A Walk in Historic Seguin, Texas - Sat., Jan. 20, 2018

The LoneStar Walkers Volksmarch Club hosted the Seguin Historic Walk today, subtitled "There's a Story Here." Come to find out, not just one story happened here, but many. 

We opted for the 5k distance instead of the 10k because (1) I am recuperating, (2) it was chilly and misty, and (3) everyone in our group thought it was a good idea. The walk started at the Park Plaza Hotel. 

Across the street from our start point was the beautiful St. Andrew's Episcopal Church and bell tower.

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Seguin, Texas

St. Andrew's Bell Tower

We continued past the old Magnolia Hotel (which gives "Ghost Tours"), the Guadalupe County District Courthouse, an Old Spanish Trail Historic Marker, and the "World's Largest Pecan." How's that for variety?

Guadalupe County District Courthouse

Europeans first heard about pecans from Cabeza de Vaca who traveled the "River of Nuts." I found the informational sign below to be very interesting.

Sign under "The World's Largest Pecan"

Downtown Seguin

Municipal Building

In front of the municipal building is a historical marker (not the last one we'll see today) about Juan Seguin, after whom the town is named. He was quite a fellow.

Olivia Mansion Bed and Breakfast

 Below are photos of the restored Texas Theatre. 

Entry to Texas Theatre

A beautiful home

Downtown Seguin

From downtown, we headed over a street and then walked down a pathway past the decidedly wintry-looking Memorial Rose Garden into Walnut Springs Park. Actually, the whole day was looking rather like a day in Oregon in winter -- drizzly, grey, and dreary. The walkers, however, looked cold, but cheery.

Bob, Peri, and Jim

Walnut Springs Park has lovely bird art and lots of informational signs.

Scissor-tailed flycatcher 

Description of plants and animals found along
this 2.5-mile, spring-fed waterway.

Peri and Bob walking along Walnut Springs Park
pathway

If you know anything about the history of Robert H. H. Hugman and the San Antonio River Walk, then you may find the following sign enlightening. Under the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in 1932, funds were made available for civic projects and Seguin used those funds to clean the creek. They hired a young San Antonio Architect, Robert H. H. Hugman, to create a park. Dams and pools were built, a gravel trail constructed, and walks and stairways completed the park.

We continued on to the Sebastopol House which has so much history I'm going to write about it in a separate blog. Here are a couple of photos of the Greek Revival house from the outside. We actually went inside and took their free tour. 

Me, Peri, and Jim outside Sebastopol House

Peri, Bob, and Jim at back of house
where we entered for the tour.

Our tour took about 1/2 hour and I look forward to sharing it with you in my next blog. We continued walking through neighborhoods of Seguin.

Hugo and Georgia Gibson House

Seguin Public Library

St. James Catholic Church

As we walked away from the church, we saw two black vultures and a caracara (Mexican eagle) fighting over a dead squirrel in the road. The caracara carried it to the side of the road, but it was afraid of us; the vultures were not afraid of us and continued to carrion. (I know that sounds redundant, but I couldn't resist the pun.) When we returned past this area in the car about 20 minutes later, the vultures were gone and the caracara was feasting on the squirrel.

Black vultures cleaning up a dead squirrel

Bob in front of another beautiful historic home

Campbell Cabin (dog-trot style cabin)

Seguin's First Church

A book was written about Seguin and throughout town you will see markers like these that identify where passages in the book took place.

At this point in the walk, we got a little turned around and ended up going a few blocks out of our way. Our final destination was Central Park to see the Colonel Juan Seguin statue. This is a fitting tribute to the man who fought for Texas independence. 

Colonel Juan Seguin

Here is a bit of history from the memorial:

"Young Juan Seguin inherited his love for Texas Independence as a family tradition. Seguin family members were among the original settlers to arrive and build some of the earlier villages in Texas starting in 1722. 

"The original Seguins during the 16th century had migrated from Gevauden, France to New Spain in the Western Hemisphere.

"Santiago Seguin, Juan's grandfather, in 1778 supplied Texas beef to the Spanish forces allied with the American colonists who were fighting for their independence from England. 

"Erasmo, father of Juan Seguin, was a close friend of Stephen F. Austin. Erasmo served as Postmaster of Texas territory for 30 years commencing in 1807. He was also a senator in the Mexican Congress representing Texas. Erasmo was later selected by Texans to be a signer of the Declaration of Independence from Mexico."

With a pedigree like that, you would expect great things from Juan, and he did not disappoint. Juan's greatest motivator was a desire to live free. He was the first to sound the alarm of impending danger to Texas by Santa Anna's dictatorship. Juan Seguin's thirst for liberty was one of the motivating forces behind the Texas War for Independence. His entire career of commerce, civic and military leadership was closely associated with the deeds of that struggle. (Information from the Juan Seguin memorial.) 

With that, we finished our walk. The sun never came out and the temperature did not climb above the 50s. 

On the way to lunch, we took a detour to see the Power Plant Restaurant. It had sounded interesting and I wanted to take a look. Jim and Peri led the way in their car and we followed. The restaurant originally was an electric power plant. As you walk to the entrance, they have markers of how high flood waters came up in the past. The power plant sits about 28' above the Guadalupe River. 

Depths of flood waters - Power Plant Grill Restaurant

Waterfall at the Power Plant

Peri, Jim, and Bob waiting for me

For lunch, we went to Casa Sol in Seguin. All of us had been there before and enjoy their food and service. I had Pollo de Casa Sol (chicken in a mushroom sauce) with Mexican rice and refried beans, Bob had Green Enchiladas which he gave two thumbs up, and Jim and Peri shared a large plate of Chicken Fajitas. 

On the way back to their place, we stopped at Bill Miller BBQ to pick up a lemon merengue pie. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing Sequence. The guys beat the ladies by one game, this time. I'm sure we'll have many rematches.

Thanks, Jim and Peri, for a fun afternoon. Peri sent us home with some of the pie, and ingredients for a ginger/lemon/marshmallow root tea. Mmmm!

It was fun to get out of the house for some fresh air after Bob and I had both been sick for a couple of weeks. See my next blog for our tour of the Sebastopol House in Seguin. 

Good night. 

Historic Seguin Volksmarch, a Movie, and Baseball - Sat., May 4

A busy week ahead for walking and hiking! Today a Volksmarch in Seguin, tomorrow the hiker's group outing to O.P. Schnabel Park, Wednesday is International Walking Day so in the morning I'll be doing a Volksmarch in Crownridge Canyon; Wednesday evening the hiking group is doing a 5-6 mile King William and Riverwalk hike, next Saturday Bob and I will do another Volksmarch, and Mother's Day Sunday I will go with the hiking group to McAllister Park.

Before we headed out to Seguin, Bob and I did some research on the town. This little city has a big history. Juan Seguin was a key figure in local politics back in the day (1835 through about 1842). But Seguin's family history in the area went back to 1722 when his family built some of the earliest villages in Texas. In 1778, Juan's grandfather, Santiago, supplied Texas beef to the Spanish forces allied with American colonists to help them fight for independence from England. Juan Seguin helped the U.S. in their battle for independence from Britain and was one of the survivors from the Alamo. (He had been sent out to request more troops so was away from the Alamo when the major attack came.) With all of his dedication to the U.S. and his political career here, the U.S. turned their back on him. He eventually returned to Mexico.

Our walk started at the Seguin Chamber of Commerce. Once I signed in and picked up the map, we headed out along city streets to see old buildings and beautiful houses. And let's not forget the world's largest pecan!

Seguin's old central firestation.

Texas Theatre

Above the entry doors before you enter the theater.

Muscle cars and muscle man.

Craftsman-style building.

Victorian-style home.

As we walked Seguin, we came upon signs for "True Women" Book Tour. "True Women" was written by Janice Woods-Windle, a local resident. The book brings the history of Seguin to life and was made into a mini-series by CBS in 1997. The mini-series starred Dana Delaney, Annabeth Gish, Michael York, Rachel Leigh Cook, and Angelina Jolie. I have ordered it from Netflix.

Tour signs are all over town.

In addition to "True Women" tour signs, many history markers recount stories of Juan Seguin, the naming and re-naming of the town, Runaway Scrape, Santa Anna encroachments, Comanches and some of the earliest buildings made with concrete (AKA limecrete) in the country. Too much history to tell you here. We recommend you travel to Seguin and see it for yourself.

Women's  Club

History of Juan Seguin (click photo to enlarge).

County Courthouse.

Click photo to enlarge.

White Way lights honor WWI veterans.

Lady Justice on the County Courthouse.

Seguin is part of The Old Spanish Trail

History of the "River of Nuts"

Another nut visits the world's largest pecan.

Pecan orchards grow outside the city, part of the local economy.

Veteran's Memorial stands outside the courthouse.

Rain lilies.

Finally, a scissor-tailed flycatcher posed for me.

Look at the long, forked tail!

Glen Cove Estates neighborhood.

Guadalupe County Master Gardeners Landscape
Demonstration Garden.

Pardon me for disturbing your sunning session, Mr. Anole lizard.

Los Nogales at Heritage Village - a cluster of historic buildings.

Dietz-Castilla Dollhouse

Love to walk!

Catholic Church

As it happened, we stumbled into a street fair at the square called "The Fit and Fun Fiesta." There was dance entertainment or you could participate in a street Zumba dance and create entertainment for other fair-goers. Food and vendor booths lined two streets.

Beautiful dancing, vibrant colors in the fabrics.

Juan Seguin statue. The base of the statue
tells the history of the Seguin family.

These two beautiful girls were deciding if
they wanted to try Zumba. They decided not to.

Vendors.

A family sampling the fair fare.

Mural of Seguin's history.

The Old Stagecoach Road came through here.

Memorial Rose Garden in Walnut Springs Park.

Just beyond the Memorial Rose Garden arch is a history marker in granite telling the story of how the town of Walnut Springs was renamed to Seguin.

The ever-graceful Columbine.

Walnut Springs Park is a bird sculpture sanctuary. Scattered throughout the park are numerous bird sculptures.

Scissor-tailed flycatcher sculpture.

Our Volksmarch included a walk along the river.

It's interesting to note that Robert Hugman, who designed the Riverwalk in San Antonio, also designed this walk.

Patches of gorgeous wildflowers bloom in this park.

 From Walnut Park, we headed over to Juan Seguin's burial site.

Seguin burial site flags- Texas, U.S. and Mexico.

After our walk, we drove back to San Antonio. We had gorgeous weather. We ate lunch at the taqueria across the street for our RV park and then relaxed for the afternoon.

A Netflix movie, "Rock of Ages" starring Tom Cruise, arrived in the mail and we decided to watch it. What a stupid, stupid movie. Bob and I hated it. I give it one star out of five. The only thing that kept me from giving it zero stars was the soundtrack. But even that was distracting because of how bad the movie is. Avoid this movie like the plague.

Saturday evening, the San Antonio Missions were playing the Corpus Christi Hooks and we had a Groupon burning a hole in our pocket. Off we went to the game. The Missions were hot. They were up 6 to 2 when we left in the top of the 9th inning.

That was one busy day! Tomorrow looks to be just as busy.

Travel Bug out.