Crossing From History to Recreation (Spring Branch, Texas)

A particularly attractive crossing of the Guadalupe above Canyon Lake can be found on FM 311, a couple of miles east of its intersection with Highway 281, and it is often devoid enough of traffic that drivers can slow down to enjoy the view. Cars parked along the road near the bridge are tribute to this spot’s use as a recreational area, and many people have fond memories of days spent boating or fishing from it.

“I used to fish here quite a bit [and] caught my biggest bass of my life under the bridge,” said Canyon Lake native Ronald Lowe. “A tree had washed down, got stuck on a pylon, I threw a spinner bait just past it and caught a seven-pound, seven-ounce bass way back in the late ’90s.” 

“I kayaked 311 to Rebecca Creek last winter,” said Jason Gillett of Canyon Lake, noting that it took nine-and-a-half hours because his group was fishing and it “is a twisty stretch of river” that included “six sets of rapids, four of which we had to portage over.” (Right: Drainage areas on either side of the FM 311 bridge over the Guadalupe provide easy access to the river and a regularly used by people to move boats or tubes down to it.)

That this spot is publicly known to have any historic significance, however, is largely tribute to a Texas Historical Commission marker that was erected nearby in 2013 (top right). Local historian Brenda Anderson Lindemann, author of Spring Branch and Western Comal County, Texas, 1858-1998, was instrumental in getting that marker placed and compiled the information for the article titled “Esser’s Crossing at Wesson” on the Comal County Historical Commission section of the Comal County website. Wesson was a community founded on the banks of the Guadalupe in the mid-19th century by settler Charles Esser but which, according to the Texas State Historical Association, has been a “ghost community” since World War II. 

“Esser's Crossing is one of the four key bridges in the Spring Branch area that helped bridge traffic and commerce in our area,” said Paula Rieker, who assisted Lindemann with her book and whose current personal focus is on the history of the 711 Ranch, now site of the Mystic Shores development. “It is the oldest bridge in our area and only the second high-water bridge in the county.” (Right: A high-water wood and wrought-iron bridge was built at Esser’s crossing and served the area for half a century before being condemned and replaced. Photo courtesy Comal County Historical Commission.)

“The original crossing was an area of flat rocks in the river, where it was safe to enter the river … and pass over [it] in a wagon,” Rieker said. “You can look down at the river and still visualize the original crossing. Esser hosted travelers at his home and on his grounds as a ‘way station’ from New Braunfels to points north.” (Right: In 1858 German immigrant Charles Esser homesteaded and purchased property near the crossing and then provided a public way-station. Photo courtesy Comal County Historical Commission.)

Today, this spot is apparently and somewhat inexplicably held to be a “secret” by any number of Canyon Lake residents. A post on the “Everything Canyon Lake TX” Facebook group asking for information about it was, in fact, responded to with crying-face and angry-face emojis, veiled threats, and complaints that if “town” people learned about it they would spoil it and throw trash everywhere. 

Significant amounts of trash in the parking area that never made it into conveniently-placed barrels, however, indicate that some locals already have littering covered, and the 1:10:100 rule for social media interaction suggests, based on the number of responses to posts about the spot, that some thousands of people know about it already. (This article appeared for the first time in the Canyon Lake section of the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung newspaper.)

And, whatever proprietary feelings anyone might have toward the spot, general manager Mike Dussere of the Water-Oriented Recreation District of Comal County — the agency that placed the trash barrels at the site — said the space leading down to the river on either side of the bridge is a public right-of-way. So, anyone so inclined can pause to enjoy Esser’s Crossing, either for what it has to offer today or the role it has played in the history of our area. 

Large areas of flat bedrock along the banks of the Guadalupe River are part of what made Esser’s Crossing an ideal spot for wagons and stagecoaches.

Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country

One of the best places to learn about the earliest inhabitants of our area is undoubtedly the Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country. Located about halfway between Sattler and Startzville, it features exhibits devoted to the people who lived here in the years before Canyon Lake existed, to the immigrants who settled here in the 19^th century, and to the Indians who hunted and gathered here before that.

Right: While the Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country is devoted to the legacy of local pioneer and Native American inhabitants, the dinosaur tracks that it preserves are its greatest claim to fame. 

“We have a German heritage, of course, in nearly all of this area, so we have a lot of German pioneer items in a couple of rooms,” said office manager Lelo Beth Cude. The museum also has numerous pieces of antique farm equipment and a room devoted to “a wonderful collection of arrowheads and Native American things that pretty much came from the Comal County area. We also have a before-and-after of Canyon Lake Dam room, with a really nice diorama.”

Left: Replicas of its tracks, T-shirts, and other dinosaur-oriented items are among the things that can be found in the museum’s gift shop. 

Below right: Antiques and artifacts from the settlers and residents of the mid-19^th through the mid-20^th century in our area are among the things on display at the museum.

The museum is, however, perhaps best known for preserving traces of even earlier residents, those who lived here about 125 million years ago, and is thus often referred to simply as “the Dinosaur Museum.” Two species of Cretaceous-epoch dinosaurs, in fact, walked across what was at that time a muddy coastal plain and left behind tracks that can still be seen to this day at the site.

One sort of footprints was left by a large ancestor of the Tyranosaurus Rex known as Acrocanthosaurus, which might actually have been an even deadlier predator than its more-familiar descendant and would have preyed upon a large herbivore called Iguanadon, the creature that left behind the second type of footprints. A third sort of tracks was left by at least two members of a species of large snail.

These tracks were discovered by the then-owners of the land in 1979, who because of them decided to forego plans to develop the site into an RV park and instead began operating it as an attraction called Dinosaur Flats. More than 350 tracks were ultimately discovered at the site, but many of them were subsequently damaged or destroyed by the elements over the ensuing three decades (one of these tracks can be seen at left).

Preventing that has thus been a big priority for the non-profit organization that has run the museum since 1994, which in 2008 completed a large steel-roofed structure — easily visible on the south side of FM 2673 to anyone driving between Sattler and Startzville — to protect the footprints. (Dinosaur tracks that have been discovered at nearby Canyon Lake Gorge are at the same elevation as those at the museum and might actually be a continuation of the tracks there and left by the very same creatures.)

Below right: One room of the museum is devoted to Native American artifacts and related items. 

One of the things Cude and museum volunteers are currently working on are preparations for the annual Harvestfest, the organization’s main annual fundraiser, which will be held the evening of Wednesday, October 4 (its other big event is Dinosaur Day in April).

Highlights of this event will include entertainment, a BBQ dinner and peach cobbler food prepared by local volunteers, a silent auction of items donated by local businesses, a raffle, and drawings throughout the night. Tickets for the event are $20 each and volunteers will begin selling them within a month or so.

Between 200 and 400 people typically attend the Harvestfest and this year, Cude said, the museum will be pushing for the upper end of that range and is hoping to attract people not just from Canyon Lake but also New Braunfels, Spring Branch, Bulverde, and the surrounding area.

The Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country is located at 4831 FM 2673, between Sattler and Startzville. For more information, go to www.theheritagemuseum.com or call (830) 899-4542. 

This still that is on display at the museum was used from the early 1900s through the 1930s to distill whisky at a location on the banks of nearby Cibolo Creek.