Kratom in Kerrville

Kerrville, the county seat of Kerr County, is sixty-two miles northwest of San Antonio on Interstate Highway 10, at the junction of Texas Highways 16 and 27. The official elevation is 1,645 feet above sea level, though many of the residential districts in the hilly township are higher. Geography has always been the dominant quality of the Kerrville area-from prehistoric times, with archeological evidence suggesting human habitation as early as 10,000 years ago, to the present, when the town has achieved a national and international reputation for its karst landscapes, scenic roadways, river and streams, lakes, caves, biological diversity, ranches, architecture, and popular culture.

The original settlement, named for James Kerr and situated on a bluff north of the Guadalupe River in the eastern half of the county, grew from a successful shinglemakers’ camp into a mercantile and shipment center for the middle and upper Hill Country, and eventually into a medical, recreational, professional, cultural, and, to some extent, educational hub for parts of a five-to-seven county area. One of the earliest shinglemakers was Joshua D. Brown, a member of Green DeWitt‘s colony at Gonzales and a veteran of the battle of San Jacinto, who, with his family and related families explored about a hundred miles of the Guadalupe valley from Curry Creek to near the headwaters in the 1840s.

These pioneers built permanent homes at what they called Brownsborough in the early 1850s. From this settlement, Kerrsville, later Kerrville, was platted after Kerr County was organized in 1856. It was voted county seat by a narrow margin, and its claim was tenuous until 1862, when rival Comfort was placed in newly formed Kendall County.

Kerrville’s importance dates from a conjunction of events starting in 1857, when German master miller Christian Dietert and millwright Balthasar Lich started a large grist and saw mill on the bluff. This mill, with a permanent source of power and protection from floods, became the most extensive operation of its kind in the Hill Country west of New Braunfels and San Antonio. Related mercantile and freighting enterprises led to the foundation of the Charles A. Schreiner family empire of retail, wholesale, banking, ranching, marketing, and brokering operations-which during the next five decades became the catalyst of Kerrville’s and the area’s early prosperity and growth.

The Civil War slowed this development and split Kerrville, as it divided the rest of the Hill Country. With the start of Reconstruction, however, Kerrville’s economic boom and ethnic diversification continued anew as demand in San Antonio for lumber, produce, and craftsmen combined with the cessation of Indian raids and the expansion of cattle, sheep, and goat ranching into the upper Hill Country and Edwards Plateau. Cattle drives punctuated the boom years of the late 1880s and the 1890s.

In 1887 the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway reached Kerrville, and in 1889 the town incorporated, with an aldermanic form of city government. The Kerrville Water Works Company began to provide water for town dwellers in 1894, telephone service was introduced in 1896, and the city began to pave streets in 1912.

Its economic base has diversified and broadened through business, agriculture, light manufacturing, health care, transportation, services, education, the arts, and tourism. By the mid-1990s the Wall Street Journal described Kerrville as one of the wealthiest small towns in America. By 1995 the city’s official population was still under 18,000, with another 20,000 people in relatively affluent residential areas south of the river and in the rest of the county. In 2000 the population reached 20,425. Much of the growth in population included retirees and young professionals and semiprofessionals; for many years Kerrville also experienced significant outmigration of young adults raised in the area.

Kerrville enjoys not only a favorable and pleasant setting that has long attracted an affluent and international population, but also a diversity in culture, business, and institutions. In the 1990s the ethnic mix of the town included Anglo Americans from all parts of the United States, as well as Germans, Mexican Americans, African Americans, and Scots. It also included smaller elements of Central European, Baltic, and Asian extraction. Partner-city agreements and other exchanges linked Kerrville with other municipalities in North America and Europe.

There were more than fifty churches. Public and private schools, a college, several university extension programs, and an unusually large public library served Kerrville and the larger Hill Country area. Two museums preserved cowboy art and the history of the Schreiner family. The Kerrville music festivals (see KERRVILLE FOLK FESTIVAL), sports competitions, arts and crafts fairs, working ranches, wildlife, and exotic game preserves have been widely known in the state since the early 1900s and in the nation since the 1980s.

Businesses in the early 1990s ranged from clinics, sanatoria, summer camps, convention centers, hotels, restaurants, and three hospitals, to an aircraft-manufacturing facility, a major silversmith, a regional bus company, an airport, various banks, radio and television stations, newspapers, retail stores, and services. The city also had a large number of artisans, painters, writers, and musicians.

Tourism brought well over half a million visitors to the town annually in the 1980s and 1990s. The primary trade area included nearly 70,000 people by 1995. Economic development and environmental and cultural preservation were the main concerns of the town during these decades. Predominantly Republican, the town in the 1990s had a council-manager form of city government with six council members. An armory of the Texas National Guard was also located inside the city limits. (source)

The Museum of Western Art is dedicated to excellence in the collection, preservation, and promotion of Western Heritage and the education and cultural enrichment of our diverse audiences.

The Museum is located in Kerrville, TX, only a short drive northwest from San Antonio, and sits on prime real estate in the heart of the famed Texas Hill Country. This outstanding facility provides the opportunity for one and all to relive Western heritage through great Western Art.

The Museum opened on April 23rd, 1983, and was first known as the Cowboy Artists of America Museum. In the years since, thousands of visitors have walked the Museum galleries and have seen the West brought to life through the artwork on view. The hardworking cowboys, Native Americans, women of the West, settlers, mountain men and others are featured through various themed exhibits. Through other exhibitions, the history of famous ranches as well as other diverse aspects of our Western heritage are shared with our ever-widening audience. In addition, educators, students, writers, and the public make use of the museum’s 6000 volume Western art and history research library, the Griff Carnes Research Center.

The Museum is a work of art in its own right, with its unique architectural design by renowned Texas architect O’Neil Ford. Featuring heavy timbers and rugged retaining walls of stacked limestone, the building’s exterior resembles a fortressed hacienda. Heroic and life-size bronzes dot the landscape of the outer grounds. Inside the 14,000 foot facility, 23 bovedas give visitors a glimpse of artisan work rarely seen today. Floors of end-cut mesquite wood and saltillo tile are polished to a warm glow, complementing the Western artwork on view in the galleries. In 2004, the Masel S. Quinn Pavilion was completed and made ready for event use and as an integral part of our art education program.

In preserving and promoting the heritage of the American West, the Museum is committed to exhibiting the very finest artwork including art created by today’s well-known Western artists. Temporary exhibits feature famous masters of the past, regional artists, artifacts from the era, and historical explorations of the region’s past. The Museum’s goal is to represent authentically the life of the West, in both its historic and contemporary context.

Finally, in all that it does, the Museum serves as a bridge between the past and the present, ensuring that the legacy of the American West will be preserved for the future. We invite our guests to be part of that mission. Experience the West as it was and as it is at the Museum of Western Art…Where the Legend Lives.

Plans to build a multi-purpose public use river trail along the Guadalupe River in Kerrville have occurred since the 1970’s. In 2002, voters approved $500,000 in bond funds for the River Trail project which were used to complete master planning and initiate the first phase. Master planning for the River Trail’s full length (Kerrville-Schreiner Park to Spur 98 Bridge) was completed in 2009.

The Kerrville City Council and the Kerrville Economic Improvement Corporation (EIC) have been working together to fund a variety of quality of life projects to include this addition to the city’s park system, and thus funded $8 million in parks and river trail improvements. Debt service for the bond funds was structured so that the impact to the EIC revenues would be minimal.

In 2011, the EIC and City Council approved the aforementioned $6 million for development of the River Trail and $2 million for the Louise Hays Park and Lehmann-Monroe Park improvements, funded solely from the 4B economic development sales tax revenues.

The first segment of the Kerrville River Trail, the Riverside Nature Center to Tranquility Island segment, was dedicated on December 15, 2012. The second segment of the trail, the Louise Hays Park to Kerrville-Schreiner Park segment, was dedicated in conjunction with the Louise Hays Park improvements on June 13, 2015. The third segment of the trail, the Lowry Park segment, was dedicated on May 27, 2016. On November 30, 2018, the dedication of the Lowry Park to Dietert Center segment, brought a close to the first phase and five miles of the River Trail project. Phase two began with the expansion to Schreiner University from the G Street Trailhead which was dedicated on September 4, 2020.

Sitting at the highest point in Kerr County, overlooking the beautiful Texas Hill Country, Kerrville Hills Winery (KHW) was the first winery established in Kerrville. In 2019, John Rivenburgh purchased Kerrville Hills to establish a communal space for educated winemaking, accelerating boutique operations. John has deep roots in the Texas Hill Country, is an award winning winemaker, and has passion for growing high quality, sustainable Texas grapes. John has been in the Texas wine Industry for over 15 years, currently sits on the board of Texas Hills Country Wineries Association serving two terms as President.