KREISCHE BREWERY AND LA GRANGE, TEXAS

A business trip took me to the La Grange, Texas area, where I was able to squeeze in a trip to see the Kreische Brewery and Monument Hill State Historic Sites.  Here are some photos of this unique destination, both the brewery and the historical city.

It's the kind of location that wouldn't necessarily cross my radar, because I'm more of a wilderness person (when responsibilities permit).  But when in Rome...

A study in contrasts - apparently some visitors assume that this is the kind of brewery tour where people actually get to drink beer.  In this case, they are about 130 years too late.  (Tap photo to expand for clarity and read-ability). 

Tap to expand for clarity. An interesting combination of factors made this a dual-purpose historical site. 

"This bluff is the northern limit of the Oakville Escarpment and marks the boundary between the upland post oak woodlands and the Fayette Prairie.  Here, along the bluff, "eastern" plant and animal species of the woodlands and prairie coexist with an isolated colony of "western" species.  Numerous plants and animals common to the limestone-based soils of the Hill Country, 70 miles northwest, have been transported and deposited in this locale by the Colorado River.  These species flourish in pockets of alkaline soils produced through erosion of the calcareious sandstone cap of the escarpment.  The occurrence of such biological diversity at one location is not singularly unique, but is uncommon and highly significant to scientists."  

Art imitates life:  Sure enough, the man-made features had a "near but not quite" Hill Country aesthetic, just as the geographical and biological do.  This is a view of the brewery ruins. 

View from above.  It's stacked stone, but not Austin-style stacked stone. 

Mr. Kreische built his brewery by carefully corralling stream flow to a centralized location where it could be put to use.  The property is full of his stone water management structures.  

Reflection in one of the interim pools.  The water has that opalescent quality that is found so often in the Hill Country.  

This was a December trip, so most of the vegetation was dormant, but there were a few jaunty blooms here and there. 

And ferns.  Once again, similar to, but not quite the same as, what one would see in the Hill Country.  

Close-up of one of the barn windows.  Unfortunately I did not arrive at a time in which guided tours were offered, so I did not get to see the insides of any buildings.  

Following this visit, I proceeded to the Colorado Landing RV Park, on the banks of the Colorado River about one mile from Monument Hill.

View of the Colorado a short distance from my parking site.  

This RV park was very orderly and well-run, but it suffers from the same limitation I have found in other analogous riverine locations such as Pecan Park in San Marcos, which is on the San Marcos River - road noise.  Colorado Landing is located a short distance from the huge U.S. Route 77 bridge over the Colorado River.  The unimpeded drone of 18 wheelers flying over that thing was tedious, not consistent with the peace and quiet I would hope to find while sitting next to an undeveloped section of a major Texas river.  It appears that this kind of limitation is simply the trade-off one has to accept for urban proximity and full hook-ups.

Due to my professional schedule, I didn't have time to see La Grange proper, but I will leave you with a few pics of its most curious feature.

Trees in the middle of the city streets!

I saw one and I thought, "That's unusual!".  Little did I know, it was not an isolated phenomenon.

It made for some interesting local driving, especially in a 9-foot-tall Airstream Interstate, which is in danger of clipping some of those overhangs.  

I'm sure there's a story behind this, but it's not readily available on the internet.  Perhaps I will discover it on my next trip to this area.

In a similar spirit, from this site.