Wurstfest

Wurstfest's first home after the armory was a ruin. In 1963 it met in the burned-out basement of the Eiband and Fischer store, known locally as Eiband's Hole, and drew about 10,000 people; the next year 30,000 came. By 1975 attendance had passed 160,000. Buying the Dittlinger feed mill and subleasing river authority land tripled the grounds in 1978, and an admission charge and stricter rules followed. In 1998 members cleaned up after a flood thirteen days before opening.

What the plaque says

Wurstfest An annual "salute to sausage" celebration, Wurstfest is held every fall on the Wurstfest grounds adjacent to Landa Park. The notion of a sausage festival was conceived in 1961 by Dr. E. A. Grist, veterinarian and city meat inspector in New Braunfels. At the time, New Braunfels had nineteen commercial sausage-making businesses in the city. Sausage making had been a local German tradition passed down through generations since the founding of the city. Initially the festival was held at the National Guard Armory, Landa Park and on Main Plaza. In 1967, the festival was moved to this industrial site originally developed in 1850 by William H. Meriwether who diverted the Comal River for a millrace to operate his grain mills. In 1860, Joseph Landa started Landa Industries at this location that later became Dittlinger Mills. Several buildings from the industrial era are utilized for the festival. In 1968, the celebration expanded to ten days. The festival is hosted by the Wurstfest Association of New Braunfels, a non-profit corporation whose mission is to promote the economy through tourism and preserve the community's rich German heritage. Leadership and manpower required to oversee operations is provided by the 150-plus Wurstfest Association members along with many volunteers and temporary employees. In addition to business vendors, local clubs and organizations operate food and merchandise concessions to raise funds that benefit their projects and programs. The festival is known for its variety of unique foods prepared and served by hometown folks, the best in Alpine and Bavarian style musical entertainment and its beautiful setting along the banks of the spring-fed Comal River. (2017)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sophienburg Museum and Archives — 0.9 mi
  The hilltop where Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels raised the Adelsverein's headquarters in 1845, now the museum and archive of the German colony that became New Braunfels.
• Gruene Historic District — 2.6 mi
  A cotton town on the Guadalupe that the boll weevil emptied, rescued in the 1970s by a kayaking architecture student, with a dance hall that says it has never closed.
• Natural Bridge Caverns — 13 mi
  The largest known cavern in Texas, found in 1960 by four college cavers under a ranch family's land, entered beneath a 60-foot limestone bridge and still growing.
• Spring Lake and the Meadows Center — 18 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.

More markers nearby

• First Patented Wire Fence — 0.2 mi
• New Braunfels — 0.4 mi
• The Church of Saints Peter and Paul — 0.4 mi
• Landa Park — 0.4 mi