When I arrived in the some 15 years ago, I was pleasantly surprised that instead of tumbleweeds blowing through the streets, there were Cyprus-lined rivers coursing through the various towns. Instead of flat and desolate prairie the hilly area Northwest of San Antonio was lush with Live Oaks, rolling grassland. And, in the spring and early summer, there are wildflowers.
No one had ever told me about the wildflowers.
The wildflowers in the spring are a breathtaking explosion of color; bluebonnets, Indian Paintbrushes, Pink Evening Primrose, Buttercups and Black-eyed Susans, vie for attention with Yucca and Cactus whose blooms can be equally spectacular. The profusion of colors, and the progression of colors as the spring turns to summer, is striking to those who have been living here for many years, but startling to one who comes from elsewhere. In the early spring, when the rain has been cooperative, the bluebonnets bloom in such profusion that at times it seems as though you're looking at ponds and lakes floating in the grasslands. A bit later in the season, the blue is replaced by the pink of Evening Primrose, the orange and yellow from the Indian blankets, the yellow of winecup and bachelor buttons.
The culture of Central and South Texas is no less spectacular. Instead of a culture driven here from the East in Conestoga wagons, there is a rich and complex society formed in part from Spanish/Mexican influences as I had more or less expected, but also from France, Italy and the rest of the world. The Institute of Texan Cultures lists among the cultural influences in the state people from Africa, Belgium, China , Denmark, The Netherlands, Italy, Japan, and many other places.
Germany in particular has had an influence.
The town was established in 1845 by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels in central Germany. Prince Carl named the city for his home town of Braunfels and, though his name lives on, his direct involvement was somewhat brief.
As the Commissioner General for “The Society for the Protection of German Immigrants” or “Mainzer Adelsveren” he had organized hundreds of people in Germany to settle in Texas with an eye to creating a new German outpost in the young republic. Immigrants began arriving at the port of Galveston in July of 1844 with most then traveling by ship to Indianola from which they would begin the long overland leg of their journey to the Fisher-Miller land grants purchased by Prince Carl in the area around present day Fredericksburg. Time was working against them though and by the time they thought they'd be arriving, it was going to be too late in the year to build homes and plant crops before winter. Once that became clear, and with the settlers were still en route, Prince Carl purchased additional land along the Guadalupe River that would serve as a the site of a new town.
This newly purchased land, known as "Las Fontanas", was located northeast of San Antonio on the Camino Real, the Royal Road. It had excellent freshwater springs, and was about half way from Indianola to the Fisher-Miller land grants. The first settlers forded the Guadalupe River on Good Friday, March 21, 1845, near what is now the Faust Street bridge. As the Spring of 1845 progressed, the settlers built a fort, divided land, held the first classroom under the
For his personal home prince Carl selected a site at the top of a hill overlooking the new town. Soon after, he returned to Germany intending to bring his fiance Lady Sophia, Princess of Salm-Salm, to their new home. He left John O. Meusebach to manage the settlement in his place but as it turned out, he never returned as the Princess refused to leave Germany. It strikes some as odd that he stayed in Germany to marry the Princess rather than return to Texas and the colony that he'd worked so hard to found, but as things turned out, in December of 1845 Texas became a state in the United States of America, eliminating any notions that the German aristocracy may have had to establish a German principality within the politically and militarily weak Republic of Texas.
The siting of the settlement was serendipitous, and the rivers and springs serve in part to define the modern town. New Braunfels basically has two rivers coursing through it, the Guadalupe that passes through, and the spring fed Comal that is fully within the town's boundaries. The water in the Guadalupe is ice cold as it makes its way from the Canyon Dam a few miles up river. It's cold as it comes from some 60 feet below the surface of the lake, and the chill makes it an almost irresistible draw for locals and tourists seeking a relaxing afternoon bobbing downstream in the hot Texas sun.
