Vandenburg

Vandenburg was the second of Castro's frontier villages, part of his plan for a ring of communities along the edge of his grant. In 1846 he made August Ferdinand Louis Huth his partner to manage the colonies, and Huth sent Jules Bourgeois to settle fifty newly arrived families on Verde and Lucky creeks. The colonists had to walk to Castroville or San Antonio for business, and poisonous wild greens killed some. By 1850 sixteen property owners remained. A schoolhouse built in 1876 with $200 raised by subscription served for forty-six years, until a one-room school replaced it in 1922.

What the plaque says

Vandenburg Located on the banks of Verde Creek (Arroyo Verde), Vandenburg, founded in 1846, was one of the colonies established by Empresario Henri Castro. Immigrants settled nearby and began farming. They dug a trench eight feet wide by six feet deep to protect them and keep their cattle nearby. Worship services conducted by visiting ministers were held in homes or under an arbor. Drought in 1847-49 caused crops to fail. Many settlers died from cholera. Most families moved to other communities by the 1860s. Two cemeteries are among the few physical remnants of Vandenburg. (1996)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Landmark Inn State Historic Site — 15 mi
  A store and stage stop at the Medina River ford in Henri Castro's Alsatian town, with a mill race under the ground and rooms you can still rent for the night.
• Frontier Times Museum — 22 mi
  A museum built of fossils, petrified wood and cave formations in Bandera, holding a printer-historian's collection of frontier relics and oddities.

More markers nearby

• New Fountain United Methodist Church — 4.0 mi
• Hondo — 4.8 mi
• Medina County — 5.1 mi
• Southern Pacific Depot of Hondo — 5.2 mi