The dramatically beautiful hills that surround Wimberley are doubly responsible for the creekside village’s charm. For while they provide a scenic backdrop and a remarkable vantage point for lovers of scenery today, they provided for decades an almost impenetrable shield from advancing civilization. The seclusion and slow progress that resulted can be largely credited for Wimberley’s “antique” small-town charm.

On April 5, 1847, at the very beginning of the pioneering push into the Hill Country, Governor Pinkney Henderson granted a patent for 1280 acres on Cypress Creek to William R. Baker. Baker soon sold his land to Jacob de Cordova, a remarkable Texas pioneer who deserves a story all to himself. Born in Jamaica to Jewish/Spanish parents, de Cordova came to Texas in 1837 and eventually acquired more than one million acres in 48 Texas counties. He was a legislator, author, editor, philosopher and promoter extraordinaire, but here he was stymied. When he couldn’t get a road put through to his new Cypress Creek property, he sold it to James Montgomery in 1856 for $1,800 ($1,000 of that amount was paid in sheep!)

During that time, the area was almost uninhabited, except for huge herds of buffalo and a wide variety of other wildlife. In 1852, one hunter named George McGehee killed 978 buffalo there, which he sold to the army at San Marcos.

Montgomery didn’t last long, either. Possibly because of a shooting incident (the story is told that he shot a man named George Blackwell in a dispute over hogs), he sold the land the very next year to William Carvin Winters, a veteran of San Jacinto who had been searching for a suitable place to build a mill. Winters built himself a home and the mill he had dreamed of; soon a small village sprang up around it. Montgomery’s name does not appear again in Wimberley history, but Winters became one of its main characters.

After losing several mills to floods along Cypress Creek, Winters decided that a mill race was the answer, and he hired laborers to dig a 3700-foot channel to divert water to a new mill above the flood plain. He then built a dam downstream to raise the water level, creating an artificial stream with a 21-foot waterfall to power his mill wheel. The mill race also served to irrigate his cultivated fields; he reportedly was able to get a full bale of cotton from each irrigated acre. His mill race supplied water for a grist mill, a saw mill, shingle mill and a cotton gin, attracting commerce from ranchers for miles around.

Because of the constant threat of Indian attacks during those early years, Winters’ home was built with 18-inch-thick limestone walls, somewhat resembling a small fort. The last Indian battle in the area was fought about a decade later, about four miles north of the Winters’ home; Winters himself died peacefully enough; he collapsed while plowing a field in 1864, at the age of 55.

Elisha McCuistion arrived at nearly the same time as William Winters; he built a hand-hewn cedar log cabin near the famous Blue Hole on Cedar Creek. That cabin is now a guest house owned by Bill and M.F. Johnson, whose book “Wimberley History and Legends” provided much of the material for this article.

By the late 1850s, the village around the mill boasted a tannery, a general store, a shoe shop and a school, which also served as a church and the town hall. By the 1870s, a blacksmith shop had been added to the growing “square.” Wimberley was known for several natural features, including the “Blue Hole” fishing-and-swimming spot, and a natural phenomenon called Jacob’s Well, a deep, round hole at the source of Cypress Creek. The creeks and the Blanco River, separated by several distinctive hills, made the Wimberley area a natural paradise despite its scarcity of good farmland. Abundant fish and game, along with plenty of water and wood for fuel and building allowed pioneers to live off the land a little more easily than in the fertile fields just a few miles to the east, and some hardy souls chose to live their lives in the rugged hills around the village. One noteworthy pioneer was Ezekiel Edward Nance, who came from Arkansas in 1852 and acquired 14,000 acres of rugged land along the Blanco River between present-day Kyle and Wimberley. His wild and beautiful ranch came to be known as “Little Arkansas,” and it was so inaccessible and secluded that war evaders used it as a hideout during the War Between the States.

After the death of William C. Winters, the mill was taken over by his daughter, Nancy, and her husband, John Cude. They ran it for ten years, and the little settlement was known as “Cude’s Mill” until they sold the property (including the limestone home) for $8,000 in gold to Pleasant and Amanda Wimberley in 1874. Pleasant Wimberley had been a rancher in northern Blanco County, but he soon became the leading citizen of what became known as “Wimberley’s Mill.” He expanded the mill to produce flour and sorghum molasses as well as a cotton gin. When the town (now boasting a population of 140) acquired its first post office, the name was shortened to Wimberley.

While the nearby community of San Marcos was rapidly becoming a major commercial center in the 1880s, Wimberley’s inhospitable surroundings kept it small and relatively backward for decades (in 1900, the village consisted of nine houses around the square). There were no good roads, and the trail from San Marcos was rough and hilly. Heavy supply wagons did not have adequate brakes to allow the steep descent down the “Big Hill” into Wimberley, and wagoneers had to put a cedar post through the rear wheels to keep the speed down. Sometimes even this extra measure was not sufficient, and the old wheel spokes would break on the way down the hill. In fact, this was such a common occurrence that the hill became known as Spoke Hill. The first decent (but still unpaved) road was built in 1921. (Even then, there was no bridge across the Blanco River – just a low-water crossing which was sometimes not passable, and drivers usually took a child along with them to open and close the gates along the way to San Marcos.)

John Henry Saunders came to Wimberley to teach school in the 1870s. He built a general store in 1890. He served as postmaster, and the post office was in his store. He served as a county commissioner and as a school trustee; he also helped install the first water system in Wimberley. He and his wife had 13 children; they moved to San Marcos when he was appointed superintendent of public instruction for Hays County in 1910.

With the progress of civilization came many changes, even to the secluded village of Wimberley. Overgrazing across the Hill Country caused the water table to fall, and Cypress Creek no longer had sufficient volume to run the mill. Pleasant Wimberley’s grandson, Calvin Hickman “Hick” Wimberley, responded with great ingenuity, using a smaller turbine, assisted first by a steam engine in 1899, then a “one-lung” gasoline engine in 1912. Despite his reputation for making the best hominy around, the mill was not able to compete once the road was good enough for more modern mills to ship their products to Wimberley. The mill was closed in 1925 and razed in 1934. (The site is now occupied by Ozona National Bank.)

Folks from the city learned early on that Wimberley was a great place for a holiday, and by the turn of the century, guests brought cots, tents, food and lanterns to spend a few days by the Blanco River or on Cypress Creek. By the 1920s, the Dobie family was charging $.25 per carload for people to picnic on their land and swim in Blue Hole. Through the next few years, several resorts and many vacation homes were built in Wimberley.

A major figure in Wimberley’s “middle” history was Susie Brooks Danforth. She was a farmer, a poet, a hunter and a schoolbus driver; she was a mother of three daughters, a teacher, a principal, a telephone operator, a rock mason, a carpenter and an artist painting in oils. She lived well and lived long; her story is told in a 1976 book called “100 years in Wimberley.”

Kim Tinney was another local legend. Born fifteen years ahead of “Miss Susie,” was known chiefly for being a “character.” C.W. Wimberley described him in his 1988 book, Cedar Whackers. “Kim Tinney was the loner for whom most old-timers hereabouts have fond memories: the little song-and-dance act he gave when met on the road, the shoulder-length hair, the cut-off breeches worn at half-mast and his own brand of homemade sandals.”

“Kim could hang his hat on a hollow log by the creek, and it was ‘home, sweet home’ as long as the fish were biting and the hunting was good. Skunk hides and coon furs brought in Kim’s winter spending money and, during the warm season he was often seen carrying a tow sack filled with buzzing, writhing rattlesnakes.” He died in 1944.

In the late 1930s, Buck and Kitty Winn came to Wimberley from Dallas. Buck was an accomplished artist and inventor who had tired of city life. He bought a 1,000-acre ranch south of town, and continued his work of teaching, inventing and painting murals. His work adorned the walls of many banks and universities; his most famous work was a 280-foot-long mural called “The History of Ranching,” which circled the famous “Corral Room at Pearl Brewery in San Antonio. Part of that mural has been restored and is on display at the Wimberley Community Center. Another part hangs at Texas State University in San Marcos.

In the meantime, Wimberley took a big step forward with the arrival of electricity in 1939 and again with the improvement of the square in 1941 (it was covered then with gravel to lessen the problems of dust and mud; actual pavement came seven years later). The population grew to about 400 by the end of World War II. The area became a magnet for artists of all persuasions, although at first (in the words of Bill Johnson), “Artists drifted in and starved until they learned to do rock work or carpentry.” Aulgerina Lange opened Wimberley’s first art gallery in the 1950s to promote local artists. The art community has grown steadily ever since.

In 1943, Allen and Betty Boyle purchased 640 acres just north of Wimberley, and developed “Eagle Rock Ranch Resort.” Lot owners could build a home and use the ranch for hunting fishing, riding or hiking. As time went on more land and amenities were added. The area’s natural beauty drew artists, authors, musicians, performers; it also drew thousands of vacationers and retirees. A real bridge across the Blanco River was finally built in 1960, allowing all-weather accessibility and making Wimberley more viable to commuters for year-round living. By 1985, Wimberley had more than 50 businesses, eleven churches and three schools. The area around the square was filled with unique shops and galleries, while fine resorts and lodgings dotted the banks of Cypress Creek and the Blanco River.

For “the rest of the story,” and lots of colorful photos, read our Summer 2009 Texas Hill Country magazine.