Landa has been longtime destination

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

Continue reading

Landa Park is site of many historical events in New Braunfels history

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

Continue reading

Adventurous Boy Scouts used drainage tunnels to stay out of trouble

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

Continue reading

At one time, it was a big deal for women to frequent saloons

By Myra Lee Adams Goff There was a time when women and alligators and catfish and perhaps a man or two sat side by side in the Phoenix Saloon and Beer Garden. Why is this such a big deal, you ask. It’s because it just wasn’t socially acceptable for women to frequent saloons and alligators

Continue reading

First settlers crossed the Guadalupe River on Good Friday

By Myra Lee Adams Goff One of my favorite historical places to go is the middle of the Faust Street Bridge and look upstream to where the first settlers crossed the Guadalupe on their way into NB. I have walked Nacogdoches St. on the east side of Seguin Ave. towards

Continue reading

New Braunfels native lost on Arctic expedition

By Myra Lee Adams Goff It’s been four years since Jennifer Niven wrote the book “Ada Blackjack” in which she told a 1921 tale of an ill-fated Arcticexpedition to Wrangel Island by four men and an Inuit Eskimo woman (Blackjack). One of the men was New Braunfelser Milton Galle. Niven’s local resource

Continue reading

Hoffmann’s verse reveals skepticism for emigration plan

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Possibly you, as I, have never heard of August Heinrich Hoffmann (von Fallersleben) (1798-1874). A renowned German poet, Hoffmann had a philosophy of freedom that was one of the strong factors leading to emigration to Texas from Germany. The translated poems and the info for this

Continue reading

A former downtown resident knows the people, places of her youth

By Myra Lee Adams Goff There was a time when, on Saturday night, the most exciting thing one could do in NB was to drive downtown to look at the photographs in the windows of Seidel Studio. Otto and Johanna Seidel who began their photography business in 1922 were called on

Continue reading

Many early immigrants didn’t last long, buried in Verein Cemetery

By Myra Lee Adams Goff The Comal County Geneology Society has researched NB records over the years, such as census, birth, marriage, death, cemetery records, ship lists, maps, and many more. If you come to the Sophienburg to do research, you have these booklets available. They are also for sale

Continue reading

Original Seekatz Opera House built for traveling shows, local entertainment

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Marie Jarisch and Gaston Parsons have an obvious pride when they talk about their grandfather and the Seekatz Opera House. The current Seekatz Opera House owned by Ron Snider is on the exact site of the original building, which burned down in 1941. Brothers Louis

Continue reading