Skip to main content

Landa Park




 Today we continued our tour of Texas parks with historic Landa Park in New Braunfels, Texas, where we saw Founders’ Oak, a gorgeous and enormous tree that has been growing since the 1700’s.

Here’s what the Forrest Service says about Founders’ Oak:

“Throughout the 18th century, the Spanish established Catholic missions in Texas and, along with the missions, the towns of San Antonio, Goliad and Nacogdoches. El Camino Real de los Tejas, “The Kings Highway”, also called “The Old San Antonio Road” linked Northwestern Louisiana and Mexico. Three separate routes of El Camino Real have been identified in New Braunfels, all a short distance from a series of artesian springs, known as Comal Springs, which feed the Comal River and eventually the Guadalupe River. 

Located just over five-hundred feet from Comal Springs, Founders’ Oak has stood sentry to centuries of travelers and settlers to the Guadalupe River region. From 1756-1758 Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, a Spanish Mission, was located near the springs. Run by two friars and under citizen guard, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe was home to four Spanish families and forty-one Indians. The mission was abandoned in 1758 due to increasingly dangerous raids by Native Americans. 

Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, Commissioner General of “The Society for the Protection of German Immigrants of Texas”, came to the area in March 1845 and signed a deed for two leagues of land which included Comal Springs and Founders' Oak. Thus was born New Braunfels. 

Plentiful water of the Comal River and springs attracted early industrialists who used the Comal headwaters for a mill and a cotton gin. Settlement followed, and by the 1850s New Braunfels was the 4th largest city in Texas. 

The grand oak has long paid a part in the activities of the founders of the community. The first school teacher of the colony conducted group singing beneath the boughs of the tree. Abbe Domenech reportedly offered mass under the tree in 1849. Annually after 1846, Citizens of New Braunfels gathered on July Fourth to read the Declaration of Independence and to dedicate themselves to the principles for which it stands. Today Founders’ Oak is the focal point of Landa Park, an emerald jewel of New Braunfels.”

We love spending time with you exploring nature.

Here’s to a lifetime of epic adventures!

-Your Dad, Kerry




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Drummer Boy

  You love music! You listen to records and dance, play drums, and scratch on a little portable turntable. You’re amazing! It so much fun watching you develop and grow. You are talking so much now! My favorite is when you say “wow”, it’s so cute! Recently, you went to your first Fiesta event, an Indian Festival at Hemisfair, and have hung out with your cousins in Austin. So much fun! You love playing outside, bouncing balls, going on walks, and playing in the mud. Spider-Man is your all time favorite, you call him dadoowah. We are so fortunate to have you as a son! I love you! -Your dad, Kerry
Post a Comment
Read more

Snow Day!

You got to experience snow for the first time on January 21, 2025! You had the 20th off of school for MLK day and then they announced you would also have the 21st off due to the inclement weather. I took time off of work and we got to hang out. We were both not feeling great, with some flu like symptoms so I knew we couldn’t go out for too long but I didn’t want that snow to melt before you could check it out.  First of all, you hated bundling up. You didn’t understand why I was putting ANOTHER outfit on top of another on top of another. You were getting tired of all these clothes and then shoes to top it all off?? We almost had to abort mission just because of that. I just didn’t want you to get cold! You loved the crunchy feeling of the snow under your shoes and walked all around the front and back yards. You played with some snow that was on the chair but really once your hands got cold, you were done pretty quickly. We came inside, took all your extra layers off and watched a m...
Post a Comment
Read more

Growth

 You keep growing and changing. It’s wonderful to watch. Likewise, the experience of raising you, and the subsequent balance between work, school, relationships, mental health, and parenting, is leading to personal growth for both your mom and myself. We don’t always get keep everything as properly balanced as we’d like it to be —though your mother is much better at it than she gives herself credit for—, but we are learning and trying. I wish I could spend all day getting into adventures with you.  I want you to have a happy, joyful life.  You are really talkative now, which is so fun. You are also mischievous and have a quirky, awesome sense of humor. You love your daycare, and your pets, and campfires, and snack time. You play drums to let out excess energy, and you love listening to music and dancing. You are curious, and sensitive, and daring, and friendly.  You are Brooklyn, and you are growing into exactly who you are supposed to become. You’re doing an awesome...
Post a Comment
Read more