Name: Blanco, Texas
Address: Blanco, TX

The Courthouse That Lost Its County RoadyGoat

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 limestone and high hopes in 1886, it was designed to be the permanent seat of a growing county. But there was a problem. The county was large, and travel by horse and buggy was slow. People in the northern part of the county, near a growing crossroads called Johnson City, felt Blanco was too far south. After years of debate, a county-wide election was held in 1890 to decide the matter. When the votes were counted, Johnson City had won. Blanco’s magnificent new courthouse, used for its intended purpose for only four years, was suddenly obsolete. It’s a powerful story of how geography and democracy can change a town’s destiny overnight.

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The Blanco River's Wall of Water RoadyGoat

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 dumped ten to thirteen inches of rain on the upper part of the river’s watershed here in southern Blanco County. Because the Hill Country has thin soil over non-porous limestone, the vast majority of that water ran off directly into the river channel. That built a ‘wall of water’—not a myth, but a hydrological event where the flood wave outruns the ordinary river. Downstream at Wimberley the river rose more than thirty feet in less than three hours, crested near forty-five feet—eleven feet above the old 1929 record—and carried an estimated 175,000 cubic feet of water per second, a flow you’d expect from a river many times its size. This catastrophic flood reshaped the riverbed, destroyed bridges, and tragically swept away homes and lives, a stark reminder of the immense energy contained within this beautiful Hill Country river.

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The CCC Boys and the Blanco River RoadyGoat

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 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC. This was one of President Roosevelt's New Deal programs, putting young men to work on conservation projects during the Great Depression. Here in Blanco, the 'CCC boys' had a clear mission: make the river more accessible for recreation. They built the park's roads, picnic areas, and a beautiful stone pavilion. Most importantly, they built several low-water dams across the Blanco River. These simple but brilliant structures, made of local stone, created the deep, calm swimming holes that people still enjoy today. Every stone in that park is a testament to a program that saved both the land and a generation of young men.

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McCrocklin, Jesse L.

1833

(November 8, 1800-March 22, 1888) Born in Kentucky. Moved to Texas in 1833. In Texas Revolution he fought in Siege of Bexar (1835) and Battle of San Jacinto (1836). In 1842 took part in Somervell Expedition against Mexico. Resided at Washington-on-the Brazos, present Kendall County; finally settled on his land grant in Blanco County. Worked as stock raiser, farmer, and blacksmith. Was member of the Masonic Order. Married Isabella Harris (1812-1902). They had four or more children. Recorded - 1972

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Amenthal

1882

Constructed of native stone quarried near the site, this home was built in 1882-83 in Pittsburg (later annexed by Blanco) by Irish craftsman Laurence H. Wall. The total construction cost was $1,000. John Wilson Baines and his wife Ruth Ament Huffman (later grandparents of Lyndon Baines Johnson) purchased the home in 1887 and named it Amenthal. The house changed ownership several times after the Baines family left in 1904. Andrew J. Wagner purchased it in 1918, two years before he was elected county sheriff. The house remained in the Wagner family until 1943. (1990)

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Blanco State Park

1933

Blanco State Park is just off U.S. Highway 281 on the south side of Blanco in Blanco County. The approximately 105-acre park covers about a mile-long strip of land on both sides of the Blanco River. Private landowners deeded the land to the state in 1933. In June 1933 Company 854 of the Civilian Conservation Corps began improvements on the land, as the park was one of the inaugural four parks in the state to have a CCC company. Capt. John L. Hill was commander of the camp, which included 177 CCC workers and a corps of engineers. The men built two seven-foot-high dams of stone from the riverbed, roads, two concrete bridges, and a concession house with eighteen-inch stone walls and pine timbers and shingles. Facilities also included a bathhouse, seven campsites, and a seventy-foot table. The work group included a tree army responsible for pruning trees and shrubs and planting shade and fruit trees. The workmen completed their job in May 1934, and Blanco State Park became one of the earliest parks in the state park system. Glen Rose limestone in the park gives the terrain a stairstep appearance. The riverbed contains layers of limestone and softer marl formed since prehistoric times, when a shallow sea covered the area that is now the Hill Country ; outcroppings of a fossil zone with ancient clams and oysters can be seen. Dinosaur tracks have been preserved in the streambed a mile upriver from the park and three miles downstream from the park, on private property. Local vegetation includes juniper, live oak, mesquite, and grasses that grow from dark calcareous stony clays and clay loams. Some water-tolerant hardwoods and conifers are present along the streambed. Area wildlife includes deer, armadillos, squirrels, and a variety of birds. In 1982 renovations began in the park with the addition of more facilities and the first solar-heated water system in a Texas state park. The system included 240 gallons of thermal storage for showers and restrooms and resulted in savings in the cost of electricity. The renovated park opened on July 30, 1983. Its facilities included thirty-seven picnic sites, twenty-one campsites, ten trailer hookups, and a trailer dump station. The park received a Texas Historical Marker in 2009. The park suffered extensive damage from a flood on May 23, 2015, when the river rose thirty feet. Park rangers and volunteers made repairs and cleaned out uprooted trees, silt, trash, and other debris that littered the park, which fully reopened on October 24, 2015. The park includes twenty-nine campsites, seven screened shelters, a park store, pavilion, picnic area, and hiking trails and is used by local citizens and tourists, many from Austin and San Antonio. Fishing (officials stock trout in the winter), swimming, boating, picnicking, and camping are popular park activities.

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Blanco, TX

1853

Blanco is on U.S. Highway 281 twelve miles south of Johnson City in south central Blanco County. In 1853 pioneer stockmen built cabins along the Blanco River near the present site of the town and prepared to defend themselves against Indian attack. In 1854 the operators of the Pittsburg Land Company, including Gen. John D. Pitts , A. M. Lindsey, F. W. Chandler, William E. Jones, and Capt. James H. Callahan , purchased the league granted to Horace Eggleston by the government of Coahuila and Texas in 1835. They laid out the town of Pittsburg, named for General Pitts, across the river from the site of future Blanco. That same year a Methodist church was organized by circuit rider Daniel Rawls . The congregation met in a log cabin built to withstand Indian raids, which also served as a school. The Twin Sisters Masonic Lodge, organized at Curry's Creek perhaps as early as 1856, moved to Pittsburg around 1857. When Blanco County was organized in 1858, an election located the county seat across the river from Pittsburg, and named the townsite Blanco for the Blanco River. The Pittsburg Land Company gave the new town 120 acres of land. In 1858 a post office was established. Mail service was temporarily discontinued with the beginning of the Civil War , but the citizens raised money to bring mail once a week from New Braunfels in order to receive the war news. The first Baptist church was organized in 1859. In 1860 the first courthouse was built on the public square by A. V. Gates for about $600. In spite of hardships suffered during the Civil War, the town continued to grow and by 1870 had four stores, a hotel, and a gin. The old union church, built in 1871 at a cost of $1,300, remained for many years the center of town life. It was used as a church by different denominations, as a schoolhouse, and as a community meeting place. In 1874 the Masons drew up a charter for Blanco Masonic University. A foundation was laid, but building was discontinued because of a lack of funds. A new courthouse of native stone was built in 1875 by Frederick E. and Oscar Ruffini , architects. In 1876 a fire destroyed the Masonic lodge, the old courthouse, and all of the county records. The same year the residents of Johnson City made their first attempt to have the county seat relocated by petitioning for an election. They were unsuccessful. In 1884 the citizens of Blanco formed a joint stock company to raise the capital necessary to establish a high school. They elected a board of directors and a president and applied for a charter for Blanco High School under the Private Corporations Act. A two-story building was built on the foundation of the Masonic university. It opened in October 1884, and the first class graduated in 1887. In 1890 Johnson City won a county seat election, and Blanco lost its position as county seat; the courthouse records were moved to Johnson City in 1891. The rivalry between the two towns that began with this election is still hot. Blanco has primarily been a ranch and farm trade center. It had a population of 469 in 1904 and 1,100 by 1939, when the town was incorporated. By 1946 the town had forty businesses, a hospital, and a weekly newspaper, the Blanco County News . The population dropped in the 1940s to 453 before increasing again in the 1950s. In 1980 the census reported 1,179 residents in Blanco. There were forty-six businesses. In 1990 the population was 1,238, and in 2000 it grew to 1,505. Blanco had a population of 1,682 in 2020 and 381 businesses as of 2023. The city has a mayor and city council, and public education is operated under the Blanco Independent School District. The historic Blanco County courthouse serves as a visitor's center. Blanco hosts several seasonal festivals as well as an annual classic car show, and Blanco State Park along the Blanco River is a popular stop for locals and tourists.

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Blanco County Courthouse

1886

Designed in Victorian style by architect F. E. Ruffini. Erected in 1886 as first permanent county courthouse, building served only four years--until 1890. County seat then moved to Johnson City. Purchased by Chas. E. Crist, the structure entered varied career as school, Blanco National Bank, office of "Blanco County News," opera house, Farmers' Union Hall, and hospital (1936-70). Now houses Blanco Museum of Early West. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark -- 1972

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Blocker, John Rufus

1873

John Rufus Blocker, trail driver and rancher, second of the three sons of Abner Pickens and Cornelia Randolph (Murphy) Blocker, was born in the Edgefield district of South Carolina on December 19, 1851. The family moved to Texas in 1852 and settled near Austin. During the Civil War John helped drive ox teams to Mexico to avoid the Union blockade. He attended the Swan Coats School and Texas Military Institute, Austin , before 1871, when he entered the cattle business in Blanco County with his brother Bill. Seeing the demand for beef in the North, Blocker made his first trail drive to Ellsworth, Kansas, in 1873. Over the next twenty years he took longhorn cattle to buyers in Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, the Dakotas, and Montana, and was said to know every waterhole from the Rio Grande to the Yellowstone River. On the trail he used an inverted (backwards) seven brand, and his peculiar but effective mode of roping cows with a large loop came to be known among cowmen as the "Blocker loop." During one trip in 1885 with 25,000 steers, he and his brother Ab, who had joined the family business in 1876, were detained at Fort Supply (or Camp Supply) by Oklahoma and Kansas ranchers who would not allow them to go on to market because of the fear of Texas fever . After several appeals to the United States government, Blocker and George W. West , whose herd was also affected, finally obtained a cavalry escort to their destination. Soon afterward, the cow trails through Kansas were closed to prevent the disease from spreading. In 1881 Blocker married Annie Lane of Austin; they had four children. At one time or another, and with various partners, Blocker owned ranches in Tom Green, Coke, Maverick, and Dimmit counties, including the Chupadero Ranch near Eagle Pass, and also land in northern Mexico. In 1893 the Blocker brothers made their last trail drive north when they delivered Harris Franklin's herd of 9,000 cattle to a buyer in Deadwood, South Dakota. In later years Blocker made his home in San Antonio, where he joined the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association . He also helped organize the Old Time Trail Drivers Association and was elected its first president. He died at San Antonio on December 1, 1927, and was buried in Dignowity Cemetery.

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Blanco, Texas

Music in Blanco

Songs About Blanco

Artists From Blanco

Rivers & Roads in Song near Blanco

History of Blanco

The Courthouse That Lost Its County RoadyGoat

The Blanco River's Wall of Water RoadyGoat

The CCC Boys and the Blanco River RoadyGoat

McCrocklin, Jesse L.

Amenthal

Blanco State Park

Blanco, TX

Blanco County Courthouse

Blocker, John Rufus

Things to Do in Blanco

Everything Near Blanco