For years now, I’ve been driving from Texas to San Diego by taking U.S. Route 183 up to Texas State Highway 29 and then southwest to Interstate Highway 10, with U.S. Route 377 on the last leg of the shortcut. Every time I make this trip, I see signs for “historical marker ahead” and wonder what they’re about. There is apparently a lot of history in Texas!
Every time I see those signs I think, I need to make time to stop next time I come by. But this time or next time, it’s usually either (a) early in the morning or (b) at the end of a very long trip when all I really want is to get home.
I finally made a special trip just for these markers last year when my dad came out to visit. We drove as far west as Buchanan Dam, which meant seeing two of them. I completed the collection this year with a triangle trip out to Junction and back across to Boerne, then over to Bellville, up to Giddings, and back home. It was a wonderful road trip.
The first three markers are on State Highway 29. The final two are on U.S. Route 377. I think there’s another one just outside of Junction on State Route 83 just north of I-10, but I missed the initial sign for it. I suspect that there is no sign on Route 377, and that the sign is about a mile north on Route 83.
The five marked sites I saw and photographed are:
| Order | Site | Location | Year Marked |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liberty Hill Cemetery | Liberty Hill | 1971 |
| 2a | C.S.A. Salt Works | Buchanan Dam | 1964 |
| 2b | Llano County Granite Industry | Buchanan Dam | 2014 |
| 3 | Kothmann Homesite and Cemetery | Art, just before Mason | 1996 |
| 4 | Reichenau Gap | near London | 1966 |
| 5 | Teacup Mountain | just before Junction | 1967 |
The order is driving west from 183 at Liberty Hill, toward Junction. And, while I’m referring to this as a “State Highway 29” road trip, two of the markers are actually on U.S. Route 377. Route 377 connects Texas 29 to Interstate 10.
There are also, of course, a lot of churches in the Schulenberg area that I happened to see without any planning at all, but that’s outside the scope of this series. I may do some photographs later.
