Landa Park New Braunfels TX

After our delicious lunch at Monterrey Café, Jacki took us to gorgeous Landa Park in New Braunfels TX which gave us a chance to walk off some calories.

Landa Park sits on the historical site of the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe Mission (Our Lady if Guadalupe Mission), which was established in 1756. This location on the river is now known as New Braunfels.

Yes. The Guadalupe River is the one that had catastrophic flooding just a couple of months after we were there! Incredibly the river was more like a creek when we visited. That’s how much of a drought the area had experienced over many years until those awful floods. In fact, the Guadalupe feeds Canyon Lake, where we were staying, and the Lake was so many feet low that there was a beach surrounding the lake. Even boat docks were completely out of the water!

But I digress, on the site where Landa Park sits today, there were 5 springs, fertile fields, timber, meadows and the river. Two Friars ran this small mission, with a citizen guard designed to avoid friction. The inhabitants of the mission consisted of 4 Spanish families and 41 Indians (27 of whom were baptized) as of 1757.

Sadly the mission only continued until March 1758 when the church withdrew its staff because it had become increasingly dangerous to live there. This was due to raids by the Comanches and other northern tribes.

Beginning in the 1830s German settlers came to Texas and founded many small towns in Hill Country, explaining why so many of these towns have German sounding names!

In 1859 Joseph Landa purchased the land where Landa Park sits today. The Comal Springs, which is the largest group of springs in southwestern America, were the focus of the park. The river was used by Landa to power gristmills, cotton and wool factories, an ice plant and a brewery. And during the Civil War there was even a saltpeter processing plant on the site.

Years later, in 1898, Joseph’s son Harry opened Landa Park as a tourist site because the International and Great Northern Railroad had built a spur to the site. By 1900 several railroads were running weekend excursions to the park. It became a popular site where visitors could enjoy picnics, dancing and steamboat cruises on Landa Lake.

Sadly after selling the park to a San Antonio investment group, the park fell on hard times and closed in 1933. Fortunately in 1936 concerned citizens petitioned the city of New Braunfels to buy the park and Landa Park has remained open to the public ever since.

Landa Park has grown considerably over the years. Now there are concession stands, restrooms, parking areas, retaining walls, miniature golf, playgrounds and nature trails. There’s even an annual celebration of food and music called Wurstfest that has been going strong since the early 1960s.

As we meandered through the park I was astonished by the number of sprawling Live Oak trees throughout the acreage! One, in particular, known as The Founders Oak, was so enormous with branches so heavy that they needed to be supported by brick columns. They were gorgeous and provided much needed shade from the intense Texas sun.

As we strolled I suddenly heard the melodic chanting of a familiar Hebrew prayer. It was probably the last place on earth that I would have expected to hear Hebrew. I was drawn to the music and came upon a pavilion where a small gathering of people were enjoying Shabbat services in the park. What was even more ironic was that it was Saturday, March 29, 2025, the 39th anniversary of our son Brian’s Bar Mitzvah!!!