Region: Kingsland

People have always wanted to come to Kingsland. Archaeological evidence shows that for thousands of years before Martin King bequeathed his name to the beautiful valley, Native Americans regularly visited the banks of the Llano and Colorado Rivers.

After the region’s last major Indian battle, fought atop Packsaddle Mountain in 1873, Martin and Nancy King founded a tiny frontier town near the juncture of the two wild rivers. Their town became a popular resort with the arrival of the railroad, and the luxurious Antlers Hotel became the town’s most enduring landmark. But the absence of good roads left the town in almost total isolation through the middle of the twentieth century, and Kingsland’s population dipped to around one hundred by the time the Alvin Wirtz Dam was built in 1950.

Soon modern highways and infrastructure brought retirees and vacationers to the lake (renamed Lake LBJ for its famous neighbor in 1965), and the wide valley became a community once again. A remarkable Independence Day celebration and a spectacular amateur ski team brought statewide recognition.