A Step Back in History

Road to Sauer-Beckmann Farm.

Today was a stay-home day for me. Smoky ventured out after lunch to visit the Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site and the Sauer-Beckmann Living History Farm. A visit to the farm gave Smoky a chance to see first hand what life was like on a pioneer farmstead a century ago. The people who work at the farm dress in period costume and do chores just as they would have been done a century ago.

Planting the garden.

Planting the garden takes more than one.

Smoky explained, as he showed me his photos, that this Texas-German farm has had only three owners. It was initially settled in 1869 by Johann and Christine Sauer. Then the Beckmann family acquired the property in 1900. The main crop was cotton; after a prosperous year, they were able to grow the farm and modernize the original rock home, creating a beautiful Victorian home on the property.

In 1966, a Beckmann relative sold the property to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and the farm was opened to the public in 1975. This farm is part of the LBJ State Park and Historic Site.

Step back in time at this farm.

On the way back from the Sauer-Beckmann farm, Smoky stopped by St. Mary's Catholic Church in Fredericksburg. The church began in 1846 and the current church structure in 1902. It is a remarkable church, inside and out.

St. Mary's Catholic Church, Fredericksburg, Texas.

The incredible inside of St. Mary's Catholic Church.

Tomorrow is our last day in the Fredericksburg area. We'll be heading toward Austin on Saturday (and making another stop in Luckenbach to get Smoky a new cowboy hat!). We can't leave Fredericksburg without a photo of the chicken truck, parked outside a business on Main Street.

I love this chicken truck. We need one at our house in Tennessee.

--Shann