Visiting Deepntheharta, Texas
By Kerry Yancey
Monitor Staff Writer
CENTRAL TEXAS–It’s easy to get to Deepntheharta, Texas – just head toward the Hill Country around Austin.
With gas near $4 a gallon this summer, the wife and I decided to stay (relatively) close to home with a trip to the Hill Country; specifically Seguin, San Marcos and New Braunfels.
Neither of us had been to Seguin, which has more historic-registered homes and buildings than any other Texas city, and while we had both been (briefly) to New Braunfels, we had only driven through San Marcos on Interstate 35, which is to say, we hadn’t seen anything but freeway.
Since anywhere is a long way off in Texas, we decided to spend most of the first day just getting to the area. We avoided I-35, and Austin traffic, by heading down U.S. 79 and State Highway 95, which runs parallel to I-35.

Monitor Photo/Kerry Yancey
Lockhart, the county seat of Caldwell County, boasts one of the state’s most beautiful and ornate courthouses, completed in 1894.

SH 95 runs through Elgin – arguably the barbecue capital of the state, with four major barbecue joints – and through Lockhart, home to the Caldwell County courthouse.
While we won’t offend some people by saying it’s the prettiest courthouse in the state, the three-storey, 1894-vintage courthouse is certainly one of the finest and most ornate, featuring a central clock tower and circular porthole windows on the top floor.
A half-block off the courthouse square stands the Dr. Eugene Clark Library, the oldest continually operating library in the state, established in 1899.
Continuing south to Interstate 10, a quick blast to the right (west) gets one to Seguin, named after Juan Seguin, the last defender to leave the Alamo (he carried Col. William Barrett Travis’ last letter) and later a Texas Republic senator.
Originally named Walnut Springs after the area’s huge walnut trees (los nogales in Spanish), the town grew from a Texas Ranger station to a thriving trade center for the German and Czech immigrants heading to New Braunfels and Fredericksburg.
It boasts the longest-used school building in the state, the first business established by freed slaves (Wilson Pottery, established 1869), the first established railway line and many buildings constructed of concrete, formulated using local limestone.
Since 1912, Seguin has been home to Texas Lutheran University.
A walk around downtown includes a courthouse square park, featuring a fountain (lit by colored lights after dark), the Dietz Doll House (built for kids), dozens of historic buildings and the world’s largest pecan.
About 23 miles to the northwest is San Marcos, home to Texas State University and the San Marcos River.

Monitor Photo/Kerry Yancey
Deusenberg automobiles, such as this example housed in Dick's Classic Garage museum in San Marcos, were big, powerful and fast – twice as fast as an “ordinary” car of the time – and extremely expensive. Automobiles like this one were the source of the phrase, “it's a doozy.”

The San Marcos River gushes up out of the ground – more than 200 springs flow from three large fissures in the limestone – and that fresh, pure water has made the area possibly one of the oldest continually inhabited sites in North America. Archeological digs have uncovered tools and weapons more than 12,000 years old.
Early German settlers built a dam in 1849 creating Spring Lake, which covers the original springs.
Once a tourist destination and theme park, Aquarena Springs introduced generations of visitors to the crystal-clear, cool (72 degrees year-round) water through underwater performances and glass-bottomed boats.
Texas State University now owns Aquarena Springs, but still operates the glass-bottom boats, with guides pointing out various flora and fauna – the springs are home to four endangered species, with three found nowhere else in the world.
Another fascinating stop in San Marcos was Dick’s Classic Garage, a 43,000 square-foot museum featuring about 60 classic automobiles and pickup trucks.
Opened in 2009, Dick’s Classic Garage includes a number of Deusenbergs, primarily Model Js, which were produced between 1928 and 1937.
The Deusenberg Model J was the biggest, fastest and most expensive car produced in the world at the time, some costing as much as $25,000 at a time when the average U.S. physician made just $3,000 a year – leading to the phrase, “It’s a doozy.”
Only the chassis and engine were mass-produced; each car owner had the body and interior custom-built by master coachworks in America and Europe, making each Deusenberg unique.
Other outstanding examples of automotive art include boat-tail Auburns, top-of-the line Packards, a V-16 Cadillac, Cords and many post-war examples, including a Tucker (No. 50 of 51 built), a 1956 Corvette, a Nash Metropolitan, and a pristine 1946 Packard “woody” station wagon, hauling a wooden Chris-Craft speedboat.
About 17 miles almost due west is New Braunfels, home to a sizeable German settlement established in the final year of the Texas Republic, 1845, and home to the state’s oldest continually operating newspaper, the Herald-Zeitung.
New Braunfels is famed as the home of Schlitterbahn, generally recognized as the best water park in the world and source of the first uphill water-coaster rides.
On the north side of town is the Gruene Historic District, the site of an 1845 German settlement headed by Ernst Gruene.
Because there wasn’t much land available in the then-new town of New Braunfels, Gruene purchased land just down the Guadalupe River and established a thriving community, built around cotton and a river-powered cotton gin.
A dance hall-saloon, Gruene Hall, became the community center around 1878, and remains operating to this day, having housed performances by virtually every major country and western music star over the years.
Just downhill from Gruene Hall is the Guadalupe River, where dozens of businesses cater to visitors (typically college students) wanting to spend the day “tubing” downriver.
Surrounding Gruene Hall is a growing community of stores, offering a wide range of handmade art, clothing and collectable to the tourists who flock to the area – like us.