Llano County

In the twentieth century Llano County became a place people came to hunt and fish. It has long been called the Deer Capital of Texas and leads the state in whitetail deer taken, more than 12,000 a year, and wild turkeys draw hunters too. The three dams on the Colorado give it more than fifty-five miles of lakes on its eastern edge, popular for recreation and retirement. In the 1940s the county ran as many as 40,000 Angora goats, though by 1983 only about 5,000 remained, and in the 1970s it raised more than 50,000 turkeys a year.

What the plaque says

Llano County The name "Llano," first given by Spanish explorers in the 18th century to the river traversing the region, is a corruption of the French name given the Lipan Indians. First settlements were made by Germans about 1850. The county, created from Gillespie, Bexar, February 1, 1856, was organized August 4, 1856, with Llano as the county seat. (2.3 mi. N Llano, State Hy 81)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Llano County Courthouse Square — 3.1 mi
  The 1893 Romanesque courthouse on Llano's square, built after a fire at the height of a boom that was meant to make the granite town an iron city.
• Inks Dam National Fish Hatchery — 17 mi
  A free federal hatchery below Inks Dam on the Colorado, with thirty production ponds that draw birds and a look at how fish are raised from egg to harvest.
• Inks Lake State Park — 18 mi
  A state park on a constant-level lake of the Colorado, between Buchanan and Inks dams, with pink granite and gneiss at the water and CCC work along Park Road 4.
• Colorado Bend State Park — 20 mi
  Old ranch country on the Colorado above Lake Buchanan, where a spring-fed creek drops 70 feet over fern-covered travertine at Gorman Falls.

More markers nearby

• Llano County Granite Industry — 3.0 mi
• Lantex Theater — 3.1 mi
• Frank Teich — 3.2 mi
• Llano Woman's Culture Club — 3.2 mi