Camino Real Tour page 3
Gruene Texas
|
This is the old 1907 Gruene company store and bank. It is now an antique mall. |
Gruene and all the land around it was once owned by the Gruene family. They raised cotton on the land with sharecroppers. They built the town for the sharecroppers. Downtown New Braunfels was a long horseback ride or walk back then. So, the town has the company store, above, a dance hall that is still open (the oldest dance hall in Texas), a very old cotton gin that is now a restaurant, homes for the Gruene family, homes for the foremen and, of course, little bitty houses for the sharecroppers. You can see they made quite a bit of money at one time. The whole thing crashed with the stock market in 1928. The Gruene family died out with no heirs. The town sat empty except for the dance hall which continued to operate. Finally in 1977 the whole town was auctioned off by the estate. The new owners restored and developed it to what you see now.
The old Camino Real de los Tejas once used the river ford right below the town. You easily see the ford because it has a low bridge over it now right below Gruene. Right behind the northwest side of the town is a ravine that goes down to the river crossing. The Camino Real used this ravine to get down to the crossing. In fact the ravine may have been created by 200 years of people using it as a dirt path and road. 200 years of erosion turned the road into the ravine we see today. If you go down to the river crossing (walk because you cannot stop and slowing down is hard due to the traffic) you can see where this ravine -road comes out right at the river crossing. The second Spanish expedition into Texas used this river crossing and camped here. They commented that the river crossing was dangerous due to the alligators in the river.
From here the road goes back to New Braunfels to the Comal river springs in present day Landa Park. Almost all of this road has been wiped out by railroads and modern development.
THE MISSING CAMINO REAL in New Braunfels
The crossing over the Comal river in New Braunfels was probably somewhere along the old Comal river course that runs through the golf course in Landa Park. From Landa Park the road probably followed Dry Comal Creek along the base of the Edwards Escarpment. The section of the road from San Antonio to New Braunfels we just came up followed the Dry Comal Creek till we came to Comal (the town) where it turned and went to the newer Camino Arriba. The land here is level and Dry Comal Creek actually has water in it in many places and in 1700, before development dried up the springs, it had more water in more places. Staying within walking distance of spring water and on level ground makes sense so this is probably where the road went.
Dry Comal Creek is subject to extreme flash flooding as we have seen in recent history. Traces of the old road in this section probably got washed right out of existence even back in 1700. However, San Antonio street in New Braunfels also parallels Dry Comal Creek and is on the high side of the river, and thus safer from flash floods, and may well have been part of the Camino Arriba and the Camino de los Tejas. Of course San Antonio street was laid out by surveyors in the 1840-50s and only approximates the location of the old road. We may never know exactly where which road went because of all the development in this area. Now back to Gruene and the tour.
Below is the old Gruene Mansion of 1886 where Ernst Gruene, the founder of Gruene, lived. It is now a lovely inn.
 |
The Gruene Mansion Inn www.gruene.net/gruenemansion 1275 Gruene Road |
Below is Gruene Hall, the oldest dance hall and honky tonk in Texas. It was built in the 1880s and was the social center of the town. Inside they have the original advertising signs for local businesses with 3 digit phone numbers. A 48 star American flag still hangs from the rafters. Just about every big name in Texas Country music has played here just so they can say "I have played Gruene Hall". Movies have also been filmed here. It has no air conditioning, just fans and the sides of the building open up. There is an old German beer garden you can go out into to cool off after dancing. They have horseshoe pitching pits and a basketball hoop in the garden for the kids. This is one place I would recommend stopping and seeing.
 |
Back on the Camino Tour
We are now on a different Camino route.
From Gruene turn right onto Hunter road. Hunter road is the intersection in the middle of town.
Continue on. You are now on the older route of the Camino Real. You will come to a major intersection with Hwy 306. Go straight. A short distance on, on your right, there are two old German fachtwerk houses. These were moved here from elswhere and restored. But they are pretty.
Go around the two bends and over the railroad tracks. On your left is another old German farm. This one is still owned by the family that founded it. I think they still own and use every piece of farm equipment they every bought. Typical Germans.
About here, at the German farm, start looking on your left in the underbrush for stone fences. There are a number of them along the next 3 miles on both sides of the road. These were built before barbed wire, by the German farmers. Some people say they started when they farmers carried and dropped the larger rocks out of the fields so they could plow easier. But notice the fence on the left here is on a hillside and not next to any plowed field. These are livestock fences.
Hunter road will soon come to an end at ..... Hunter Road. Turn left on Hunter road. The road to the right is brand new and was built to straighten out the road. To the right is Common Street. We want to go left on Hunter road.
Nice scenery and a great view off to the right along here. A few miles down start looking to the left for the StageCoach Inn. The StageCoach Inn in a very nice Bed and Breakfast. You can stay the night in a restored log cabin. This is another one of the old stagecoach stops we have been passing along the way.
The log cabin at the StageCoach Inn
The StageCoach Inn, A great historic B&B 5441 FM 1102, New Braunfels, TX 78132 800-201-2912 or 830-620-9453 Or go here to their web site. |
Follow Hunter road up a ways till you to a big factory on the left. This is another cement plant and quarry. Look on your right for the very small town of Hunter.
You might want to detour here a bit and turn right over the tracks one block to Riley's Tavern. You can see it from Hunter road. Riley's is another one of those special places stuck in a time warp. Dating back to stagecoach times, this is another classic Texas roadhouse. They claim to be the oldest bar in Texas. When prohibition was lifted in 1933 Mr. Riley got the first bar license in Texas and reopened - like a German tavern had ever really closed. They have good music in the evenings, very cold beer and pool tables. There is a good story here. Until recent years Hays County, just up Hunter road a few yards, was dry. Riley's is just over the county line in wet German Comal county. Back when, students at the Southwest Texas Teacher's College in San Marcos would drive out to Hunter to Riley's to drink beer. One student in particular is remembered for drinking here, Lyndon Johnson, as in President of the United States LBJ. So you can have a beer in the same joint, at the same bar, where a President once drank. Back on Hunter road, continue on towards San Marcos. Or you can follow the road in front of Riley's Tavern, through Hunter and over the interstate. This is Yorkcreek road. The first left off Yorkcreek road after the interstate is another branch of the Camino Real.I recommend going straight.
About 5 miles on you will start to come into San Marcos. Right on the edge of San Marcos is
Purgatory Creek. This is a small crossing/bridge you can miss if you blink. Down in the creek right next to Hunter Road is the old Camino Real crossing. The creek is now usually dry. But before all the development dried up the springs, it had flowing water in it year round. There is a relatively smooth limestone bedrock on the bed of the creek here. This bedrock is why the crossing is here. In the bedrock you can still see the ruts the wagon wheels cut into the limestone crossing the creek here.Continue on and Hunter road turns into Hopkins street in San Marcos. One option here is to go over one block to the left and go up Belvin street instead. Belvin street is a National Register historical district with some fantastic restored Victorian mansions. It parallels Hopkins right into downtown. Or stay on Hopkins, it has lots of nice Victorian houses too.
Down Town San Marcos
 |
San Marcos has some great shopping and places to eat. Stop off and park
in the down town and walk around. I recommend shopping at Paper Bear's one
half a block off the main square.
|
Check out the old Hays County Courthouse built in ???
From the square go the same direction, north east, on Hopkins street. This
will take you around and to the interstate. Hopkins street becomes state
Hwy 80 here. Stay on Hwy 80 till you reach the Hwy 21 turn off on the left. Hwy 21 is the Camino Real and you can follow it all the way to the Louisinna
state line about 400 miles on. But for this tour stay on hwy 80 and go on
straight about half a mile till you see a small roadside park on the left.
