Texas Hill Country

Texas Almanac - Kerr County

Map of Kerr County, Texas. Map Credit: Robert Plocheck. 

The term “Hill Country” means a lot to a native Texan, probably not much to anyone else. To those who attended camp in Hunt, Texas or who have biked or hiked in southcentral Texas, this area conjures up images of serene, pastoral landscapes. Located in an area generally northwest of San Antonio, the Hill Country comprises rolling, tree-covered hills and twisty, scenic roads stretching over twenty-five counties near the geographical center of Texas (see map.) 

From a geological viewpoint, the Hill Country is located on a plateau over an area described as the Balcones Escarpment, which separates the Edwards Plateau to the west from the Coastal Plain and having an elevation reaching 2500 feet. The strains caused by the underlying fault result in considerable numbers of water-filled caverns and spring-fed watercourses, but the climate is generally considered arid. Humidity is low throughout the year, more humid at the northern extremes, near Austin. Annual rainfall has historically averaged less than 15 inches. Over the past 18 months however, the area has experienced more than the average rainfall, thus filling the area aquifers and breaking the drought, which had persisted for the previous 3 years

This area was not settled to any great extent until the 1850’s because the lack of consistent rainfall made farming difficult and of course there was that prickly problem of marauding Comanche’s. There were many of those and, as adept horsemen they moved in quickly to raid and left just as quickly, often taking hostages as slaves

A surge in settlement occurred just before the Civil War and continued in the decades afterward; many of the settlers were of German origin, with the initial group arriving as a result of efforts by an unscrupulous German entrepreneur who left the new immigrants marooned in Galveston in 1855. They were an intrepid bunch and, with great loss of life from disease, hunger, thirst and marauding Indians, they hiked and rode northwest to the area north and west of San Antonio, where they carved out and fenced hardscrabble farms around Fredericksburg. Many of their descendants live there today. The towns of Fredericksburg, Comfort, Boerne, and Mason all show a strong German influence, Kerrville not so much.