Texas Romantic Getaway: Johnson City
Recommended for: shopping, B&Bs, history

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If you’re looking for a day of history and heritage that won’t include museum admission costs and tour fees, then head west to Johnson City. This is the land that President Lyndon Baines Johnson called home, just as his ancestors had years before when Texas was first being settled. Today it’s a small town getaway for couples seeking a little shopping and a lot of history.

Start your visit in downtown Johnson City at the LBJ National Historic Park (US 290 and 9th St., 860-868-7128; www.nps.gov/lyjo). Stop by the new Visitors Center for brochures and a look at some exhibits on the late president’s family, then walk to two historic areas.

From 1913 to 1934 Lyndon Johnson lived in a simple white frame house at this location. Johnson’s father, Sam Ealy Johnson, Jr., was a state representative, and the home often echoed with political debate. At the same time, a future statesman was being tutored on the front porch at the knee of his mother, Rebekah Baines Johnson.

After your tour, head toward the Johnson Settlement, a restoration of the cabin and buildings which belonged to Sam Ealy Johnson, Sr., LBJ’s grandfather. The Settlement can be reached on a path from the boyhood home, a walk through pastures which were once the Johnson’s livelihood.

Photos, farm implements, and clothing from the 1800s are displayed in a visitors center. An old cypress cistern serves as a mini-auditorium in which you may hear recorded readings of letters the original settlers wrote about this rugged land.

Past the center is the Sam Johnson cabin, which also served as headquarters for his longhorn drives up the Chisholm Trail. Several head of longhorn graze in the pasture, just as they have for generations. At one point, this cabin also functioned as aid station for the wounded following the Deer Creek Indian Battle.

Once you’ve seen all of Johnson Settlement, it’s just a short drive to the LBJ National and State Historical Parks (west of Johnson City on US 290, 830-868-7128; free). Leave Johnson City on US 290 to Stonewall, then turn on Ranch Road 1 to the park entrance. When LBJ was alive, much of this area comprised his private ranch. Security was very tight, and Secret Service men guarded the grounds.

Today, however, the National Park Service conducts tours of the LBJ ranch. Your visit to the park begins at the visitors center, a building of native rock constructed in a typical Texas style. Displays of LBJ’s family, the ranch, and the Hill Country can show you what life was like during the pioneer times, as well as the hectic days when LBJ was president. A short walk away from the building are pens of huge buffalo, native white-tailed deer and wild turkeys.

While you’re in the visitors center, sign up for a tour (admission fee) of the ranch. An air-conditioned bus with a guide will take you on a 90-minute drive around the ranch and the back pastures. The drive takes you across the mighty Pedernales River, through a countryside dotted with cattle, live oaks, and the beauty of the Hill country at its best. This is the land that LBJ loved and returned to as often as possible. Often during the tour, the words of LBJ and Lady Bird are broadcast over the bus’s loudspeaker describing their feelings for the area.

Immediately after crossing the Pedernales River, your tour bus will slow down for photographs of the one-room schoolhouse where LBJ began his education at the age of four. A few minutes later, you’ll stop at a recreation of the home where LBJ was born. Built in a breezy style typical of Texas homes of the period, the house is filled with furnishings of the Johnsons. Before heading back to the bus, stop by the family cemetery nearby. It lies under the shade of huge oak trees and overlooks the Pedernales River. LBJ and many members of his family are buried here.

Your tour continues with a drive past the “Texas White House,” a large white home sprawled under shady oaks. Many national and international names visited this Texas White House during LBJ’s lifetime.

For the remainder of the tour, you’ll see just what ranch life is like in central Texas. Cattle graze lazily over the many pastures; ranch hands cut hay; workers clean the stockbarn used for cattle sales. This is still very much a working ranch.

Short and Sweet

Getting There:
Johnson City is located in the Hill Country on US 290.

Love Nests:
Choose from seven properties of Bed and Breakfast of Johnson City (210-868-4548), including the Hill House Guest House. One of the city’s oldest homes, it was built at the turn of the century and modernized with a tin exterior in the 1920s. This bed-and-breakfast has been used by many wedding parties and anniversary couples, and recently a newlywed couple in their 90s. Other accommodations include the Lawyer’s Loft (with hand-carved mahogany beds), Smith’s Tin House on the Square (a two bedroom cottage), Boot Hill Guest House (decorated with items straight out of the Old West), Hoppe’s Guest House (a private guest house served by the owners located next door), the Gingerbread House (a two bedroom cottage with kitchen), and Carolyne’s Cottage (owned by a certified massage therapists who can provide relaxing treatments.) Each of these homes is a guest house, not a traditional bed-and-breakfast, so couples do enjoy complete privacy.

For more information:
Call the Johnson City Chamber of Commerce at (830) 868-7684, or see www.johnsoncity-texas.com.