View allAll Photos Tagged hayscounty
A view of Cypress Creek as it flows through Blue Hole Regional Park in Wimberley, a small resort town and tourist destination located in Texas Hill Country southwest of Austin.
A view of the fourth and present Hays County Courthouse in 2021. Designed by C.H. Page & Brothers of Austin, this classical-revival style building was completed in 1909. Restored in 1972, the courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NHRP) in 1980. This courthouse also anchors the Hays County Courthouse Historic District added to the NRHP in 1992.
Hays County is part of the Greater Austin metropolitan area which has a population of 2.3M people as of the 2020 census. San Marcos, the county seat, has a population of 65,000 and is home to Texas State University.
A view of the Hays County Courthouse being decorated for Christmas in 2018. Completed in 1908, this classical-revival style building was designed by C.H. Page & Brothers. The courthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NHRP) in 1980, and anchors the Hays County Courthouse Historic District, recognized by the NHRP in 1992.
John C. Hays. His statue is in front of the Court House in San Marcos, Texas which is in Hays County. Who is John C Hays? Funny you should ask..:)
Jack Hays was born at Little Cedar Lick, Wilson County, Tennessee. His father Harmon A. Hays fought in the War of 1812, naming his son for a relative by marriage, Colonel John Coffee.[1]
In 1836, at the age of 19, Jack Hays migrated to the Republic of Texas. Sam Houston appointed him as a member of a company of Texas Rangers because he knew the Hays family from his Tennessee years. Jack met with Houston and delivered a letter of recommendation from then-President Andrew Jackson his great uncle. Rachel Jackson was Jack's great aunt of the Donelson family a relative of his mother.
In the following years, Hays led the Rangers on a campaign against the Comanche in Texas, and succeeded in weakening their power. Jack rode with an Apache Chief named Flacco who led the charge into every battle with him. The duo led and inspired the Rangers. In 1840 Tonkawa Chief Placido and 13 scouts joined with the Rangers to track down a large Comanche war party,[2] culminating at the Battle of Plum Creek.[3]
Hays commanded the force against the invasion from Mexico of 1842. During the Mexican–American War (1846–1848), Hays commanded the First Regiment of Texas Rangers at the Battle of Monterrey, established six companies along the northern and western frontier of Texas, and commanded the Second Regiment of Texas Rangers in Winfield Scott's Mexico City campaign.[4] The Rangers excelled during this conflict, gaining nationwide fame. Jack was the first to use the Navy Colt Patterson five shot revolver. He expedited Samuel Walker to meet with Samuel Colt which led to the design of the legendary Colt Walker six shot revolver used in the old west.
Blue Hole Regional Park is home to a popular spring-fed swimming hole on Cypress Creek in Wimberley, a small and charming city located in Texas Hill Country just southwest of Austin. I took this photo on a warm and beautiful day in late November. While this park is rather crowded in the summer months (reservations required), on this day my wife and I had the place to ourselves.
blue-hour bluebonnets 💙
📷 Captured these blue beauties a few evenings ago when I finally found a decent patch of flowers. It turns out I got super spoiled with the super-bloom two years ago when we moved to Texas. I mean, it was one heck of a first impression, that’s for darn sure. But after a long drought and the warmer air temperatures already creeping in, this year’s bloom is much more scarce — upping the challenge level for those of us who like to enjoy the wildflowers.
It’s all good though, challenges keep the journey from getting stale. 👍
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Just adding a splash of color to the feed with this crowded field of wildflowers... 🌈
I am (im)patiently waiting for scenes like this to be the norm again. I’ve seen a few bluebonnets starting to pop around town these past few days, so it seems the wait may be reallyyy close to being over! 💐
📷: A rainbow palette of spring wildflowers shows off their diverse beauty in the evening sun. Texas Hill Country, March 2019.
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Explore #35 on November 28, 2021
While driving the backroads between Austin and Wimberley, we came across this delightful 1930s era Texaco gas station in the unincorporated community of Driftwood. Now privately owned, the former gas station is a wonderful reminder of a time long past.
From the Texas State Historical Association Handbook Of Texas:
"Driftwood, seventeen miles northwest of San Marcos in central Hays County, grew up in the 1880s as a supply center for neighboring ranches and farms. Pioneers settled in the area, then known as Liberty Hill, as early as 1850, but most settlers arrived in the early 1880s. The community grew rapidly in that decade, perhaps as a result of its access to the new rail terminals at Kyle and Buda. By 1890 Driftwood had a post office, a school, churches, a cotton gin, and a general store. From a low of ten in 1925, the population grew to nearly 100 during the middle years of the twentieth century, then dwindled to fewer than twenty-five by the 1970s. In 1945 Driftwood became part of the Buda school district. A century after its founding, the community remained a quiet Hill Country crossroads served by a general store and post office."
At the 2020 census, Driftwood had a population of 176. In the coming years the characteristics of this small community is likely to change as a new private golf club and residential community, now under construction, is completed.
Happy first day of Spring! 💐Happy Vernal Equinox! Happy Aries season! And also, my water bill is due today. 😬
I’m reposting this image and my original caption because it seems appropriate (again, unfortunately) after more tragic, hateful losses in the USA this past week. Springtime calls for great change — bringing light to what was once shadowed; beckoning the cold, bare terrain to grow once again. Over the course of our existence, opportunities for learning and growing seem to always cycle through — so long as we have the courage to feel the discomfort of the growing pains. I truly believe we humans can do better (I mean, I know I am far from perfect), and there is always room for us to grow with the seasons...
#StopHate #StopHate #StopHate
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We live in a colorful world, filled with a wide assortment of pigmentation. From the flowers to the sky, the humans to the skyscrapers — every facet of life is painted with a variety of colors. 🎨 Maybe this is by mistake. Maybe it’s on purpose. ♀️ Either way, this fact is to our good fortune, because to exist in a monotonous world — a world lacking in diversity — sure wouldn’t be as beautiful or interesting... 🤔💭💐
Splash of Paint | 2019
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From last week, mid-deep-freeze in Central Texas. I took a few mini-adventures around the yard while we passed the time in between huddling around a tiny propane heater and waiting for power to come back on. Clearly, ice-glazed things became my muse, forcing me to slow down and take in all of the small details of the freeze, and leaving me with beautiful souvenirs of what was otherwise a terrible experience. Nothing like Mother Nature to keep you humble about basic necessities. All’s well that ends well. 😅❄️
📷 Image captures some Live Oak (Quercus fusiformis) leaves locked in a frigid suit of ice.
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Welcome, April! 💐
One evening a few spring seasons ago while driving around hunting for wildflowers in the Texas Hill Country, we stumbled across a field like no other. It seemed like a real-life Van Gogh painting -- a rainbow palette of vibrant colors artistically scattered about. The golden evening light cast a magical glow across this colorful sea of Paintbrushes, Bluebonnets, and DYC's. I gleamed with joy while shooting this extraordinary scene, it felt a bit surreal! If there's one thing I now miss about Texas, it is definitely the extravagant show of springtime wildflowers. 🌸
I hope April brings some type of bloom your way, literally and/or figuratively. Spring always follows Winter. 🌱
Texas Hill Country | March 2019
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As #PollinatorWeek wraps up, here’s a capture of my favorite of pollinators: the honey bee! I spotted this fuzzy little yellow fellow foraging a fresh patch of native Blue Sage. (Say that five times fast! ) Captured Spring 2020 in the Texas Hill Country.
It can be quite captivating, observing bees doing their thing — providing a nearly invisible ecosystem service, the way that only a pollinator can. I urge us to learn about how the pollinator system supports human life, and how we can take actions to help support healthy sustainable pollination. 🌎
Supporting your local farmers and beekeepers is one way we can do our part to help pollinators. Buy local honey products and locally produced organic foods (emphasis on organic, because pesticides are one of the biggest threats to pollinator populations). 🍯
And don’t forget to #BeeFriendly to your neighbors — both the human ones and the non-human ones. 💛
For more ways you can help, or to learn more about pollinators, check out The Pollinator Partnership
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From last week, mid-deep-freeze in Central Texas. I took a few mini-adventures around the yard while we passed the time in between huddling around a tiny propane heater and waiting for power to come back on. Clearly, ice-glazed things became my muse, forcing me to slow down and take in all of the small details of the freeze, and leaving me with beautiful souvenirs of what was otherwise a terrible experience. Nothing like Mother Nature to keep you humble about basic necessities. All’s well that ends well. 😅❄️
📷 Image captures frozen moss and lichens on a Live Oak tree branch.
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From last week, mid-deep-freeze in Central Texas. I took a few mini-adventures around the yard while we passed the time in between huddling around a tiny propane heater and waiting for power to come back on. Clearly, ice-glazed things became my muse, forcing me to slow down and take in all of the small details of the freeze, and leaving me with beautiful souvenirs of what was otherwise a terrible experience. Nothing like Mother Nature to keep you humble about basic necessities. All’s well that ends well. 😅❄️
📷 Image captures a close-up view of frozen-over spines on a Texas Prickly Pear (Opuntia engelmannii var. lindheimeri).
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A 40+ foot wall of water came roaring through this area on Memorial Day. It may not look so devastating here (but it is)---trying to capture a sense of the beauty of the area along with the damage.
Searching continues for those still missing and lost in the flood. Our thoughts and prayers are with those families and with those effected by the floods.
Wimberley, Hays County, Texas; June 5, 2015.
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More often than not the retreads on photo provides a to revisit a special place if only for a moment. This is for rethread Thursday. The original is pictured below.
To view photos in this photo challenge group: www.flickr.com/groups/1091826@N21/pool/
The Challenge this week in honor of July 4th is to take a picture of something either "red, white and blue" or something patriotic. www.flickr.com/groups/1091826@N21/pool/
The office of sheriff in Texas was created by the 1836 Texas Constitution. There are 254 counties in Texas and each county has a sheriff.
By statutes, the sheriff is a Texas Peace Officer, a conservator of the peace, enforces the criminal laws of the state, and is responsible for the county jail, bail bonds, civil process, and security of the courts. In some small counties the sheriff is also the tax collector. The office of sheriff is one of the oldest offices known to our system of jurisprudence. Sheriffs were initially elected to two-year terms, and as of 1956, began serving four-year terms. The size of Texas sheriff’s offices is as diverse as the population of their counties.
Hays County was created on March 1, 1848 from the southern part of Travis County. It is named for legendary Texas Ranger Captain John “Jack” Coffee Hays. Captain Hays was known for his battles with the Mexican Army and his victories over the Comanche Indians, who called him “Bravo Too Much.” Hays County was organized on August 7, 1848, with San Marcos as the county seat.