town, you’ll find Blanco State Park, a narrow little park that hugs the water for about a mile. It might look modest, but it’s a living piece of American history. The park was built in…

  • The Brewery That Built a Destination · 13.7 mi

    In the mid-1990s, if you wanted a craft beer in Texas, your options were slim. But here in Blanco, something was brewing. In 1996, a small operation called Real Ale Brewing Company set up shop in the basement of an…

  • Blanco, TX · 13.7 mi

    Blanco's always been a place where the beauty of the Texas Hill Country meets a certain hardscrabble reality. The river, that Blanco River we're named for, the one that carved its way through the limestone and gave us…

  • A Depression-Era Park Built by Hand · 13.8 mi

    The low stone dams and shady riverside terraces in this little park are the work of young men who needed a job in the worst year of the Great Depression. When private landowners deeded this ground along the Blanco River…

  • German Pioneers in Texas · 13.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the Sattler area, but what you see now is quite different from what German pioneers saw when they first settled here. In the mid-1840s, a society of German nobles sponsored the emigration of over…

  • Old Blanco County Courthouse · 14.1 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    Check out that impressive building on the corner! That's the Old Blanco County Courthouse, a survivor with quite a story to tell. Built in 1886, it was designed by Frederick Ernst Ruffini in that fancy Second Empire…

  • McCrocklin, Jesse L. · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Blanco County, and just ahead is the final resting place of Jesse L. McCrocklin. Born in Kentucky in 1800, McCrocklin came to Texas in 1833, just in time to fight for its independence. He saw…

  • The Community's 30-Acre Heart · 14.2 mi

    At the very heart of Timberwood Park isn't a city hall or a courthouse, but a park. When this community was designed in the late 1970s, the developers set aside a 30-acre private park for the residents. This became the…

  • The Highway That Built a Suburb · 14.2 mi

    The road you're likely driving on, or one very near it, is the main reason Timberwood Park exists in its current form. For decades, U.S. Highway 281 north of San Antonio was a two-lane country road winding through…

  • Timberwood Park, TX · 14.2 mi

    As a large, unincorporated residential area rather than a distinct town, Timberwood Park doesn't have a list of famous sons and daughters in the traditional sense. While it's a desirable area that's certainly home to…

  • The Courthouse That Lost Its County · 14.3 mi

    The grand limestone building on the square was built to last centuries and served as a courthouse for just four years. Blanco County accepted it on January 29, 1886, a two-story Second Empire showpiece of native…

  • The Lady in the Old Courthouse · 14.3 mi

    Locals will tell you the old limestone courthouse on the square keeps a few residents who never checked out, though you should take this one as the campfire tale it is. The most repeated legend describes a woman in a…

  • Conn, Adrian Edwards · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Adrian Edwards Conn home, built before 1873. Imagine this place with walls a full sixteen inches thick, built to last. It still boasts a hand-dug well, a rock-walled cellar, and even an…

  • Blanco Methodist Church · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Blanco, where the Methodist Church you see was organized way back in 1854 by circuit rider Daniel Rawls. It took six charter members to get things started. The current building, made of native…

  • Blanco State Park · 14.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving past Blanco State Park, just off Highway 281. Right here, the land was deeded to the state in 1933, kicking off a major project during the Great Depression. Company 854 of the Civilian Conservation Corps,…

  • Amenthal · 14.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Amenthal, a home built in 1882 by Irish craftsman Laurence Wall for a thousand bucks. It was purchased in 1887 by John and Ruth Huffman Baines, who were Lyndon B. Johnson's grandparents. They named…

  • Blanco, TX · 14.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Blanco, a town that owes its existence to a bit of frontier rivalry and a name change. Back in 1853, settlers were already building cabins here along the Blanco River, ready to defend against…

  • Bracken Cave · 14.5 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…

  • Discovered by college students in 1960 · 14.5 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 · 14.5 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…

  • Natural Bridge Caverns · 14.5 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…

  • Named for a White River · 14.6 mi

    The river running through this town gave the place its name long before anyone built a cabin here. Back in 1721, members of the Aguayo expedition crossing the Hill Country looked at the pale limestone in the banks and…

  • The Surnames the River Still Carries · 14.6 mi

    Two friends put down the first stakes here, and one of their names is still on the map. In 1853 Eli Clemens Hinds and James Hughes Callahan rode up the Blanco River and built cabins on its north bank, becoming among the…

  • Blanco's Big-League First Baseman · 14.6 mi

    The kid who grew up to anchor a pennant-winning lineup came out of Blanco High School. Willie Clay Upshaw was born here on April 27, 1957, and the New York Yankees drafted him in the fifth round in 1975 straight out of…

  • How a Hill Country Town Became the Lavender Capital · 14.6 mi

    Blanco smells like Provence in June for a reason that traces back to one photographer's hunch. In the late 1990s National Geographic photographer Robb Kendrick was shooting a story in the south of France when he…

  • Walk the First Lavender Farm in Texas · 14.6 mi

    If you want to stand in the field that started Blanco's whole lavender story, this is it. Hill Country Lavender, out on FM 165 northwest of town, was the first commercial lavender farm in Texas when Robb Kendrick and…

  • The Chemistry Inside a Lavender Still · 14.6 mi

    Out at the lavender farms ringing Blanco, the real magic happens inside a steaming copper still, and it is pure chemistry. A lavender flower stores its scent in microscopic oil glands on the surface of the buds. When…

  • Natural Bridge Caverns · 14.7 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…

  • First Baptist Church of Blanco · 14.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the First Baptist Church of Blanco. Organized in 1859, the congregation shared a union church until purchasing land and building their own sanctuary in 1902. The current facility was…

  • Blanco High School · 15.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Blanco High School. Chartered in 1883, it began as a mix of private and public education, with a limestone building opening here in 1884. The school has grown and built new facilities…

  • New Braunfels Schuetzen Verein · 15.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through New Braunfels, a town founded by German immigrants in 1845. Just four years later, in 1849, they formed one of the nation's first shooting clubs: the New Braunfels Schuetzen Verein. They brought…

  • Pinta Trail in Kendall County · 15.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Kendall County, and you're passing right by the historic Pinta Trail. This wasn't just any old path; it was a vital natural highway, used by Native Americans and later by Spanish settlers. It…

  • Sattler · 15.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the heart of what was once Sattler, a German immigrant community that took root along the Guadalupe River in the 1850s. It wasn't always called Sattler. For a time, this area was known as…

  • The Brewery That Started in a Basement · 15.5 mi

    One of the better-known craft breweries in Texas got its start under an antique store in downtown Blanco. In 1996 Philip, Diane, and Charles Conner began brewing English-style ales in the basement of that shop, naming…

  • Original site of Mountain Valley School · 15.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the original site of the Mountain Valley School, a place that served this community for over 80 years. It all started back in 1874 when local landowners sold an acre for a schoolhouse. Initially, a…

  • Blanco County Courthouse · 15.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Blanco County Courthouse, a grand Victorian structure designed by F. E. Ruffini. It was built in 1886 as the county's first permanent courthouse, but its time as the seat of power was…

  • Sattler Post Office · 16.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Sattler Post Office. Back in 1856, Wilhelm Sattler, a New Braunfels colonist, set up mail service for this area. His son Henry became the first postmaster. The post office operated…

  • Sattler Family Cemetery · 16.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Sattler Family Cemetery, established in 1854. This small plot holds the remains of German immigrants who settled in this area, seeking a new life in Texas. Many early Texas communities were built…

  • Jacobs Creek School Teacherage · 16.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Jacobs Creek School Teacherage, a unique piece of Texas history built in 1870. Early settlers started the Jacobs Creek School back in 1867, and teacher Carl Pantermuehl himself built…

  • Fair Oaks Ranch, TX · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fair Oaks Ranch, a community with roots in the pioneering spirit of Ralph E. Fair, Sr. Back in the 1930s, this oilman and rancher bought thousands of acres right here. He started with racehorses,…

  • The House That Cattle Built · 16.4 mi

    If you pass the Fair Oaks Ranch Golf & Country Club, you're looking at the heart of the original ranch. The sprawling main building wasn't built as a clubhouse; it was the actual home of Ralph E. Fair, Sr., a San…

  • Living on a Sponge: The Edwards Aquifer · 16.4 mi

    As you drive through Fair Oaks Ranch, you are traveling over one of the most important pieces of natural infrastructure in Texas: the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone. The limestone bedrock beneath you isn't solid; it's a…

  • A City by Design · 16.4 mi

    Driving along Fair Oaks Parkway, you're on the main artery of a city that had to be invented twice in order to exist once. By the mid-1980s the residential community of Fair Oaks Ranch was a success, but it was…

  • Fair Oaks Ranch, TX · 16.4 mi · Local history

    The story of this Texas community begins in the 1930s when Ralph Fair Sr. acquired the land. A successful figure in the oil industry, he also had a passion for ranching, owning cattle and racehorses. His vision for the…

  • Devil's Backbone Tavern · 16.6 mi · Things to Do

    Perched on the haunted limestone ridge that gives the road its name, Devil's Backbone Tavern is one of the great Texas Hill Country dive bars. The first stone…

  • Haag Cemetery · 16.6 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…

  • The Prize Bull Named Battle Intense · 16.7 mi

    The Fair name is stamped on the golf course, but it was first stamped on cattle. Ralph E. Fair Sr. moved his ranch from racehorses to registered Hereford beef cattle and built his own bloodline from a bull called Battle…

  • From a Racehorse Ranch to a City on Three County Lines · 16.7 mi

    Fair Oaks Ranch began in the 1930s, when San Antonio oilman and rancher Ralph E. Fair Sr. bought up land tracts that grew into a roughly five thousand acre spread. The working ranch had a dairy and a granary, and it…

  • The Water Under Your Feet: Drilling the Trinity Karst · 16.7 mi

    Fair Oaks Ranch sits on Hill Country karst, limestone that rain slowly dissolves into cracks, caves, and underground channels. Most of the town's water comes from city-owned wells drilled into the Trinity Aquifer, the…

  • Peyton Colony Lime Kiln · 17.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Blanco County, and you might see the remnants of a community built by freed slaves after the Civil War. Peyton Colony was established in the 1860s by Peyton Roberts, a former slave himself.…

  • Walzem Chapel · 17.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Walzem Chapel, built by German immigrants in the Mission Valley Settlement. Johann Walzem, a stone mason, and his sons quarried local limestone and built this chapel around 1870, legend…

  • Cave Without A Name · 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kendall County, not far from Boerne, and right below your tires lies a geological wonder: the Cave Without A Name. It was discovered by accident in 1927 when a goat literally fell through a hole…

  • Walker, Samuel Hamilton · 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now Kendall County, Texas, a place that saw a legendary Texas Ranger named Samuel H. Walker make his name. In 1844, Walker and his Rangers, armed with brand new Colt revolvers, fought a…

  • Peyton Colony (Board House) · 17.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Peyton Colony, a community established in 1865 by freed slaves led by Peyton Roberts. Born into slavery in Virginia, Roberts came to Texas in the 1820s. After emancipation, these families…

  • Sisterdale, TX · 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Sisterdale, on Farm roads 1376 and 473, thirteen miles north of Boerne in north central Kendall County, was founded in 1847 by Nicolaus Zink , a German freethinker who surveyed New Braunfels for Prince Carl of…

  • Forty-Eighters · 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kendall County, and right here, in places like Sisterdale, settled some of the most passionate immigrants Texas has ever seen: the Forty-Eighters. These were German intellectuals and activists who…

  • Sansom, John William · 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    John W. Sansom, frontier militia officer and Unionist leader, was born in Dallas County, Alabama, on February 5, 1834, one of eleven children of William Greenbury Sansom and Mary ("Polly") Short. After his parents moved…

  • Cibolo Creek (Kendall County) · 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kendall County, and the creek you're crossing, Cibolo Creek, has a name with a long history. Indigenous peoples knew it by different names, like 'Xoloton' and 'Bata Coniquiyoqui.' Early Spanish…

  • Curry Creek · 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, and right near here, you're passing through the area once known as Curry's Creek Settlement. Settlers began homesteading along this creek back in the 1840s. By 1850, Judge…

  • Bergheim, TX · 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Bergheim ("Mountain Home"), a German immigrant community, is on State Highway 46 and Farm Road 316 ten miles northeast of Boerne in far southeastern Kendall County. Austrian-born Andreas Engel immigrated to Texas in…

  • Kendalia, TX · 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Kendalia is on Farm Road 473 twenty-five miles northeast of Boerne in east Kendall County. The community was probably named for George Wilkins Kendall , who established a ranch and introduced sheep ranching in the area…

  • Curry's Creek Settlement · 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kendall County, near the site of Kendalia, where Curry's Creek Settlement once thrived. Founded around 1847 by Samuel B. Patton, this wasn't just a town, but a string of homesteads along a…

  • Mt. Horeb Baptist Church · 17.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through what used to be Peyton Colony, just outside Blanco. This area owes its beginnings to Peyton Roberts, who was born a slave in Virginia. After gaining his freedom at the end of the Civil War, he…

  • Cascade Cavern · 17.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Cascade Cavern, a natural wonder that's been drawing people for thousands of years. Geologists believe this cave formed way back in the Pleistocene epoch, likely carved out by the Cibolo River.…

  • Schoenthal School · 17.7 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…

  • Homesite of Johann and Gertruda Walzem · 17.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the homesite of Johann and Gertruda Walzem, German immigrants who arrived in Texas around 1851. By 1859, they officially owned the 160 acres they’d settled, including this very spot. Johann was a…

  • Mission Valley School · 17.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Mission Valley, a community founded by German settlers in the 1840s. For years, kids learned their lessons at home. Then, in 1870, brothers Karl and Julius Brehmer donated land for the first…

  • Ottmar von Behr · 18.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Sisterdale, a place that owes its name to Ottmar von Behr. He was a nobleman from Germany who wrote a guide for immigrants, encouraging them to farm in Texas. He settled here in 1848, becoming the…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Boerne-Champion (Boerne) · 18.2 mi

    Boerne-Champion (Boerne, TX) placed on the 5A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Brody Bendele (5 HR).

  • Sisterdale, TX · 18.7 mi

    Sisterdale began as a haven, a place carved out of the Texas Hill Country by German immigrants in the 1840s. Drawn by the promise of land and the possibility of building a community based on shared ideals, these…

  • Pinta Trail Crossing of the Guadalupe River · 18.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the historic Pinta Trail crossing of the Guadalupe River. In October 1839, a Republic of Texas expedition started here, piling rocks to mark their survey line into the wilderness. Later, surveyor…

  • Sisterdale · 18.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Sisterdale, an early Hill Country settlement founded by German immigrants. The area was first a pathway for Native Americans and later, in 1839, saw Henry Karnes lead a frontier expedition here.…

  • The Town Built by Clean Air · 18.9 mi

    In the late 1800s, a doctor's prescription might have been simple: 'Go to Boerne.' The arrival of the railroad in 1887 transformed the town into one of Texas's premier health resorts. Its high elevation and dry, crisp…

  • The Freethinker's Utopia: Tusculum · 18.9 mi

    Before it was Boerne, it was Tusculum. The name is a clue to the town’s unusual origins. In 1849, a band of German intellectuals, known as Freethinkers, settled here to create a utopian society. Fleeing political and…

  • The Cave 'Too Beautiful for a Name' · 18.9 mi

    Just a few miles from Boerne lies a natural wonder with a very unusual name: the Cave Without a Name. This stunning limestone cavern was hidden until the 1930s, when, as the story goes, a local farm animal fell into a…

  • Living on a Limestone Sponge · 18.9 mi

    The ground beneath Boerne is not solid; it's more like a giant, rocky sponge. You're driving over the Texas Hill Country, and the rock under your tires is mostly Glen Rose limestone—part of the Trinity Group, full of…

  • Surgeon to Robert E. Lee · 18.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Boerne, where Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig von Herff made his home. Born in Germany in 1820, this pioneering physician came to Texas in the 1840s, initially trying to start a socialist colony. That didn't…

  • Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig Von Herff · 18.9 mi · Historical Marker

    In the 1850s, a few courageous and well-trained European doctors responded to the health needs of the citizens of San Antonio. For more than fifty years, Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig von Herff worked tirelessly to provide…

  • The Boerne Schuetzen Verein · 18.9 mi

    One of the most direct links to Boerne’s German past is an organization founded during the Civil War. The Boerne Schuetzen Verein, or shooting club, was established in 1864. For the German immigrants, a Schuetzenverein…

  • Devil's Backbone Scenic Drive · 18.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving along a razor-thin limestone ridge that drops away on both sides into deep Hill Country valleys. Devil's Backbone is one of the most dramatic drives in central Texas, a winding stretch of Ranch Road 32…

  • Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig Von Herff · 18.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving near Boerne, home to Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig Von Herff. Born into a prominent German family and a veteran of the Prussian Army, he first arrived in Texas in 1847. By the 1860s, he was a leading physician in…

  • Boerne, TX · 18.9 mi

    Boerne has always prided itself on its small-town feel, a place where Friday night lights shine bright on the Greyhounds and the whisper of the wind through the Ashe juniper is more common than the roar of city traffic.…

  • The World's Largest Bat Colony · 19.0 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 · 19.0 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 · 19.0 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 · 19.0 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 Highway Name That Took Seventy Years to Make Legal · 19.0 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…

  • Vogt-Clegg Log House · 19.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past a piece of Texas pioneer history, the Vogt-Clegg Log House. German immigrants Wilhelm and Ernestine Vogt built this place around 1860, starting with just one room. As their family grew to nine kids,…

  • Phillip, Julius A. and Anna · 19.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Boerne home of Julius and Anna Phillip. Judge Phillip served as Kendall County's Justice of the Peace and County Judge. Built around 1900, this house started as a modest four rooms. But as you…

  • Kendall Masonic Lodge No. 897 · 19.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Boerne, where efforts to start a Masonic lodge began in 1904. Kendall Lodge No. 897 received its charter in 1905. After a fire destroyed their hall in 1908, they met in various locations, eventually…

  • Boerne Chapter No. 200, O.E.S. · 19.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Boerne Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. Organized in 1910, this chapter chartered in 1911 with twenty members, many from local pioneer families. The chapter continues to…

  • Slumber Falls Camp · 19.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising along the Guadalupe River Road, just northwest of New Braunfels. This spot, known as Slumber Falls Camp, has been a river getaway since the late 1800s. In the 1930s, it transformed into a tourist court.…

  • Graham, Henry J. · 19.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the building that once served as the office for Henry J. Graham, a man who arrived in Boerne all the way from Brazil in the 1870s. Graham wasn't just a businessman dabbling in real estate, insurance,…

  • Kuhlmann-King House · 19.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Kuhlmann-King House, a place with a history as layered as the Hill Country landscape. Built in the late 1880s, it was first home to William Kuhlmann, a successful pharmacist and landowner who…

  • Boerne Schoolhouses · 19.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Boerne, and right here is where this town's public education story began. It all started in 1873, when a local singing society, the Boerne Gesangenverein, donated land for the very first…

  • Kutzer, Albert Paul · 19.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Boerne's historic commercial center, once home to Albert Paul Kutzer. Born in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1871</say-as> to German immigrant parents, Kutzer became a leading…

  • The Oldest German Town Band Outside Germany · 19.5 mi

    In 1860, a Boerne music teacher named Karl Dienger organized both a singing club, the Boerne Gesang Verein, and a brass band to play alongside it at the town's German song festivals. That band never stopped. Today the…

  • The Town Named for a Satirist Who Never Saw It · 19.5 mi

    This Hill Country town began as a refuge for German idealists. After the failed revolutions of 1848, a wave of educated liberals called Forty-Eighters fled the German states, and a handful of them tried to build a…

  • The Pilot Who Brought Flight 1380 Home · 19.5 mi

    When residents of Boerne heard that one of the most famous emergency landings in modern aviation had been flown by a local woman, plenty of them weren't surprised. Tammie Jo Shults, who lives in Boerne with her husband,…

  • The Second-Oldest Courthouse in Texas · 19.5 mi

    Kendall County was carved out on January 10, 1862, named for journalist and Mexican-American War correspondent George Wilkins Kendall, and Boerne edged out its rivals to become the county seat by a margin of just 67…

  • Engineering a Creek Back to Health · 19.5 mi

    Off Highway 46 at Boerne City Park, the Cibolo Center for Conservation has turned a stretch of overused creek bank into a working lesson in restoration ecology. The riparian zone, the green ribbon of plants right along…

  • Boerne Village Band · 19.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, and right here in Boerne, you're passing through a living piece of German heritage. In 1860, Karl Dienger organized the Boerne Village Band, intending to add instrumental…

  • Adolph (Ad) Toepperwein · 19.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Boerne, the hometown of Adolph 'Ad' Toepperwein, a legendary sharp-shooter. Born in 1869, Ad learned his skills from his gunsmith father. By 1889, he quit his cartoonist job to pursue a career in…

  • Toepperwein, Elizabeth Servaty [Plinky] · 19.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Elizabeth “Plinky” Servaty Toepperwein, sharpshooter, was born at New Haven, Connecticut, on January 23, 1882. She was the daughter of German immigrants Jacob and Catherine Servaty. In 1902 she was an employee at the…

  • The Main Street That Still Goes By Its German Name · 19.5 mi

    Locals don't always call Boerne's main drag Main Street. They call it Hauptstrasse, the German word the founding settlers used, and it's one of the most visible reminders that this was a German town first and a Texas…

  • Boerne's Wire-to-Wire Major Champion · 19.5 mi

    Boerne claims a major golf champion as its own. Jimmy Walker, who grew up in the area and still makes his home in Boerne, spent years as a steady but unheralded PGA Tour pro before everything came together at the 2016…

  • Did America's First Polo Match Happen Here? · 19.5 mi

    Here's a claim Boerne loves to make: that the first game of polo in America was played not in fashionable New York but out here in the Hill Country. In the late 1870s, a group of retired British army officers who had…

  • The Teetotaler Who Still Disapproves · 19.5 mi

    At 210 North Main Street stands the Dienger Building, a graceful two-story limestone landmark with wraparound porches that merchant Joseph Dienger built in 1884, a dry-goods and grocery store below and his family home…

  • Theis House · 19.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Theis House, built in 1858 by German immigrant Phillip Jacob Theis. He was an early blacksmith and wheelwright here in Kendall County. Look closely at the original part of the house – it’s a rare…

  • Hughes, William George · 19.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kendall County, not far from Boerne, where a British immigrant named William George Hughes arrived in 1878 with nothing but determination. He started as an unpaid shepherd, but by 1879, he was…

  • O'Grady, John G. · 19.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, perhaps near Boerne. Right here, John G. O'Grady, a man who studied for the priesthood and then medicine, found his calling on the Texas frontier. He served as a sergeant…

  • Shaeffer, Franklin Wingot · 19.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through South Texas, maybe not far from Boerne or Corpus Christi, where Franklin Wingot Shaeffer made his fortune. He came here in 1857 with money earned from gold rush freight lines and a tough stint on…

  • Zoeller, Helwig Karl Ludwig Adolph [Adolph] · 19.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kendall County, and right here, you're passing through the story of Helwig Adolph Zoeller. Born in Germany, he came to Texas in 1853. When the Civil War broke out, Zoeller refused to fight for the…

  • Boerne, TX · 19.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Boerne, a town with roots stretching back to 1849. That's when German colonists, fresh from another settlement, camped right here on Cibolo Creek. They called this spot Tusculum, after a Roman…

  • Kendall County · 19.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Kendall County right now, established way back on January 10th, 1862. It was organized just a few weeks later, on February 18th. This whole area is named for George Wilkins Kendall, a real Texas…

  • Kendall County Courthouse · 19.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Kendall County Courthouse in Boerne. This is the first and only courthouse the county has ever had. It was built between 1869 and 1870, seven years after the county was officially organized. Many…

  • Staffel Family and the Staffel Store · 19.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Boerne, and right here is where August Staffel, a German immigrant, set up shop back in 1854. He bought this land and quickly became the first postmaster when Boerne got its postal station in…

  • The Stagecoach Inn That Watched the Town Grow Up · 19.6 mi

    On the square at 128 West Blanco Road sits one of the oldest continuously operating inns in Texas, known for generations as Ye Kendall Inn and recently rebranded simply as The Kendall. Its story starts on April 23,…

  • James House · 19.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Puccoon, a limestone house built around 1880 by Ives Brown for Ichabod and Alice Kingsbury. But the real story here is Maria James, who bought this home in 1925. Maria was a pioneer surveyor and a…

  • Beseler House · 19.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Beseler House in Boerne, a stone Victorian cottage built in 1903 for the parents of prominent businessman Maxmillian Beseler. Charles Beseler, Maxmillian's father, was a native of Prussia who…

  • Fabra Smokehouse · 19.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the old Fabra Smokehouse in Boerne, a testament to German immigrant ingenuity. Julius Fabra arrived from Germany in 1854, first hauling freight, then opening a meat market to serve the growing…

  • German Music in Boerne · 19.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Boerne, a town with a musical soul! Back in 1855, German immigrant Karl Dienger arrived and soon after, in 1860, he formed a singing club and a band. Known as the Boerne Village Band, this group…

  • Saint Helena's Episcopal Church · 19.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Boerne, and right here stands Saint Helena's Episcopal Church. The first Episcopal service in Kendall County happened way back in 1873, in a place called Old Kuhfuss Hall. The congregation…

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