ABOUT THE AREA
Fredericksburg, Texas
Bandera, Texas
Bandera, Texas is located northwest of San Antonio. The word “bandera” is a Spanish and Polish word that means “flag.” It was named Bandera because of the red banner that was flown in the area to mark the boundary between Spanish and American hunting areas.
As shown on a sign on Main Street, the city was founded by Polish Roman Catholic immigrants. One of the oldest churches in Texas, St. Stanislaus Catholic Church, was built by the city’s founding citizens from Poland. Even today, many of the residents are of Polish descent.
During the later half of the 1800’s, Bandera was on the Great Western Cattle trail. This trail ran all the way to Kansas, taking cattle to the railheads to supply cities such as Chicago with beef.
Bandera is Cowboy Country. Weekly, there is “Cowboys on Main,” an event with gripping gunfights by historical reenactors from the Bandera Cattle Company. Head to Bandera at 2:00 pm on Saturdays. Along with all the gun-slinging, you will see chuck wagons and folks of all ages in costumes, making the town feel like it did when it was a mjor stop along the Western Trail.
Come to Bandera to get a view of a slice of history in Texas.
New Braunfels, Texas
New Braunfels, Texas is a small city that is an idyllic but surprisingly metropolitan environment of a suburb. Most famously, the suburb is known for its rich heritage of German-Texan culture and history.
When Texas was a separate country, President Sam Houston wanted industrious citizens to populate the country. He traveled to Germany and convinced the whole town of Braunfels, Germany, to relocate to Texas. The big draw was land. At that time in Germany, most citizens could not own land, and Sam Houston promised each family land. The whole town moved, and today there are still pure-blood Germans in the area.
Whether you want to raft down the Comal or Guadalupe River, or sample the night life practically every weekend, or attend the famous Wurstfest celebration each fall, you won’t be disappointed by New Braunfels.
26 Best & Fun Things To Do In New Braunfels (Texas)
Cascade Caverns
Cascade Caverns has tours and activities for the whole family and is only 48 miles, about an hour drive away from Triple T!
Cascade Caverns is part of the Glen Rose Formation, a shallow marine to shoreline geological formation from the Lower Cretaceous period. This formation has been exposed in a large area beginning in South-central Texas, running north through the Texas Hill Country, ending up in North-central Texas.
The cave has been open to the environment for many tens of thousands of years, as evidenced by prehistoric animal finds and Lipan Apache artifacts from the 1700s. In the mid-19th century, various legends existed about a hermit who lived on the ledge at the entrance to the cave.
The cave was first commercially opened in 1932 and operated until about 1941. Alfred and Edith Gray were the original landowners when the cave was first opened. The cave was closed during WWII because most of the men were away fighting in Europe and strict gas rationing limited travel. During the time of closure, the cave’s artifact collection was looted from the gift shop. Business was resumed in the late 1940s. Cascade Caverns had been originally known as Hester’s Cave, named after a late 19th-century landowner. It became most famous as a result of Frank Nicholson’s publication of cave explorations.
