Dry Frio Canyon

The mineral water made a small resort. John Reagan, the first to sell it, built a two-story hotel; a later owner, B. W. Briggs, added cabins for bathers, and in 1916 Mr. and Mrs. Y. D. Taylor bought the place and added a stucco dining room and a large bath. L. B. Herrington opened the Reagan Wells Store across from the wells in 1912, with the post office inside. The baths closed soon after 1945, and in 1972 the resort became the Steps of Faith Ranch, a Christian center for troubled young people.

What the plaque says

Dry Frio Canyon Area's first settlers--families of Louis Bohme, Charles Jones, Gus Heard, and Lawrence Pike Heard-- applied in 1875 in search of new frontiers and range lands. The first post office was called Heard, as was the first school, which opened in 1880. While digging a well in 1885, T. H. Hammer discovered area's mineral water which became famous for medicinal qualities. He later sold his property to a promoter named Reagan who built a bathhouse and a hotel to sell mineral water. Baptist Church, formed in 1906, was first local house of worship. 1968

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Garner State Park — 7.2 mi
  The Frio River park that Uvalde County built with the Civilian Conservation Corps and named for its own vice president, where people have danced on the stone pavilion every summer since the 1940s.
• Real County Historical Museum — 14 mi
  A small county museum in Leakey, at the head of the Frio Canyon, with a log-cabin parlor, an 1880s horse-drawn hearse, a wool and mohair shearing machine and 1910s jail cells.
• Briscoe-Garner Museum — 23 mi
  The Uvalde house of John Nance Garner, the vice president who made the office a power in Congress, now a free museum to him and to Governor Dolph Briscoe.
• Uvalde Grand Opera House — 23 mi
  An 1891 Victorian opera house on the Uvalde square with a turret and a dragon weathervane, once owned by John Nance Garner and still staging volunteer theater upstairs.

More markers nearby

• Civilian Conservation Corps at Garner State Park — 7.2 mi
• C.S.A. Saltpetre Mine — 7.6 mi
• Silver Mine Pass — 7.6 mi
• Lombardy Irrigation Ditch — 9.1 mi