Name: Castroville, Texas
Address: Castroville, TX

Castroville, TX RoadyGoat

Castroville, they call it "Little Alsace of Texas," and you feel that old-world charm as soon as you cross the Medina River. Henri Castro brought folks here back in '44, Alsatians mostly, and they built a town that still feels like stepping back in time. Agriculture's always been the lifeblood here, and you can see that in the fields surrounding the town. It’s a peaceful place, most of the time, though I remember the floods of '98 – that was something else, water everywhere, a real test for the community. But Castroville's also produced some folks who’ve made a name for themselves beyond Medina County.

Castroville, TX RoadyGoat

Castroville, nestled in the Medina Valley, feels like a little piece of Europe landed right in the Texas Hill Country. It all started in 1844 when Henri Castro, an empresario, brought families over from Alsace, a region that sits on the border between France and Germany. These weren't just any immigrants; they were farmers and artisans, folks who knew how to work the land and build sturdy homes. You can still see their influence in the architecture, with many of the older houses built in that distinctive Alsatian style – stone structures with steeply pitched roofs, designed to withstand the elements. While the Alsatian dialect that was once common here has mostly faded, replaced by English and Spanish, the culture persists. The food, of course, tells a story. Many local cooks still prepare dishes with a distinctly Alsatian flair, using techniques and recipes passed down through generations. Even the street names hint at the past, reminding us of the families who first settled this valley.

Castroville, TX RoadyGoat

Castroville feels like a place stubbornly out of time. You wouldn’t expect, just thirty minutes west of San Antonio, to find architecture that looks lifted straight from the Rhine Valley, but there it is: steep-pitched roofs, dormer windows, and stonework that speaks of a different world. It's all thanks to Henri Castro, an empresario who, back in 1844, brought a wave of immigrants from Alsace, a region on the French-German border. He wasn't the only one trying to populate Texas with Europeans, but the Alsatian influence stuck in Castroville like nowhere else. The slightly higher elevation here, compared to San Antonio, probably didn't hurt either – a bit cooler, a bit more like home for those early settlers. Agriculture remains a cornerstone of the local economy, but it's the “Little Alsace of Texas” moniker that draws visitors today. You see it in the architecture, certainly, and you might hear echoes of it in the local dialect if you listen closely enough. But ask a local why people really come to Castroville, and they might tell you it's something simpler: it's a place to slow down. A place where Friday night lights still shine bright, especially when Medina Valley is playing Hondo. It’s a reminder that sometimes, the most interesting places are the ones that hold onto their past while still living in the present.

Castroville - Little Alsace of Texas

1844

Founded in 1844 by Henri Castro, who recruited families from the Alsace region of France. Known as 'The Little Alsace of Texas.'

Medina County

1844

Medina County is immediately west of Bexar County in southwest Texas. Hondo, the county seat, is located near the geographic center of the county at 29°17' north latitude and 99°02' west longitude, 100 miles from the Mexican border at Eagle Pass. The Medina River, from which the county derives its name, traverses the northeastern portion of the county. The western part is drained by the Frio River. Medina County covers 1,331 square miles with elevations ranging from 1,995 feet in the northern Hill Country to as low as 635 feet in the southern region. The county is divided from east to west by the Balcones Escarpment , which separates the Edwards Plateau and Hill Country to the north from the Rio Grande Plains to the south. The climate is subtropical and subhumid; the summers are hot and dry. Annual rainfall averages 28.43 inches; average relative humidity is 81 percent at 6 A.M. and 49 percent at 6 P.M. The temperature averages a low of 42° F in the winter and a high of 96° in the summer. The annual growing season is 263 days. The northern Hill Country region has black waxy and limestone soils that support grasses, brush, junipers, mesquite, shinnery oaks, and live oaks. The larger southern region has sandy loam and clay soils that support bluestem, buffalo, and Arizona cottontop grasses, as well as post oak, live oak, and mesquite . Cypress and pecan trees are commonly found on the banks of rivers and creeks. Approximately 45 percent of the land in the county is considered prime farmland. Medina Lake Reservoir, completed in 1913 in the northeastern part of the county, furnishes impounded Medina River water for an extensive irrigation system throughout the eastern half of the county. Other man-made surface reservoirs have been built on Chacon, Parkers, Squirrel, Live Oak, and Elm creeks. Ranchers keep local stock tanks for water. Most subsurface or ground waters in Medina County are artesian; two major subsurface water belts are the Edwards Aquifer and the Carrizo Sand Aquifer. The county can be divided from north to south into three geological sections, the Lower Cretaceous of the Edwards Plateau, Lampasas Cut Plain, and the Comanche Plateau; the Upper Cretaceous of the Blackland Belt; and the older Tertiary of the Gulf Coast Plain. Mineral resources within the county include oil, gas, clay, sand, and gravel. High-quality clays for the production of bricks and tile are found in the D'Hanis area of western Medina County. Limestone, readily available and of good quality, is used extensively for buildings and hand-carved tombstones. Crushed limestone, flintstone, igneous pebbles, caliche, and clay are found in the county and are used widely as road materials. Bat guano is commercially mined in the limestone hills north of Hondo and marketed as a high-quality natural fertilizer. The guano mined at Ney's Cave, claimed to be one of the largest bat habitats in the world, was used in the manufacture of gun powder during the Civil War . Medina County is in an area that has been the site of human habitation for many thousands of years. Evidence of early man has been discovered at a site known as Scorpion Cave on the Medina River in the northeastern part of the county. Archeologists believe that ancestors of either Coahuiltecan or Tonkawa Indians occupied this cave continuously for several thousand years before the arrival of the first Europeans. The first Spaniard to set foot in the region was probably Alonso De León , governor of Coahuila, who passed through the area in 1689 en route to East Texas , and named the Medina River and Hondo and Seco creeks. Two years later Domingo Terán de los Ríos , the first provincial governor of Texas, tracked across southern Medina County, laying the foundation for El Camino Real (Old San Antonio Road ). The Upper Presidio Road, as the Camino Real was known in 1807, purposely skirted the Indian strongholds of the Hill Country beyond the Balcones Escarpment. Throughout the 1700s the are

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Medina River

1689

The Medina River rises in north and west prongs that originate in springs in the Edwards Plateau divide of northwest Bandera County and converge near Medina (at 29°48' N, 99°15' W). The river then flows southeast for 116 miles to its mouth, on the San Antonio River in south Bexar County (at 29°14' N, 98°24' W). The first European to see the river was Alonso De León , governor of Coahuila, who led his expedition across Texas in 1689 in pursuit of the French. De León noted in his diary that he named the stream for Pedro Medina, the early Spanish engineer whose navigation tables he was using in mapping his route through the wilderness with an astrolabe. On other old maps the river is designated variously as Río Mariano, Río San José, or Río de Bagres-Catfish River. For a time it was considered the official boundary between Texas and Coahuila and shown as running to the Gulf of Mexico, with the San Antonio River labeled as a tributary. Later the designations were reversed, and, along with Cibolo Creek, the Medina has been regarded as a tributary of the San Antonio. On August 18, 1813, bearers of the green flag of the Republican Army of the North , fighting to uphold the declared independence of Mexico from Spain, met defeat in the battle of Medina at the river southeast of San Antonio de Béxar. Hundreds of rebel troops were killed by forces under Spanish general Joaquín de Arredondo . At the same site on March 2, 1836, Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna paused in his march from the Rio Grande in order to gather forces for the final approach to Bexar and the engagement with Texans in the Alamo . Diarist José Enrique de la Peña mentions resting at the river, the making of plans, and carrying out such tasks as assigning horses to dragoons. In the midst of the excitement over impending battle, Peña still took note of "the little stream whose banks were rich with pecan trees." A decade later, the same stream, with its gallery of pecan and cypress, caught the attention of European empresario Henri Castro as he negotiated contracts to bring colonists to the new Republic of Texas . Castro chose a site at a bend of the river to lay out a town to serve outlying farms of immigrants from Alsace and nearby German states. The first band of colonists, though beset with many difficulties, arrived in 1844 to begin building Castroville. Efforts on the part of Castro and his principal partner, A. F. Louis Huth , continued for some years to recruit additional groups and individuals to the Medina valley. With success made difficult by the alternation of drought and flood typical of the Balcones Fault zone of Texas, Castro is reportedly the first to have envisioned a dam on the box canyon of the river to impound floodwater for irrigation of the fertile fields below. Near the site of the later Medina Dam, an earthen dam was built in 1850, which was soon replaced by a stone structure providing power for a downriver mill. From San Antonio and the outpost of Castroville, enterprising small bands of shingle makers and charcoal burners began working their way up the river, taking advantage of abundant timber and the protection from Indian danger provided by the Texas Rangers . There were several families camping on the river in the late 1840s at the horseshoe bend later chosen as the townsite of Bandera. Arriving in 1854 was a band of Mormons who had traveled to Texas after breaking away from the Utah-bound main group. They settled at Fredericksburg before moving on to the Medina; the group moved again from Bandera and finally established itself downriver at Mountain Valley. Till the death of leader Lyman Wight , the group remained intact and engaged in the manufacture of lumber and furniture. In 1852 John James , Charles Demontel , and John Herndon formed a partnership for the purpose of building a cypress-lumber mill and laying out a town "on the Medina above Castroville." Their plan, implemented the following year, involved a site at the dee

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Alsatians of Texas

1842

In 1842, Empresario Henry Castro brought his first colonists to Texas to settle land west of the Medina River. Most of the immigrants were from the Rhine River area of Europe. Many claimed the province of Alsace, on the border of France and Germany, as their homeland. The Alsatian colonists brought with them their combined French and German heritage, which has left a distinctive mark on this area of the state. In 1844, Castro laid out a townsite, which the settlers chose to name Castroville. It became the center of Alsatian culture in Texas. The houses, European in style, are primarily single-story dwellings of cut limestone, mortared with adobe, and white-washed. Over the years, farming has been the major occupation of people in the area, as it was in Alsace. The Alsatian immigrants and their descendants have made a distinct impression on area politics, holiday customs, cusine, and religion. Winemaking, using grapes grown along the Medina River, is another early tradition that has continued over the years. The history of Alsatians in Texas is a reflection of ethnic and cultural diversity in the state's rich heritage. (1985)

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St. Louis Day

1847

Since as early as 1847 residents of Castroville have conducted a community holiday on or about the 25th of August--the Catholic observacne of the Feast of St. Louis. Local tradition recalls that early processions escorted clergy from the priests' house adjacent to St. Louis Church, with clanging of anvils and the blare of the community band. Through the years a picnic became traditional on the church grounds following High Mass. Before the festivities, men smoked sausage and pit-barbecued beef. Women prepared potato salad, cabbage slaw, and desserts. An evening dance in a local establishment ended the day-long celebration. The St. Louis Society, founded in 1875, traditionally organized the event. Since 1889 the celebration has raised funds for the benefit of the Parish church and school. After the 1920s, the picnic and dance were held at Wernette's Garden. That site (4 blocks NNW) was donated to the parish and renamed Koenig Park in 1949. The dance pavilion there was erected in 1953. The celebration is now held annually on the Sunday nearest August 25. The procession begins at the church after Mass, and winds through the city to Koenig Park for the picnic lunch and evening dance. Texas Sesquicentinnial 1836-1986.

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Castroville, Texas

Rivers & Roads in Song near Castroville

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Castroville, TX RoadyGoat

Castroville, TX RoadyGoat

Castroville, TX RoadyGoat

Castroville - Little Alsace of Texas

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