You'll never guess what I caught, the very first time I wet a hook in Belton Lake. It was the summer of 1956, the year the water came back. Heavy rains ended the Great Drought that had held Texas in a dusty stranglehold since 1950. My mom had taken me and a couple of other aspiring young anglers to try our luck off the new marina, about five miles northwest of the city of Belton. The lake itself was brand new.

The small town of Bertram came into being quite suddenly in the summer of 1882, when lots were sold along the route of the new railroad track. Residents of several older communities which had been by-passed by the railroad (most notably, South Gabriel) moved whole buildings to the new townsite, which was named after Rudolph Bertram, the largest shareholder in Austin and Northwestern Railroad.

Travelling through the westernmost stretches of the Hill Country on Interstate 10, the speed limit is 80 mph through Kimble county. But 18 miles west of the city of Junction, release the cruise control, take the Roosevelt exit onto Loop 291 and stop to experience Simon Bros. Mercantile, a general store containing a picturesque post office, antiques, cafe, gasoline and much more.

“I had a very unique opportunity as a person,” says Carole Goble, who was recently honored as a “Woman of Distinction” by the Lone Star Council of the Girl Scouts in Austin. Readers of the Texas Hill Country magazine will be familiar with Carole’s tales of rural life during the Depression, but there’s a lot more to the Carole Goble story than growing up on a farm, and this latest honor was richly deserved by our own quiet Hill Country hero.

They roamed the wilds of East Texas for 40 days and 40 nights, this group known as the “Smoking for Jesus Ministry”. Blown from New Orleans homes and businesses by Hurricane Katrina, then met by Hurricane Rita, the group found no room at the Inn until they reached Marble Falls. They came and settled, some 55 families looking for a new place to call home. The group began putting down roots, and it was only natural that a restaurant would follow.

No matter how disparate, everything in the universe is somehow connected to everything else. Take the following: Yale divinity school, South Austin’s famous Saxon Pub, the planet Mars, the Vegas strip, and World War II-era American South. Is it possible that a line could be drawn to directly connect such a mixed bag? The answer is yes. It’s a real line, stretching the city blocks that make up Main Street in Marble Falls, and it’s one fans of the Texas Hill Country should consider walking.

If you’re looking for a great place to stay while you’re exploring the Hill Country, it’s hard to imagine anything better than a bed-and-breakfast in the very appropriately-named town of Comfort, Texas. Strategically located within a half-hour’s drive of more well-known Hill Country towns like Fredericksburg, Kerrville, Bandera and Boerne, Comfort bills itself as an “antique town,” fully equipped with its own charming historic district and unique shops.

It must have been an omen of some kind. Although Chester William Nimitz was born two hundred miles from the coast, his boyhood home -- his seafaring grandfather’s unique hotel – was shaped like a ship. And although Nimitz’ first career choice was the army, he went on to become a five-star admiral in charge of the entire Pacific Fleet during World War II. His stature as a military hero has brought to the small, land-locked town of Fredericksburg a museum memorializing the ocean war against Japan.

The standard of living in the Texas Hill Country has risen dramatically in the last few decades. Where families once eked out a meager from the rocky ground, tourists and retirees now enjoy the beautiful views, and many businesses flourish in rural towns that traditionally strapped for cash. Still, amid the rising tide of prosperity, there are many who lack the basic necessities of life. Fortunately , there are some compassionate neighbors who are helping.

While Admiral Nimitz directed the war with the Japanese in the Pacific, hundreds of young men from the Hill Country were fighting an equally formidable foe in Europe. The German army had enough strength left to mount a powerful counterattack through the Ardennes Forest in Belgium, commonly known as the Battle of the Bulge. Y.B. Johnson, who would later be the mayor of Goldthwaite, was near the town of Krinkeit, Belgium, with the 99th Infantry Division when the assault began.

June 9 was a big day in the small town of Menard, as hundreds of residents and visitors celebrated the 250-year anniversary of the old Spanish mission near the San Saba River. A procession of dignitaries, followed by a crowd of regular folks, walked the roughly three-mile route from the site of the old mission to Sacred Heart Church at Canal and Blevins Streets in Menard.

Stan and Pam Hegener have lived here for only five years, but their business is one that will make the Hill Country more picturesque for many years to come. The post-and-beam barns that they build near the town of Boerne will be anchoring rural businesses, housing livestock and lending their rustic charm to the landscape for a good long time.

John Turner was a Revolutionary War soldier and neighbor of Thomas Jefferson in Amherst County, Virginia. When he moved his family to Davidson County, Tennessee, he had another famous neighbor: General Andrew Jackson. His son, William Suddarth Turner, fought with General Jackson against the Creek Indians and against the British at New Orleans, where he stayed briefly before moving to Texas in 1837. Settling near Seguin, he fought in two campaigns against Mexico while Texas was still a republic.

Bill Williams has been whittling almost all his life; times were hard growing up in the small town of Poolville, Texas, during the Great Depression and Williams says, “We had to whittle; that’s all there was to do.” But he didn’t really get serious about woodcarving until after he retired from his Air Force career and took up RV traveling as an avocation.