Waco, TX to Fredericksburg, TX (US 84 to Gatesville, Hwy 116/580 to Lampasas, Hwy 281 to Johnson City, Hwy 290 to Fredericksburg)
The next stage of our journey takes the Lunch Box southwest around the Austin metropolitan area and through the heart of the Texas Hill Country. A favorite weekend escape for Texans from Austin to the east and San Antonio to the southeast, the Hill Country is a region roughly circular in shape consisting of low hills clad in juniper and oak trees.
Sixty miles west of Austin lies the town of Johnson City, named after an early Texas pioneer family in the area, Samuel Ealy Johnson. He settled in the area in the late 1850’s and prospered as a cattle rancher. His nephew, James Polk Johnson, founded the town of Johnston City in 1879. Just west of Johnson City, near the small town of Stonewall, the 36th President of the United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson, was born in 1908. The LBJ Ranch became known as the “Texas White House” during President Johnson’s time in office (1963-1968).
Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site
The Johnson family eventually owned nearly 2,600 acres along the north bank of the Pedernales River. President Johnson was born on the ranch and lived here for the first five years of his life before moving into nearby Johnson City. The original house, built in 1889 by the President’s grandfather, was destroyed in the 1930’s but reconstructed in 1964 and used as a guesthouse for visitors to the nearby main house. The house consists of two separate structures connected by a covered pass way. For some reason all the window shades were drawn, making the interior too dark to photograph.
A small barn sits in the back (now converted to restrooms for tourists), this is the view looking at the back of the house.
The view from the front porch is south towards the small church across the Pedernales River beyond the Lunch Box, which is sitting in the parking lot next to the Johnson Family Cemetery.
The President and Lady Bird are both buried in the family cemetery (the two large headstones in the middle) with the President’s parents and grandparents lying to the right and his brothers and sisters to the left.
Just down the road from the homestead is the small one room school where President Johnson started his education. Built in 1910, there were 40 students taught by one teacher when President Johnson began his education. Note the small wooden table with the presidential seal, site on one of the most significant acts of President Johnson’s presidency.
Education was very important to the Johnson family. President Johnson’s mother was one of the few college educated women in central Texas in those years. After graduating high school, President Johnson attended San Marcos Teachers College and experienced one of the seminal periods of his life. In order to help pay his way through college, he worked for a year teaching three grades and serving as principal of a school for Mexican children in Cotulla, Texas. His experience helped shaped his views on equality and education that eventually led to numerous education laws being passed during his tenure as president. Perhaps the most significant was the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. He felt so strongly about signing the act that even though he was at the ranch when the bill passed Congress, a ceremony was organized beside the one room school house where he began his education at age 4 and Miss Katie Deadrich, his teacher, sat beside him as he signed the bill.
About a mile further west is that actual ranch house compound. The Johnson’s donated 600 acres surrounding the compound and landing strip for use as the park, the remainder of the land still remains in the Johnson family. Visitors are directed to turn and take a driving tour around the perimeter of the compound just before the old Secret Service guardhouse. The main compound lies hidden in trees in the distance.
President Johnson raised championship Hereford cattle for show and breeding purposes. The terms of his donation of the ranch dictate that it remain a working cattle ranch. It has been a “fertile” spring on the ranch, with a bumper crop of calves being born.
The far end of the landing strip gives great views to the south of the Hill Country.
The road approaches the main compound from the rear and the airplane hangar has been converted to the visitor’s center with the small plane once used to ferry the President back and forth to the Austin airport is under cover (The ranch landing strip was too small to handle Air Force One so the president had to fly in to either Austin or San Antonio and take Air Force “Half” to the ranch.)
The main house has undergone a number of major remodels since first being built by the Meier family in the 1890’s. President Johnson’s uncle and aunt Clarence and Frank Martin purchased the property in 1909 and expanded the house. This picture shows the house after the remodel. The original Meier house is on the left with the covered porch. The center and matching structure on the right were the 1909 additions.
Frank Martin persuaded her nephew Lyndon to purchase the ranch in 1951 and it remained the family home until his wife, Lady Bird, died in 2007. The house was modernized and expanded in the early 1950’s and then again in the 1960’s. This photograph is from the 1950’s.
After the final remodeling the main house is flanked on the left by the addition of an office and on the right by a dual master bedroom wing. An aerial photograph from the 1960’s shows the compound during a presidential visit.
Access to the main house is tightly controlled. Visitors may only tour in groups of twelve under the direct supervision of a tour guide. The house is kept locked, the tour guide unlocks the door to let the tour in. While the Johnson’s donated the structures and land to the government, the contents of the house (furniture, pictures, and personal items) remain in the ownership of the Johnson family. Photographs are prohibited so I can’t show you the interior. The most surprising thing about the interior is how ordinary it is. This is not an opulent mansion, but rather a comfortable house similar to that of any middle class family of the 1960’s, including bright yellow Formica in the rather small kitchen, acoustic tile ceilings in the office, and rustic wood paneling in a number of rooms. Rooms are not particularly large, lots of flowered wall paper and chenille bedspreads. There are three televisions, side by side, in the living room, den, and master bedroom because at the time there were three major television networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) and the president like to keep track of the news on all three. The tour takes 30 minutes and the guide was very information. You’ll just have to visit to see it for yourself!
As I leave the compound the last experience is entering the presidential airplane. The entrance is surprisingly low and I can’t even stand up as I take a picture of the interior (which is behind glass).
Hwy 290 continues west through peach orchards and vineyards towards Fredericksburg, the primary weekend tourist destination in the Hill Country. However, five miles before Fredericksburg a short detour takes to one of the most storied destinations of country music, Luckenbach, Texas.
Luckenbach, Texas
The Texas Hill Country was first settled by German immigrants and one of the first to arrive in the area in 1845 was Jacob Luckenbach. He was given a town lot and 10 acres southwest of Fredericksburg (named after Prince Frederick of Prussia) which he sold in 1852 in order to move farther out of town. In 1886 a Methodist circuit preacher named August Engel settled in the area and Mrs. Engel decided to establish a post office in order to keep herself and her family busy while her husband was riding around the frontier preaching the gospel. His daughter, Minna, filled out the post office application form and decided to name the post office after her fiancé, Carl Luckenbach, son of Jacob. Thus Luckenbach, Texas, was created. A general store, blacksmith shop, saloon and dance hall were eventually built and the post office slumbered on until being closed in 1971. A flood in 2002 destroyed a number of buildings but the general store/post office building and dance hall still stand.
The early 1970’s saw Hondo Crouch purchase the remaining buildings and the little outpost in the middle of nowhere became famous as the topic of the Waylon Jennings song “Luckenbach, Texas”. In the 1970’s Waylon, his friend Willie Nelson, and other country music stars could often be found at the dance hall and saloon. Luckenbach is still a prime tourist destination and lively dances attended by large crowds still happen in the dance hall. The little bar in the back of the post office is called Hondo’s and there is live music daily from 9am. I’m there in the middle of the afternoon and a couple of old bikers are having a beer under a tree outside while inside the bar two good old boys with a banjo and guitar are entertaining the crowded small saloon.
Across the way is the large dance hall, simply an old wooden warehouse that, if the timbers could speak, would tell of many a wild evening under the Texas sky…
As the Hill Country unfolds on our way to Fredericksburg, one can’t help humming a few bars…. “Let’s go to Luckenbach, Texas, With Waylon and Willie and the boys…”
Next up: Wine and War in the Hill Country
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