April 14, 2018 Rockne is an unincorporated area in Bastrop County [population in 2000 was 400] and is only a few miles from our campground. We visited the Rockne Museum one Saturday afternoon. The area was settled by German Catholic immigrants in the mid-1850’s. The area was known by several Read more…
April 10, 2018 We finished our trip to Gonzales with a hike in the 300-acre Palmetto State Park.
April 5, 2018 Lockhart State Park was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps between 1935 and 1938 and opened in 1948. We enjoyed walks on several trails.
April 10, 2018 We knew from our visit to the state history museum that the city of Gonzales, about 30 miles south of McMahan, had played a significant role in the Texas revolution so we checked it out. The drive was pleasant: Primrose, Indian paintbrush and Indian blanket (gaillardia) lined the highway. Read more…
April 6, 2018 These parks, totaling 7000 acres, are connected by a ten-mile scenic drive. Stone and wood structures, designed to be non-intrusive, were built in the 1930s by the CCC. Lyndon Johnson would play poker in one of the park’s cabins. The parks are an isolated forest of loblolly Read more…
April 8, 2018 La Belle Our favorite exhibit in this museum of Texas history was La Belle, one of four ships sent by King Louis XIV of France to the mouth of the Mississippi in 1684. Three ships were lost and La Belle was wrecked in a storm in Matagorda Bay Read more…
April 7, 2018 The fourth Caldwell County jail was built in 1908-09 with proceeds from a $25,000 bond issue. Its five stories contain nine main cells divided into smaller compartments. The sheriff and his family lived on the ground floor. Today the Historical Society operates a museum on the first Read more…
April 7, 2018 Gene Galbraith came to Lockhart, Texas in 2006 to restore the clock in the tower of the Caldwell County Courthouse. He stayed and opened a not-for-profit museum of clocks and watches. In the meantime, he has restored other courthouse clocks in the state. Bob Brewer, a historian Read more…
April 4, 2018 The Texas Capitol Visitors Center is housed in the former General Land Office which was completed in 1847. The building is a combination of round-arch and Norman styles. Exhibit subjects include capitol construction, land grants made to soldiers of the Texas Revolution, and the writer O. Henry. Read more…
April 4, 2018 The construction of the Capitol we visited was authorized in 1881, and the completed building was dedicated in 1888. It is made of Sunset Red granite. Statues of Stephen F. Austin, who led early colonization of the area that would become Texas, and Sam Houston, who led Read more…