Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Colorado Landing, La Grange, TX: Feb 11-14
This nice Passport America park was chosen because of its location about halfway to our next destination. After we had already planned the stop, we found out it is one of Don & Janet's favorite campgrounds. We can see why. It is reasonably priced and in a lovely location, with nice level pull-thru spaces to add to the enjoyment. There are trails along the river (the Colorado River of Texas), where there is potential for bird watching.
Janet told us about the "painted church" in Ammannsville, so we inquired about it when we checked into the campground. It turns out that the surrounding area is famous for its painted churches -- there are at least 15 listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 
We visited six that were near La Grange, including the one in Ammannsville. "Painted" refers not to the exterior but to the interior walls & ceiling: lifelike foliage twines around the baseboards and up the columns; realistic murals decorate the apse. Inscriptions in the four Catholic churches we visited were in Czech; the two Lutheran churches used German.
The churches were built by the wave of immigrants attracted to the area after the end of the Mexican War in 1848 by cheap, fertile farm land, a mild climate, and terrain reminiscent of their homeland. 
One of these immigrants, Heinrich Kreische, bought land on a sandstone bluff overlooking La Grange. He was a stonemason by trade, but after building his home and settling in, he decided to build a brewery. The Monument Hill/Kreische Brewery State Historic Park protects the remains of the Kreische house & brewery and provides tours of each. What was most fascinating to us was the brewery overlook -- looking down on the remains was like looking down on a Chacoan great house. The building style was exactly the same, sandstone blocks & earthen mortar, and the circular cisterns looked so much like kivas it was spooky. It made us realize how advanced the Chacoans were that their style was so similar to that used by a master stonemason 800 years later.A short walk from the Kreische house is Monument Hill, a hallowed spot in Texas history. In 1848 the remains of men killed in the struggle for Texas independence were reburied here in a sandstone vault, one year before Kreische purchased the property. The monument is a memorial to the men who died in two separate incidents: the Dawson Massacre & the infamous "Black Bean Death Lottery". In 1842, Nicholas Dawson led a company of advance militia toward San Antonio to battle the Mexican invaders who had captured that city. As they approached Salado Creek, 500 Mexicans attacked, killing 36 of the 54 men. Later that year, over 300 soldiers ignored official orders & set out to avenge what had already become known as the Dawson Massacre. They marched south & attacked the border town of Ciudad Mier. 250 Texans were captured, but within 6 weeks, 181 had escaped. Within days, harsh desert conditions forced 176 of them to turn themselves in. Enraged by their defiance, Santa Anna ordered the execution of all 176, but diplomatic intervention from the US & Great Britain led to a compromise. Each recaptured escapee drew one bean from a pot containing 159 white beans & 17 black beans. Those who drew black beans were executed. The Kreische family did its best to care for the grave, but it suffered from lack of official oversight. The property was turned over to the state of Texas in 1905.
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 2:38 PM 
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