New Braunfels has seen several daring jailbreaks

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — I recently found a note in Oscar Haas’s archive collection, “Zeitung, Thursday, July 6, 1899. Use story some time concerning a jailbreak.” He never published the story. I felt like he was “speaking from the grave” and I should look into it. The first purpose-built Comal County Jail was a […]

History among the ‘stones — Comal Cemetery

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — When I was in junior high school, I sometimes would tag along with my dad when he drove my Oma to Comal Cemetery. She tended my Opa’s grave twice a month. While they were scraping the dirt and replacing the flowers, I would wander through the gravestones. It may sound […]

Horse racing at the county fair

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — By now you know that “it’s fair time!” This fabulous, fun-filled week of the Comal County Fair brings the entire community together and hopefully slides in on the first norther of the year. Yeah, that weather thing is not happening this year, but still very fun-filled. Everyone that grew up […]

Older than Gruene Hall

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — I love driving the streets of downtown New Braunfels on a crisp, clear October morning. My favorite streets are the those laid out by Nickolaus Zink and the streets of Comaltown/Braunfels. Some of the oldest buildings in Comal County are located along these streets. As with anything old, there is […]

Race for pride

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — Some of my favorite memories include Mayfest, a fundraising event that was put on by the New Braunfels Volunteer Fire Department beginning in early 20th century. The early versions of the day-long event included parades, picnics in Landa Park, foot races, sack races and pumper races. The celebrations that I […]

Moving along

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — We have become somewhat accustomed to seeing motor homes, mobile homes, and tiny homes as they move down the highway to their new resting place. However, seeing a stucco building moving through downtown is more of a spectacle. That is exactly what I saw one morning in December. As I […]

Which way to the fair?

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — With the upcoming bridge closure, much has been written about daily street traffic and river traffic and where they all will go, but it was the announced change in the Comal County Fair Parade route that got people talking. The most vocally opposed viewpoints were adamant that “the parade should […]

Panthers in the park

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — Growing up on Kentucky Boulevard in the ‘60s, my “backyard” included Panther Canyon. All the streets in that hilltop neighborhood dead-ended at the canyon, including Kentucky before New Braunfels High was built. We called it simply “the canyon” and it provided many hours of imaginative exploration, old tires for us […]

Heroes and history

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — Kids of all ages gravitate to superheroes. I come from a time when the superhero list was relatively short: Superman, Mighty Mouse and Sky King. My favorite was Sky King, of course. But my real heroes — the ones I pretended to be in the backyard with all my neighborhood […]

Early jails in New Braunfels

By Myra Lee Adams Goff — According to stories of the Old West, suspected criminals were shot or hung. No jail was necessary. Then as people became more civilized, there arose a doubt as to whether the person accused was actually guilty. Could we possibly say that “those were the good old days?” I think […]