By Myra Lee Adams Goff

Imagine that it’s the 1920s and you have reservations at Camp Placid at Landa Park in New Braunfels, Texas. Camp Placid was a two storied summer resort on the banks of the spring-fed Pool at Landa’s Park. It was called Landa’s Park because it belonged to Harry Landa(Landa Estates was also part of Landa’s Estate. Get it?).

Of course there was no air conditioning in Camp Placid, but no matter, the building was all screened and one could jump into the pool anytime to cool off. The pool didn’t look too much different than it does now, except for the extras. Back in the 20s there were high dives and three platforms down the center just like now. There was a trolley on which you hung from a rope and rode down a cable and dropped into the pool. There was a water wheel that you could walk on. Lifeguards Kearney Starr, Noyes Starr, Frank Opryshek and Claude Platz would be there entertaining you with their trick diving and, of course, they would rescue you if you need to be rescued.

Manager Edwin Scholl, assisted by Arthur Kessler, would welcome you to one of the 86 resort rooms. What? You forgot your bathing suit? Never mind, you can rent one of those stylish black wool suits for 25 cents.

An added bonus to your stay at Camp Placid would be to watch the New Braunfels Tigers baseball team across the street. You wouldn’t even have to go into the bleachers, you could watch from your room. The NB Tigers were organized in 1909 by Ernst Stein and for almost 43 years they were a big attraction. They played teams from all over Texas and it’s believed that the rivalry between NB and Seguin sports started with the Tigers. Crowds filled the stands to see the arguments and fist fights that regularly occurred between the rival teams.

The biggest name player was major league Hall of Famer Jerome “Dizzy” Dean. The one time St. Louis Cardinal and Chicago Cubs star pitched for the Tigers while he was stationed at Ft. Sam Houston. Tigers baseball was formed by a group of men that loved the game. My dad was on that team with Dizzy Dean and he talked about it the rest of his life.

Here’s how Landa Park began: William Merriwether bought the 480 acres from Maria de Veramendi Garza in 1847. He sold it to JosephLanda in 1860 for $14,000.

Joseph Landa’s son Harry took over his father’s business ventures in 1890. In 1897 he entertained Helen Gould, daughter of Jay Gould, largest stockholder in the International and Great Northern Railroad. She loved the natural beauty of the park and encouragedLanda to open it to the public. Helen Gould was instrumental in getting a recreational ground on its line. A year later, excursions to the park from San Antonio began for 75 cents a round trip. Landa opened his Landa’s Estate to the public as a result of this excursion train. He did vast amounts of landscaping and building in the park and many events were held there.

When Harry Landa’s mother died, her will stipulated that all the properties must be sold in ten years. Landa sold the entire operation to investors. These investors went bankrupt and in 1933 the park was closed and surrounded by a twelve-foot barbed wire fence.

Under the leadership of E.P. “Pete” Nowotny, the Jaycees negotiated for the City to buy Landa Park in 1936.The price was $80,000 and when the bonds were issued, an estimated 1,000 citizens showed up to clean the park.

Camp Placid is gone, Sunday afternoon baseball is gone, but the beauty of the park is still there just like it was in the 1920s.

1920s view of the spring-fed pool with Camp Placid in the background.

By Myra Lee Adams Goff

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy” (Hamlet), meaning that the obvious is not the only thing there, and that’s true in Landa Park as well. I went to the park looking for historically unobvious, little known facts of significance and insignificance. And found them.

The Pioneer Monument dedicated in 1938 is really the hub of history in Landa Park. Funded by German-Americans throughout Texas, the statue depicts a German immigrant pioneer family by Hugo Villa, sculptor from San Antonio and also Gutzon Borglum, whose work included Stone Mountain in Georgia and Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. The entire sculpture rests on a Texas Star and tells the immigration story around the base. The dedication ceremony created quite a brouhaha. Representatives from Germany were invited, and guess what! Members of the Nazi Party showed up and demanded that the Nazi swastika be flown in place of a German flag. The New Braunfels planners sent them packing before the dedication. Hip, hip, hooray for the USA!

On the south side of the Pioneer Monument is a small monument dedicated to the controversy created by the Veramendi family who sold the Comal Tract for $l,l11.00 to Prince Carl in 1845. Then in 1852 the Veramendi family took court action to reclaim the land but it was later determined by the court that Prince Carl did indeed purchase it.

Close by the statue is a large dance slab where dances were held on Saturday nights. When thousands of soldiers from the military bases were brought to Landa Park in buses during WWII, they could “wiggle and wobble with Al Schnabel” (one of the bands that played atLanda Park). The band would sit on a platform up in a tree that was in the middle of the floor. For years the Kindermaskenball (Children’s masked dance) was held at this location. This outdoor floor was enclosed by a fence that is now gone, but the light pillars are still there. These pillars were built by the WPA after the Depression in the early 1930s. President Franklin Roosevelt instigated the nation-wide program to give men jobs by building public works. All through the park you can see evidence of WPA presence in the form of retaining walls, lamp posts, restrooms and drinkstands.

The water coming out of the second largest spring flows by the Arboretum and the focal point of this area is the Philippine Gazebo built in 1898. The story is that this gazebo was fashioned in the Oriental style so popular in the late 1800s when the United States was involved in the Spanish-American War (The first battle occurred in the Philippines). Bridges constructed in the same style and area did not withstand the test of time and floods. Photos reveal lush, tropical landscaping throughout the park, but particularly in this area.

There is a rock kiln near the footbridge. An interesting history: In 1863 during the Civil War, saltpeter made from bat guano was produced there. This saltpeter was an ingredient for gunpowder used by the Confederacy. One hundred pounds of guano from nearby caves would produce four pounds of saltpeter. Captain William Seekatz managed the kiln.

The Sophienburg Museum has historian Oscar Haas’ display of Lipan, Tonkawa, Karankawa and Waco Indian artifacts that he gave to the museum. Most of the arrowheads, flint darts, and lances were collected by him over a lifetime, mostly on the golf course and in the park.

Talk about unobvious! On Landa Park Lake, I spied a flock of ducks swimming along, minding their own business and right in the middle was a nutria, trying to disguise itself as a duck. You’re going to have to strap on a bill and some feathers if you want to fool me, Mr. Nutria.

Sculptor Hugo Villa in his studio. 1937. Sophienburg collection

By Myra Lee Adams Goff

Proclaiming themselves the Huck Finns of New Braunfels, Carroll Hoffmann and Doyle Krueger recently talked about their exploratory activities under the city streets. Mark Twain, author of “Huckleberry Finn” described Huck in this way:

“There were things which he stretched, but mostly he told the truth”.

The truth is, the trips underground started when Hoffmann and Krueger were in the fourth grade at Carl Schurz School. They were joined by fellow explorers Bobby Govier and Allen Pittman. It was 1941 and with about 4,000 people in town, children had more freedom to wander around. Boys ran around barefooted and as Hoffmann says,”with a marble in one pocket and a rock in the other”. His mother told him that he could go barefooted when he spied a scissortail in the spring. That solved a question that I have had for years. Why were the boys in our class pictures always barefooted, but not the girls? You guessed it, it was the macho thing to do - like stepping on a rusty nail.

Drainage tunnels were located at low spots throughout town. These boys would crawl inside and follow the tunnels. The entrance sloped down and branched off in different directions, eventually spilling out into a river or a creek. Their favorite tunnel emptied into the Comal Creek. This was the dark world of the unknown with many hazards. They would hit their heads on the overhead waterlines and cut their feet on broken glass. (They should have worn shoes)

Few streets were paved and those that were, had the pavement in the center and gravel on both sides. Lots of run-off water soaked in the ground, but the excess filtered through the gravel and so the water left inside the tunnel was cleaner.

These Huck Finns knew when they had traveled under an intersection because they could hear the cars overhead and they particularly recognized the sound of the only motorcycled policeman. That was important!

This enterprising group of boys plus about 25 more at junior high age became part of Boy Scout Troop #122. Here’s where their knowledge of the tunnels really paid off:

There was a group of older boys in Troop #122 called Senior Patrol Boy Scouts (Norman Krause, Jack Krueger, Kenneth Ikels, Carl Liebscher, and Hilmar Karbach) Right after their joint scout meeting, a game of cat and mouse began, the younger boys being the mice. The chase would commence downtown, around town, and into the neighborhoods. If the older boys got too close, the younger ones would brazenly go up to someone’s house, knock on the door or just walk in.(People didn’t lock their doors in those days).These actions scared off the cat, so the mice were safe for a while.

Reemerging after the coast was clear, they would make their way to their favorite tunnel and hide. The Senior Patrol didn’t know about the tunnels (or they were too smart to engage in that activity).

The older boys grew up, went off to college and the younger ones abandoned the tunnels and turned into the first Sea Scout Troop in town. Skippers Ray Roth, Bob Tays, and Fred Reinarz had their hands full, let me tell you. The leaders knew they had to keep these guys busy, so they got a small sailboat that they took to Lake Dunlap.

Every week-end the boys were out sailing. Very close to where the Sea Scouts launched their boat was Baetge’s Camp where the Mariner Girl Scout Troop met, perfecting their survival skills in a little rowboat. The Sea Scouts came along, dumped the rowboat over and over and over and took away the oars. And so the game continued, but a good time was had by all!

L-R Norman Krause, Jack Krueger, Kenneth Ikels, Carl Liebscher, and Hilmar Karbach, 1944.