THE ENCHANTED ROCK
AN ILLUSTRATED
HISTORY
by IRA KENNEDY
Sparsely scattered across the continent are monuments, natural in origin. Some are
beautiful, others bizarre; a few reach deeper than the eye or the mind to touch the human
psyche. They are named holy. Enchanted Rock, which rises out of the surrounding landscape
like a megalithic monument is such a place.
ROY BANFORD INKS
by MILDRED INKS DALRYMPLE AND
JIM INKS
He lived his life in high gear. Inks
Lake on the Colorado River was named in honor of Roy Banford Inks, a legendary figure in
Llano County.
COWHAND FROM LLANO
An Old-timers Account of Youthful Experiences in Cow
Country
by ERNEST TURBIVILLE
"When I was a boy in Llano County, Texas, horses occupied the
important place in the scheme of things that automobiles now do. In the cow country we
were entirely dependent on horses. A man had to be mounted to take his place among
men." permission from the Johnson City Free Press.
COWHAND FROM
CLICK
by NORA MELTON CROSS
Henry Smith's boyhood and trail driving days.
THE BLOODY
HANDS OF ALICE TODD
by LEMON SQUEEZER
"Away back in the early sixties when a Redskin lurked in every brushy hollow and when
men and women went horseback to church, often times fifteen miles away, when everybody
knew everybody else, and when everyone was a true neighbor -- it was then our story
began."
Kings of the Texas Hills
THE ELUSEVE CHANAS OF THE LLANO UPLIFT
by JERRY C. DRAKE
It is a tradition of popular folklore in the Texas Hill Country that the name of the Llano
River was derived from a little-known Indian tribe called the Chanas. Not
very much is known about the Chanas as a culture. Time has chosen to forget this once
proud people, leaving uswith only a few passing memories recorded in rare and ancient
texts. But the Chanas were very real... a living chapter of Texas history who's story
deserves to be told. Who were these elusive people, these former kings of the Texas Hills?
THE BOWIE MINE: A LITERATURE REVIEW
by BILL TOWNSLEY
The search for the legendary Lost Bowie Mine has been the topic of conversation and
controversy for over a century and a half. Today, treasure hunters mine the sources in
history to narrow the search.
THE LOST
SAN SABA MINES
Compiled and edited by IRA
KENNEDY
Reprints from articles found in the San Saba News circa 1890: Since the 1700's, stories of abandoned or lost
Spanish mines and buried treasure in San Saba and adjacent counties have fired the
imaginations of thousands of treasure seekers. The following items, from the San Saba
News, convey well the excitement these stories generated around the turn of the
century.
BOWIE by STEVE GOODSON
Defender of the Alamo, pioneer leader, slave trader, land speculator, Indian fighter and
Prospector of lost mines. Who was this man?
MEDICINE
MAN HILL
by IRA KENNEDY
Seeking legendary
silver mines in La Lomeria, or the Hill Country, a Spanish expedition led by don
Bernardo de Miranda, lieutenant-general of the province of Texas, set out from the
presidio of San Antonio de Bejar in February, 17, 1756. Known as the Miranda expedition,
the twenty-three adventurers were under orders from Governor Barrios to locate two silver
mines rumored to be in the area. Miranda did find one, known as Cerro del Almagre or the
Hill of Red Ochre; and in the process he came within sight of Cerro de Santiago or the
Hill of the Sacred One. At least one historian has suggested Cerro de Santiago might have
been Enchanted Rock, while others discount the possibility. The Hill of Red Ochre is
believed by some to be the Lost Bowie Mine.
THE TEXAS
CHEROKEE
by IRA KENNEDY
Woven into the fabric of personal history is the
image of the American Indian. When I was a child my grandmother revealed to me, in a
secretive voice, that I was of Cherokee-Irish descent; that my great-grandmother, Sarah
Jane Kelly, was a full-blood Texas Cherokee. The revelation filled me with excitement and
wonder. Only many years later did I realize that the secretive, almost conspiratorial
tone, was shaped by generations of fear, for in Sarah Jane’s day, Indians were an
undesirable element in Texas.
GERMAN INTELLECTUALS ON THE
TEXAS FRONTIER:
by IRA KENNEDY
The Texas frontier of
the 1850s would seem an unlikely place to find communities with a passion for literature,
philosophy, music, and conversations in Latin. Just as unlikely would expectations be very
high for communes in the Hill Country attempting to establish utopia along the Llano
River. But, in this area, the communities of Castell, Schoenburg, Bettina, and
Leiningen were hotbeds for intellectual conversations and revolutionary social
experimentation. These communities were the first to settle the Fisher-Miller Grant
located between the Llano and San Saba Rivers
The Republic of Texas
1845 - THE TWILIGHT
YEAR: Part 1 of 2 Parts.
by IRA KENNEDY
Rumors, gossip, lies and dreams. Conspiracies,
intrigues, plots, and counter plots. This must be the Republic of Texas. From 1830 to
1845, the eyes of the world turned toward Texas. Stretching from the Rio Grande to
Wyoming, and from Louisiana to Santa Fe (New Mexico), Texas was enormous, and her
potential to expand all the way to the Pacific Ocean was under serious discussion.
THE BEGINNING OF THE
END:
by IRA KENNEDY
Part 1 & 2 of 2 Parts
Lamar’s dream to mark ‘with the sword" the western
boundary of Texas at the Pacific Ocean was as foolhardy as it was visionary. When Anson
Jones ascended to the presidency of the Republic on the first Monday of September, 1844,
he sought to attain by treaty what was impossible with the sword.
A VIEW FROM THE PRESIDENCY by Anson Jones: by IRA KENNEDY
The year 1843 dawned on Texas with brightening prospects. A jealousy and
rivalry began to exist between the U. States on the one hand, and Great Britain and France
on the other, in relation to Texas, which was daily gaining strength, and it was not her
policy to endeavor to abate or to suppress it…
THE MYSTERY OF
BABYHEAD MOUNTAIN:
by DALE FRY
For over 100 years, the presence of Babyhead Mountain, a rugged hill lying
some nine and a half miles north of Llano, has given foreboding testimony to one of the
most gruesome—and controversial—incidents to have ever occurred in Llano County.
It was here that a search party discovered the dismembered body of a missing child, her
head impaled on a stick near the summit of the hill.
ON
THE WAY TO ENCHANTED ROCK:
by ANNIE SIMMS WALKER
A first-hand account from Texas history. "In 1860, at
the home of my father, Captain J.M. Sims, in Lavaca County, I was married to Joseph H.
Walker of Llano County. He was young, handsome, and wealthy, and I was a very young and
happy bride. A short time after our marriage we moved to our home in Llano, accompanied by
my married sister and her husband. After a short stay they bade us farewell and returned
home."
|
TO BOOKMARK THIS SITE TYPE CTRL-D NOW
|
