Road Dispatch Archives
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We all dream of it while we work, play, dream, daydream, even drive...to work. We want to travel, get out on the road or hop into a plane or ship or canoe. To see the world, to experience the beauty and mystery and excitement all around us. But, at GeographicWest we hope you can take that trip with us. Through words and pictures, we would like you go on the road with us, to interesting, exciting, relaxing and even magical places. This series of Road Dispatches will be made available to you one per month, maybe sooner. We too want to get out on the road...let's go.
GeographicWest Road Dispatch Number 5The Hill Country and the LBJ National Historical Park STONEWALL, TEXAS – Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th President of the United States, would speak often of his beloved Texas Hill Country Ranch and the Pedernales River he could view from his front porch. So much so, the Texas White House, the traveling road show that brought everyone from the Secret Service to world leaders to this famed residence in south central Texas, would evolve into over 500 days of his presidency at his ranch. Sitting beneath a four hundred year-old oak tree on the ranch house porch, LBJ and his guests could gaze across the expansive lawn toward the sparkling blue-green Pedernales, a seminal river piercing the heart of the Texas Hill Country, tributary of the Colorado River, and so much a part of LBJ’s entire life.
The Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, containing the LBJ Ranch, the original farm house where LBJ was born and other fascinating sites, sits just off Texas State Highway 290. The Park is halfway between the town of Fredericksburg and Johnson City. It is in Fredericksburg that our journey began. The town was originally settled in 1846 by German immigrants. That German theme permeates this city named for Prince Frederick of Prussia. Most of the attractions of the city are on either side of Main Street; shops, restaurants, antique stores. The city of 12,000 residents is also the home of famed World War Two Navy Admiral Chester Nimitz. An ever growing museum is fascinating and worth the time to browse through the exhibits. On the 290, eastbound toward the Johnson National Park, stop at Wildseed Farms and bring your camera, especially in the spring and summer. A full color palate of flower fields surrounds the farm. Specialty foods, seeds, gifts, it’s a wonderful stop and impossible to walk out of the main buildings without buying something. But it is in the heart of the Texas Hill Country at the Johnson National Historical Park that you really see why the President loved this country so much. The Hill Country is just that, rolling hills with endless stands of Cedar and full of wildlife. Drive downroad past the entrance just off of 290 to the Visitor Center where you can pick up a free pass from the Park Rangers allowing you to drive through the 1,570 acres along Ranch Road One. You cannot see the “Western White House” from the 290, so take the time to drive through the acres of rolling hills, observe small herds of cattle restocked after Lady Bird sold the original herd shortly after the President’s death. And when you stop along the road to take a picture, pause, just listen to gentle wind, the birds and the peaceful quiet that permeates your body to the bone. Your blood pressure slows as you follow the horizon to this magical place Lyndon Johnson called home. When you do get to the main Ranch House, park and walk to the Visitor’s Entrance and meet up with the very friendly and knowledgeable Park Ranger docent. It is only with that Ranger that you will be allowed into the home. Later this year the entire home will be open, for now it is worth the time to walk with the Ranger to the entrance of the house and directly into Lyndon Johnson’s Texas White House office. The Ranger described to this writer and several other guests that the office has been left exactly as Lyndon Johnson used it until his death, January 22, 1973. You can see his green desk chair, his glasses resting on his desk pad, and the full color portrait of Johnson over the fireplace. The Ranger went down the list of world leaders who had stood exactly where we were standing and that the whispers and ghosts of those days still seem to linger in the air. It was upon that description that our group and the Ranger suddenly fell silent, an eerie silence that lasted only until some nervous laughter moved the group quickly out of the office and house. Touring under the four hundred year old giant oak on the front lawn and looking past, you will see the Pedernales shimmering in a bright sun the day of our visit. It is quiet there now, but the meetings, the Bar B Que’s, the parties all are now only history, but your imagination takes you back, faint whispers of music, laughter and curling smoke above the BBQ pits. Anyone who had lived and witnessed the turbulent 60’s and had seen the network news film of those days…on that ranch…the escapee’s or survivors of those times who now see that ranch and stand on that spot where giants once stood are startled and then stilled by that permeating quiet. Driving out and away from the house you will come to the house where LBJ was born and the cemetery where the President is now buried. Quiet and still as well, only the low tones of visitors showing respect, whatever their current or past political views. And toward the end of the tour as you make your exit away from that patch of history, you drop off the narrative CD that has been playing in your auto sound system. I recommend you take that offered compact disk from the Ranger at the beginning of your Park visit, where you hear recordings of the President. You also will hear detailed history of the Park with fascinating anecdotes from the historical life and that was once a part of the Lyndon Johnson National Historical Park. It is well worth the visit and well worth a detour from The Road. Until the next Road Dispatch, KEEP ROLLING!!
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