Mt. Gainer

Gainer, Gainor and Gaynor all appear as spellings. The village stood about twenty-one miles northwest of San Marcos in western Hays County and was a school and church community. In the late nineteenth century it was known as an entertainment center, and its gatherings are said to have included ice cream suppers, picnics, dances and three-day barbecues. The post office closed in 1879. Most of what remains of the village now sits on private land.

What the plaque says

Mt. Gainer Pioneer rancher Joseph P. Gainer, known as Grandpa Gainer, settled 320 acres of land approximately three miles north of this site in 1858. The highest point in the area, located on Gainer's land, was called Mt. Gainer. A small farming and ranching community also called Mt. Gainer evolved along the south fork of Onion Creek. The name Mt. Gainer appeared on county maps as early as 1877. At that time a post office was opened; it closed two years later. In the early years of the twentieth century, the village included two general stores, a gristmill, a molasses mill, a Methodist congregation, and a Baptist church established in 1907. A one-room schoolhouse was erected through the efforts of area settlers in 1906 on land donated by resident Charlie Seal. In 1908 a farmer's union was formed to promote further development of the area. The union played a significant role in the social life of the community; the school building provided a place for worship, education, and social gatherings. A two-room school erected in 1921 quickly expanded. A staff of three taught area children until 1944 when the Mt. Gainer School District was consolidated with Dripping Springs schools. In 1998, the school cistern and steps, a teacherage, native rock fences, and a few buildings on private land were all that remained of this once thriving village. (1998)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Pedernales Falls State Park — 13 mi
  The Pedernales stepping down over layered limestone east of Johnson City, a river that can turn from a placid stream to a torrent in minutes.
• Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park — 19 mi
  The Johnson City district of the national park: the Victorian house where Lyndon Johnson grew up, and the stone barns his grandfather built in the Johnson Settlement.
• Spring Lake and the Meadows Center — 21 mi
  The headsprings of the San Marcos River, among the longest-inhabited places in North America, once an amusement park with a swimming pig and now seen from glass-bottom boats.
• Barton Springs Pool — 23 mi
  A three-acre pool in the bed of Barton Creek, fed by the fourth-largest spring in Texas at 68 to 70 degrees, and shared with an endangered salamander found almost nowhere else.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Dripping Springs — 4.4 mi
• Dr. Joseph McKeaig Pound — 5.1 mi
• Dripping Springs United Methodist Church — 5.3 mi
• Driftwood Cemetery — 6.5 mi