Everything Canyon Lake is known for
Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Canyon Lake.
Canyon Lake holds a certain quiet charm, a Hill Country tranquility that belies the energy that bubbles beneath the surface. You might be forgiven for thinking it’s just another pretty reservoir, formed by the Guadalupe and dotted with Ashe juniper. But listen closely to the country radio, and you’ll hear a connection to something more. FM 306 provides a stunning view, and Jacobs Creek Park offers a scenic bluff.
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 country, dotted with small communities. But everything shifted when the Canyon Lake Dam was completed in 1964. What was once a valley became a sprawling lake, forever altering the landscape and the lives of those who called it home. While ranching still holds a place in the hearts of many, the lake itself became the new lifeblood of the area. The clear waters and rugged beauty draw visitors from across the state and beyond, seeking a tranquil escape. Lakeside communities blossomed, offering a slower pace and a connection to nature. Tourism became a major driver, with boating, fishing, and exploring the submerged remnants of the old towns becoming signature activities. Even the ubiquitous Ashe juniper, blanketing the hillsides, plays its part, contributing to the air's crisp, clean scent that defines the Canyon Lake experience. The spirit of the original settlers, who knew how to work the land, carries on in the folks who now cater to those seeking respite on the water, each writing a new chapter in Canyon Lake's story.
Canyon Lake, for all its modern recreational appeal, whispers stories of the German immigrants who shaped this part of the Texas Hill Country long before the dam was built. You can still see their legacy etched into the landscape. While the lake itself, formed in '64, submerged the original town, the spirit of those early settlers lingers. Drive around, and you'll notice names like "Jacobs Creek," a nod to families who farmed these valleys. The architecture, though often updated, sometimes hints at the sturdy, practical designs these settlers favored. They built to last, using the local limestone, just like you see in older structures around New Braunfels. The language, a dialect of German known as Texas German, wasn't passed down as widely, but you might still hear a phrase or two from older folks in the wider Comal County area. More subtly, their work ethic and determination to build a life from the land still resonate. Even the way people gather, the emphasis on family and neighborliness, feels like an echo of those close-knit communities that once thrived in the valley now beneath the clear waters of Canyon Lake.
In this area, now covered by Canyon Lake, German emigrants were the first settlers. A society of nobles (Mainzer Adelsverein) sponsored the emigration of 7,380 Germans to Texas from 1844 to 1847. They founded New Braunfels in 1845. Moving west, they established Fredericksburg in 1846. Their Comanche Indian treaty opened 3,800,000 acres between the Llano and Colorado rivers to peaceful settlement. Farmers and artisans, scholars and scientists, they triumphed over epidemic and privation to help build Texas and the West. (1968)
The area of Startzville was established at the intersection of Cranes Mill Road and Sattler Road. In 1940 Bruno and Viola Elbel built a cedar yard and store. Curt and Alice Schlameus Startz leased the building in 1944, operated the store and eventually bought the property in 1946. Curt Startz was the grandson of Heinrich and Louise Artzt Startz that settled in the area in the 1850s. The name Startzville was first used in 1950 by artist Dr. E. J. Duffin who completed a painting of the store front. Selling ice was a significant business before, during and after the building of Canyon Dam and Lake. In 1963, James and Lorine Pantermuehl Startz added a café that is still in operation today. (2012)
German immigrants were the first to colonize permanently this area along the Guadalupe River in the 1850s. The dispersed rural community was known at times as Marienthal, Walhalla and Mountain Valley, with the name Sattler assigned when the post office, first opened in 1856 at the Wilhelm Sattler home, was more centrally located in 1880. The Weil-Nowotny-Guenther store, with its complex of buildings-post office, dance hall, cotton gin and bowling alley-served as a gathering place for farm and ranch families who lived in the area. Construction of Canyon Dam in the 1960s hastened the dispersal of the German community, but the heritage of Sattler remains significant in the History of Comal County. 						(2002)	
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.
Natural Bridge Caverns, the largest known cavern in Texas, was discovered on March 27, 1960, by four spelunkers who were students at St. Mary's University in San Antonio. The cavern is located off Farm Road 1863 in the hill country of Comal County midway between New Braunfels and San Antonio (at 29°41' N, 98°21' W). The name was derived from the sixty-foot natural limestone slab bridge that spanned the amphitheater setting of the cavern's entrance. Commercial development of the cavern began on March 25, 1962, and it was opened to the public on July 3, 1964. During excavation of the entrance trail, arrowheads and spearheads dating from 5,000 B.C. were found; just inside the entrance were discovered jawbones of a species of grizzly bear that became extinct over 8,000 years ago. The cavern is almost 100 percent active and still growing, and the temperature is seventy degrees year-round. Because of constant drips and flowing water, the formations retain a luster that can be seen in few caverns. Under these growth conditions the formations appear to be made of wax, yet are as hard as limestone. The types of formation change from room to room. The largest room, named the Hall of the Mountain Kings, is 350 feet long, 100 feet wide, and 100 feet high. Among numerous formations found here the most distinct is a type called "fried eggs" (because that is what they look like), a rare cave formation. The developed portion of the cave, furnished with a half mile of paved trails and illuminated by 35,000 watts of indirect lighting, extends to as much as 260 feet below ground level. Some portions of the cave are still under exploration. Natural Bridge Caverns became a registered United States natural landmark in 1971.
Located at 8894 FM 1102 in Hunter, Texas, the nightclub Riley’s Tavern is in a structure built in the mid-1800s that at one time housed the Galloway Saloon. Situated near a railroad stop on the Missouri-Pacific line approximately halfway between San Antonio and Austin, it quickly became a convenient and popular watering hole for local cattle ranchers and cotton farmers as well as for train passengers and crews. On September 19, 1933, a local seventeen-year-old resident named James Curtis Riley opened Riley’s Tavern. In the wake of Prohibition , this became the first establishment in Texas to obtain a drinking license. Its strategic location on Highway No. 2 (the Austin-San Antonio Post Road) and just inside the Comal County line catered to travelers and thirsty residents in the region, as neighboring Hays County was a dry county. Riley welcomed a diverse range of customers of different races and ethnicities. J. C. Riley owned and managed the tavern until 1991 when he became too ill to run the business and sold it to Rick Wilson, who added a beer garden and began offering live music seven nights a week. In 1992 Riley died and was buried two miles from the tavern. By 2005 owner Joel Hofmann continued to offer live music throughout the week, and Riley’s Tavern remained a very popular gathering place for locals and tourists alike. In 2008 Riley’s celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary and remained the longest-running establishment to continually maintain a beer license.
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…
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…
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…
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…
Texas' oldest dance hall (1878). Still hosts live music every night.
In 1974 developers had plans to bulldoze what was left of Gruene and build suburban homes. Then a University of Texas architecture student named Chip Kaufman…
Before George Strait was the King of Country he was a young singer playing regular gigs at Gruene Hall in the 1970s and 80s. The tiny dance hall with no air…
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…
Featured on The Daytripper — a full-episode local travel guide.
466 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.
Canyon Lake holds a certain quiet charm, a Hill Country tranquility that belies the energy that bubbles beneath the surface. You might be forgiven for thinking it’s just another pretty reservoir, formed by the Guadalupe…
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…
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 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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
In this area, now covered by Canyon Lake, German emigrants were the first settlers. A society of nobles (Mainzer Adelsverein) sponsored the emigration of 7,380 Germans to Texas from 1844 to 1847. They founded New…
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…
The area of Startzville was established at the intersection of Cranes Mill Road and Sattler Road. In 1940 Bruno and Viola Elbel built a cedar yard and store. Curt and Alice Schlameus Startz leased the building in 1944,…
German immigrants were the first to colonize permanently this area along the Guadalupe River in the 1850s. The dispersed rural community was known at times as Marienthal, Walhalla and Mountain Valley, with the name…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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, the largest known cavern in Texas, was discovered on March 27, 1960, by four spelunkers who were students at St. Mary's University in San Antonio. The cavern is located off Farm Road 1863 in the…
Located at 8894 FM 1102 in Hunter, Texas, the nightclub Riley’s Tavern is in a structure built in the mid-1800s that at one time housed the Galloway Saloon. Situated near a railroad stop on the Missouri-Pacific line…
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,…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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, 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…
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, 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, 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 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…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
You're driving past Esser's Crossing, a vital spot on the Fredericksburg Road that served pioneers for nearly 150 years. Known first as Henderson Crossing around 1850, it offered a safe, shallow crossing of the…
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…
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…
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…
Smithson Valley High School (New Braunfels, TX): Most recent: 28-6 over Frisco Lone Star · 2025 5A Division 1 final.
You're near Smithson Valley High School in Spring Branch. Last December, they took down Frisco Lone Star twenty-eight to six to win the Texas 5A Division I state football championship. They wear that crown until this…
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…
You're driving past the Czichos House, a pioneer home built by hand from cedar logs, chinked with clay. It was constructed in Comal County around 1850. But this house became home to Dr. Adolph Schlameus and his large…
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…
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.…
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…
You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, maybe near Wimberley, and you're listening to the radio. Well, right here in Texas, back in 1932, a radio pioneer named William Parks Johnson had an idea. While working for…
You're driving through Wimberley, a town that owes its very name to the man who made it a hub: Pleasant Wimberley. He arrived in Texas on Christmas Day, 1847, settling first near Brenham. By 1855, he’d moved his growing…
You're driving through the beautiful Texas Hill Country, and right here, the Blanco River has been a lifeline for centuries. Spanish explorers named it back in 1721 for the white limestone that lines its banks. Imagine…
You're driving through Wimberley, a town that literally changed its name three times in less than thirty years, all thanks to one key business: the mill. It started as Winters' Mill in 1856, built by a San Jacinto…
You're driving through Wimberley, a town with roots stretching back to the 1870s. Right here, John Henry Saunders, a Confederate veteran and teacher, arrived in 1870. He settled at Purgatory Springs, just west of San…
You're driving past the site of Miss Lillie Dobie's House, a landmark that tells a story of resilience and community. Lillie and her husband John bought this land back in 1911, running a dairy and raising a family.…
You're driving past the Wimberley-Hughes House, built around 1877 by Zach Wimberley. It was painted pink with red trim, a unique choice for the time. The house is connected to the Wimberley mill, which provided lumber…
The building that houses Longleaf Craft Kitchen + Bar at 314 Wimberley Square has eaten more years than most of the town. It started out in San Marcos and was facing demolition there when it was saved in an unusual way:…
On the night of May 23 into May 24, 2015, Memorial Day weekend, the Blanco River turned into one of the deadliest flash floods in Texas history. Ten to thirteen inches of rain fell upstream in a few hours, and the river…
Just northwest of town, in the bed of Cypress Creek, a perfectly round 12-foot mouth opens straight down into the earth. That's Jacob's Well, and from the surface it looks like an inviting blue swimming hole. Below it…
The town you're rolling into spent decades answering to other people's names before it became Wimberley. In 1848, the year Hays County was organized, San Jacinto veteran William Carvin Winters built a grist mill and…
Generations of Wimberley kids learned to swim in the cold green water of Blue Hole, where Cypress Creek pools up under a canopy of old-growth bald cypress trees. The Dobie family opened it to the public back in the…
Some of the bluegrass that made Sarah Jarosz famous was learned right here in Wimberley. Raised in town, she picked up the mandolin at age 10 and sharpened her playing at the weekly Friday night bluegrass jams that…
Head west out of Wimberley on Ranch Road 12 toward Blanco and you climb onto the Devil's Backbone, a narrow limestone ridge that locals swear is the most haunted stretch of road in Texas. The Spanish reportedly named…
Wimberley isn't just a pretty postcard of Cypress Creek winding through the Hill Country; it’s a place shaped by resilience. You can’t talk about Wimberley without acknowledging the 2015 Memorial Day flood. The Blanco…
Out on Ranch Road 32, in Comal County near a wide spot called Fischer — not quite Wimberley, whatever the map tells you — a honky-tonk called the Devil's Backbone Tavern has stood since 1932, back in the last days of…
Jacob's Well isn't just a pretty swimming hole, it's a window into the plumbing under the Hill Country. The water comes up under its own pressure from the Trinity Aquifer, an artesian spring that needs no pump. In 1924…
On the first Saturday of every warm month, the oak-shaded grounds at Lions Field fill with shoppers for Wimberley Market Days, one of the largest outdoor markets in Texas. It started small and strange. When the Chamber…
The amphitheater and gardens at 1101 FM 2325 carry the name of a teenager who never got to grow up. Emily Ann Rolling, born in 1980, moved to Wimberley with her family in 1993 and threw herself into the drama program at…
You're driving past the site of Wimberley Mills, a business that served this valley for over 85 years! It all started in 1848 when William Winters, a San Jacinto veteran, built a grist and sawmill right here on Cypress…
You're driving past the site of the Winters-Wimberley House, a landmark that grew with this town. William Winters arrived in Texas in 1834, fought at San Jacinto, and eventually settled here. He built a mill on Cypress…
You're driving past Indian Mott Skirmish. After peace talks ended in the disastrous “Council House Fight” in March 1840 in San Antonio, the Comanche increased raids. Returning from a bold attack on…
You're driving past C. W. Burdett. Clarence W. Burdett (1913-2001) helped build his family’s store in Wimberley in 1932, supervising the construction of the building using native and colored stone brought in from…
You're driving past the historic Wimberley Town Square, where about 1880, a young Sidney Pyland arrived with his family from Tennessee. Fast forward to 1895; at 20 years old, Sidney Pyland opens his blacksmith shop…
You're driving past the former home of John Henry Saunders, a man who wore many hats here in Hays County. Born in Virginia in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1850</say-as>, Saunders served in the Confederate…
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…
You're driving past the James C. Lane House, built in 1935 by a local Wimberley builder. It's known for its unique 'giraffe rock' exterior, a mix of native rock, poured concrete, and decorative fossils. His wife,…
You're driving past the Peal-Pleasant Valley Cemetery, the final resting place for pioneering families in Hays County. This rural cemetery, sometimes known as Valley Ford, holds twenty-three known graves and is the last…
You're driving past the Herman and Ada Knibbe Home, built in 1910. Herman was the grandson of Spring Branch's first settler. This house, made of locally quarried rock, still stands today, a testament to the family's…
You're driving past the site of the Rebecca Creek School, founded in 1882 on land donated by Julius Bremer. He was the son of German immigrants who helped found New Braunfels. This one-room school served students for…
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…
You're driving past the John R. Dobie house, built around 1892 for the Cock family. The Dobies, John and Martha, bought it in 1899. John R. Dobie, a Scottish immigrant, farmed, ranched, and even served as a Hays County…
You're driving past the oldest cemetery in Wimberley. This land was first patented way back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1847</say-as> by Amasa Turner. Early settlers built a log cabin right here, using it…
You're driving past Jacobs Well Cemetery, a resting place that's been here since 1883. It served the Jacob's Well community, named for a nearby natural spring. Many of the first settlers here came all the way from South…
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…
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…
Watch master glassblowers create art in real time. Beautiful Hill Country setting.
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…
A crystal-clear swimming hole fed by Cypress Creek in Wimberley.
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…
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…
You're driving past the Julia Ann Ragsdale house, a testament to a woman's resilience. Julia Ann, a widow and former teacher, brought her family to Texas during the Civil War. After her daughter Mary died young, Julia…
Just northwest of town lies Jacob's Well, one of the most significant natural landmarks in Texas. It’s the headspring of Cypress Creek, a deep artesian spring that looks like a dark, mysterious hole in the creekbed. For…
If you look at the Blanco River near Wimberley, you might see a peaceful, shallow stream. But on Memorial Day weekend in 2015, it became an unstoppable force of destruction. Meteorologists call the event a 'rain bomb.'…
Wimberley’s famous Jacob's Well isn't just a swimming hole; it's a natural scientific instrument. It’s the largest spring discharging from the Middle Trinity Aquifer in the area. Think of the aquifer as a massive…
One of Wimberley's most beloved spots is the Blue Hole, a stunning swimming area on Cypress Creek shaded by towering cypress trees. For most of the twentieth century it was privately owned, open to swimmers on a…
On the first Saturday of almost every month, Wimberley transforms. Thousands of people flock to a sprawling field for Wimberley Market Days, one of the oldest and largest outdoor markets in the Texas Hill Country. What…
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…
Cypress Creek is the beautiful, life-giving artery of Woodcreek, but on Memorial Day weekend in 2015 the whole watershed showed what it can do. A weather system stalled over the Hill Country and dropped more than a foot…
The beautiful Cypress Creek flowing through Woodcreek isn't just rainwater runoff; it's the product of a fascinating and fragile underground plumbing system. The creek is fed by springs that emerge from the Trinity…
An artesian spring that looks like a bottomless blue hole. One of Texas' most dangerous diving spots.
The golf course is the reason Woodcreek exists at all. This stretch of Hill Country a mile north of Wimberley was ranch country until developers started carving a resort community out of it in the 1970s, and the anchor…
Nestled in the heart of Hays County, Texas, Woodcreek is a city that boasts a total area of 1.1 square miles, all of which is land. The city is located just 2 miles north of Wimberley, 34 miles southwest of Austin, and…
This spring has never stopped flowing. Jacob's Well is a perpetual artesian spring that rises from the Trinity Aquifer through a vertical shaft in the creek bed, twelve feet across and dropping straight down into…
You're driving past the site of the first orphanage in the entire state of Texas! Chartered in 1848 as the 'Western Texas Orphan Asylum,' this place was the dream of Pastor L. C. Ervendberg. Severe epidemics left many…
You're driving past the site of Mission Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, established way back in 1757. Franciscan missionaries set up shop here with a goal: to civilize and Christianize the local Tonkawa, Mayeye, and other…
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…
Texas' oldest dance hall (1878). Still hosts live music every night.
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…
Thorn Hill, a historic home near Lexington in Rockbridge County, Virginia, stands as a testament to the region's formative years. Constructed in 1792, this two-story, five-bay brick I-house dwelling has been a central…
You're driving past the site of the Gruene Cotton Gin, built back in 1878 by H. D. Gruene. This steam-powered gin processed the area's booming cotton crop, vital to the local economy. Though the main gin burned down in…
You're driving through Gruene, Texas, where in 1878, Henry D. Gruene opened his mercantile business right here. By 1904, this impressive brick building went up to handle the growing trade. For over thirty years, this…
You're driving past Gruene, Texas, originally called Goodwin. German immigrants settled here, but it was Henry D. Gruene who built a major cotton operation in the 1870s, complete with a mercantile and a cotton gin. The…
The stretch of the Guadalupe River running past Gruene has become one of the most popular tubing destinations in all of Texas. On any summer weekend thousands…
You're driving past the Erhardt Neuse House, built in the 1880s by Henry D. Gruene. This was the home of Erhardt Neuse, the field foreman for Gruene's massive cotton operations. The Neuse family lived here until the…
Step into Gruene Hall and you're standing in the oldest continually operating dance hall in Texas, built in 1878 by Henry D. Gruene as the social center of a German cotton community along the Guadalupe. For decades the…
Dance where legends like Willie Nelson and George Strait have played at Texas's oldest continually run dance hall, built in 1878! German immigrant Henry Gruene built this hall in the town he founded, Gruene, Texas. It…
This is the oldest continually operating dance hall in Texas, and it hasn't changed much since it was built in 1878. Gruene Hall has no air conditioning. The walls don't quite reach the ceiling. The screen doors let in…
In 1974 developers had plans to bulldoze what was left of Gruene and build suburban homes. Then a University of Texas architecture student named Chip Kaufman…
You're driving past Gruene Hall, built way back in 1878. It started as a saloon and social center for local cotton farmers, and it's believed to be one of the oldest dance halls in Texas. Christian Herry built it under…
In 1925 the boll weevil arrived in Gruene and devoured everything. The Gruene familys 8000-acre cotton holdings failed to produce a single bale. Combined with…
Get ready to step back in time! Gruene, Texas, wasn't always the tourist hotspot it is today. Founded in the mid-1840s by German immigrant Ernst Gruene, it quickly became a thriving cotton-producing town. The Gruene…
You're driving past the site of the original Gruene Mercantile, founded way back in 1878 by Henry D. Gruene. This wasn't just a store; it was the heart of the community, providing everything from food and clothes to…
You're driving past the Gruene Mansion, built in 1872 by Henry D. Gruene, the son of German immigrants. Gruene became a leader in the community, which was later renamed for him. Though the town declined after his death…
Before Gruene Hall became a legendary music venue it hosted some decidedly less refined entertainment. In the early days the hall was used for German singing…
Henry D. Gruene didnt just build a dance hall and a cotton gin -- he built himself a proper Victorian mansion. The home featured elaborate Eastlake detailing…
Gruene Hall was built in 1878 and in all that time no one has ever installed air conditioning. Not once. In the Texas Hill Country where summer temperatures…
On the Guadalupe River in historic Gruene, steps from Texas's oldest dance hall. Chicken-fried steak, river views, and a porch that catches the breeze off the…
Before George Strait was the King of Country he was a young singer playing regular gigs at Gruene Hall in the 1970s and 80s. The tiny dance hall with no air…
You're driving through Comaltown, an area with a rich German heritage. Look for the Ernst and Antoinette Gruene House, built in 1852. This dogtrot-style home, constructed from adobe brick and cedar timber, was where…
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…
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…
You're driving past the site of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe Mission, established in 1756. This mission was an extension of another, ill-fated mission called San Francisco Xavier de Horcasitas, which had suffered…
You can float the entire length of the Comal River in an afternoon, because it's the shortest navigable river in Texas, running roughly two and a half miles before it spills into the Guadalupe. Locals proudly call it…
The springs feeding Landa Park have flowed for thousands of years, but in the brutal drought of the 1950s they did something they had never done in recorded history: they stopped. From June 13 to November 3, 1956, Comal…
You're cruising past Landa Park, a New Braunfels gem that started in 1859 when Joseph Landa bought this land. He harnessed the power of Comal Springs and the river to run mills, factories, and even an ice plant and…
You're driving past the site of the New Braunfels Gemischter Chor Harmonie, a singing society formed in 1937. Organized by Gilbert A. Becker, this mixed-voice group was recognized as one of the best in the region. By…
You're driving through New Braunfels, a city founded not by Texans, but by Germans seeking a new life. On March 21, 1845, Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels established this settlement, naming it after his own estate back…
The same springs and rivers that make New Braunfels a paradise can turn deadly in hours. On the night of May 11, 1972, a stalled downpour dumped more than 16 inches of rain into the hills above town. Floodwater first…
You're driving past the Moeller House, a testament to German craftsmanship right here in New Braunfels. Built by John George Moeller himself, working alone, this home took seven years to complete. Imagine the labor…
You're driving past Riley's Tavern, a business that's been serving drinks since 1933. When Prohibition ended, J.C. Riley and his uncle drove a Model T to Austin to get Texas's first liquor license, number 00001. At…
Rileys Tavern, Hunters oldest business, is housed in a circa 1895 building that was the Galloway Saloon and later home to the Bernardino Sanchez family. In 1933, Texas was the 23rd state to vote for the repeal of…
Pull up a stool at Riley's Tavern, a historic Texas watering hole that has been serving locals and travelers since the 1800s. It was converted into a tavern by James Curtis Riley in 1933. Located near a railroad stop…
You're driving past the grounds of Wurstfest, New Braunfels' annual 'salute to sausage.' It all started in 1961 with Dr. E. A. Grist, who wanted to celebrate the town's deep German sausage-making traditions. Today, this…
You're driving through New Braunfels, where in 1847, William Hunter Meriwether saw potential in these springs. He purchased land, dammed the Geyser Springs, and used slave labor to dig a mill race, powering a grist…
You're driving past New Braunfels, and right here is where history was made for ranchers and farmers across the country. William H. Meriwether, a local plantation owner, was tired of fences that couldn't handle Texas's…
You're cruising through New Braunfels, and right here is the Kloepper House, a beautiful example of Queen Anne architecture built back in 1906. That same year, Richard E. Kloepper and his wife Ella Sodke began…
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 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…
You're driving past the site of a true Texas industrial pioneer, John F. Torrey! From 1850, Torrey wasn't just building things; he was building an industrial empire. He ran a saw and grist mill, a sash and door factory,…
You're driving past Comal County Fair. The annual Comal County Fair represents tradition and community in New Braunfels, where it has been an important event since the early 1890s. The fair emphasizes agriculture,…
Bulverde, despite its proximity to San Antonio, has always maintained a distinct character, deeply rooted in the land. While many residents now commute to the city for work, the area’s history is tied to agriculture,…
You're cruising past the resting place of Ferdinand Lindheimer, a man who wore two hats in early Texas: soldier and scientist. Born in Germany in 1801, he fought in the Texas Army in 1836. But after the battles, he…
You're driving past Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in New Braunfels. Back in 1918, a deadly influenza epidemic swept the nation. Father J.M.J. Wack, who served this parish for 38 years, led his congregation in a…
You're driving past Panteon Hidalgo, the Hidalgo Cemetery, established in 1920 by the Asociación Mutualista de Beneficencia. This burial ground served New Braunfels' growing Mexican working-class community, many of whom…
You're driving past the site of the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in New Braunfels. German Catholic colonists arrived here in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1845</say-as>, and by <say-as interpret-as="date"…
You're driving past the site of New Braunfels' very first telegraph station, which opened in the 1860s! It started at the Guadalupe Hotel, operated by August Schmitz, a schoolteacher who spoke both German and English.…
You're driving past Windwehen Home. Carl Victor Windwehen moved to New Braunfels with his mother and young daughter after his wife, Charlotte (stocker), had died. He was the only dentist listed in the city’s 1906…
You're driving past the August Dietz Cottage in New Braunfels. Dietz, a German immigrant, bought this lot in 1866 and quickly built this cottage. Though later enlarged, the original two-room structure featured thick…
You're driving past the Vogel Cemetery, established in 1915. It was designated a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2008.
The town around you owes its name and its existence to a German nobleman who didn't stay long. Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels arrived in Texas in 1844 as the first commissioner-general of the Adelsverein, a society of…
The clear water flowing through Landa Park once ran one of the busiest industrial operations in Central Texas. In 1859 Joseph Landa, a German-Jewish immigrant, bought the land around Comal Springs and harnessed the…
Every November, New Braunfels throws one of the largest German festivals in America, and it grew out of a meat inspector's idea. In 1961 Dr. E.A. Grist, the city's veterinarian and meat inspector, proposed a sausage…
Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels is the birthplace of a genuine engineering breakthrough: the uphill water coaster. A normal water slide only goes down, because gravity is the only engine. In the early 1990s Jeff Henry,…
You're driving through New Braunfels, and right here is the site of a Texas first! This was the New Braunfels Academy, incorporated in 1858. Now, Texas didn't officially provide for local school taxes until the…
You're driving along a road that's been a vital path for centuries. This is the King's Highway, also known as the Camino Real, or the Old San Antonio Road. It was a crucial route for exploration and settlement, marked…
You're driving past the former site of New Braunfels Veterinary Hospital. Dr. Edgar Alfred Grist, the first licensed vet in Comal County, opened this practice in 1950. He was also the visionary behind the famous…
You're driving past Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cemetery. This historic cemetery was established by Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church to meet the needs of the growing Mexican American New Braunfels population that…
You're driving past New Braunfels. Early inhabitants of this area included Karankawa, Lipan, Tonkawa and Waco Indians. Between 1844 and 1846, the Verein Zum Schutze Deutscher Einwanderer in Texas (Society for the…
On the rise where the Sophienburg Museum now stands, Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels laid a cornerstone in 1845 for a hilltop castle he meant to build for his fiancee back in Germany, Princess Sophie. He named the spot…
On Comal Street sits the modest 1852 timber-framed home of Ferdinand Lindheimer, remembered as the Father of Texas Botany. Born in Frankfurt in 1801, Lindheimer fled Germany after taking part in failed political reform…
You're driving past the site of a pioneering educational experiment in Texas! German immigrants arriving in the 1840s were promised schools, and they got them. Classes started in August 1845, just as Texas authorized…
You're driving past the Comal County Courthouse, a Romanesque beauty built in 1898. It was designed by J. Riley Gordon, a famous Texas courthouse architect. Look for the dramatic massing and superb stone detail,…
You're driving past Schmitz Hotel. First portion--of local cedar and limestone--was built about 1851 by Rudolph Nauendorf. Early German immigrant Jacob Schmitz bought building in 1858 as new location of his "Guadalupe…
You're driving through New Braunfels, and just ahead, you're passing the site of the old Eggeling Hotel. Built between 1898 and 1900 by Emilie and Theodor Eggeling, this place was their second hotel venture. It was a…
You're cruising past the Old Schmidt Home, built in the 1850s. Imagine this place going up, constructed from adobe bricks and timbers hand-hewn from cedar, pine, and oak. It's a classic example of "Fachwerk" style…
You're driving past the site of the Joseph Klein House, a survivor from the earliest days of German settlement in New Braunfels. Klein, one of the immigrants who arrived in <say-as interpret-as="date"…
You're driving past the Voigt House, a classic example of 19th-century Texas architecture. This land was deeded way back in 1845 to Hermann Seele, a New Braunfels schoolmaster. But the house you see? It was built in…
You're driving past the site of the old New Braunfels Post Office, built back in 1915. This building was part of a huge expansion of the U.S. Postal System, bringing services like parcel post and airmail to the growing…
In 1845, a 22-year-old German prince named Carl of Solms-Braunfels arrived in Texas with a silver tea service, a library of books, and a plan to build a German colony in the wilderness. He was acting on behalf of the…
You're driving past Phoenix Saloon. Built in 1871, the original Phoenix Saloon building was a two-story brick, rock, and stucco building built by John Sippel located on the corner of west San Antonio Street and Castell…
If you want to taste 19th-century New Braunfels, walk into Naegelin's at 129 South Seguin Avenue, the oldest bakery in Texas. It opened in 1868, when an Alsatian immigrant named Edouard Naegelin arrived in town as a…
This city's story begins in 1845, established by German immigrants organized by the Mainzer Adelsverein, also known as the Noblemen's Society. Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels led the initial settlement efforts, naming…
You're driving past the Ullrich Home, built in 1855 by George Ullrich. But George wasn't just any builder. He was the man who drove the very first wagon carrying German Emigration Company settlers, crossing the…
You're driving through New Braunfels, a vital manufacturing and supply center for the Confederacy during the Civil War. This town's newspaper pushed hard for secession, and over 300 local men enlisted. Comal County…
You're driving past the Krause Building, a structure built around 1860 by master carpenter Friedrich Krause. He used local cedar, cypress, limestone, and adobe brick to construct it. This building has seen life as a…
You're driving past the site of the Eiband and Fischer General Mercantile, a business that grew with New Braunfels. Starting in 1846, it changed hands and names several times, eventually becoming one of the region's…
You're driving past where the International & Great Northern Railroad first rolled into New Braunfels back in 1880. This line wasn't just about moving goods; it sparked tourism, even inspiring Helen Gould to help create…
You're driving past the site of Old New Braunfels High School, a building that served this community for over fifty years. Built in 1913, it replaced the older New Braunfels Academy. Take a look at the architecture – it…
You're cruising through New Braunfels, and right here is the Plumeyer Bakery Building. Built in 1913 by Kathinka Clemens, this spot served as the City Bakery for A.C. and Helen Plumeyer until 1926. For decades after, it…
You're driving past the Stephen Klein Home, built in 1846. This was one of the first homes in Comal County, and it features classic 'fachwerk' construction. It was purchased by Edward Naegelin, Sr. in 1868 and remains a…
You're driving past the Main Plaza Bandstand in New Braunfels, built back in 1905. It was originally a stage for summer concerts by the Waldschmidt Fire Department Band. Later, in 1926, it was raised on a limestone base…
You're driving through New Braunfels, and right here, this spot was home to The New Braunfels Herald. Established in 1892, it was the first English newspaper in this German-speaking town. From 1896 to 1907, and again…
You're driving past the Louis Henne building in New Braunfels, a Victorian beauty built in 1893. It was constructed by Christian Herry for Louis Henne, who expanded his family's tin shop business right here. The third…
You're driving past Hinmann House. This home’s architecture reflects the German influence of many of the area’s early structures. Heinrich Hinmann purchased the property in July 1855, and he and his wife…
The Faust Hotel opened its doors on October 12, 1929, built by local businessman Walter Faust Sr. as the Traveler's Hotel, a proud six-story landmark for New Braunfels. Then, 17 days later, the stock market crashed and…
Pull over a sec! This gorgeous building is the Brauntex Theatre, and it's way more than just a pretty face. It's a time capsule from the golden age of Hollywood. Built in 1942, right in the thick of World War II, the…
You're driving through New Braunfels, and right here is the Faust Hotel. It opened its doors in 1929 as the Travelers Hotel, a sign of the booming local economy. It had 63 guest rooms! Then, in 1936, it was renamed for…