Luckenbach, Texas

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Country	United States
Luckenbach, Texas
Motto: Everybody's somebody in Luckenbach.
Location within the state of Texas
State	Texas
Counties	Gillespie County
Population (2006)
- Total	3
Time zone	CST (UTC-6)
- Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-6)
Website: http://www.luckenbachtexas.com/

Luckenbach is an unincorporated community thirteen miles from Fredericksburg in southeastern Gillespie County, Texas, United States, part of the Texas Hill Country. It consists of ten acres (40,000 m²) between South Grape Creek (a tributary of the Pedernales River) and Snail Creek, just south of U.S. Highway 290 on both sides of Farm to Market Road 1376. This location is about 50 miles north of San Antonio and about the same distance west of Austin.

Its oldest building is a combination general store and saloon opened in 1849 by Minna Engel, whose father was an itinerant preacher from Germany. The community, first named Grape Creek, was later named after Minna's husband, Carl Albert Luckenbach, who was then her fiance; they would later move to another town which became Albert, Texas. Luckenbach was first established as a community trading post and was one of the few that never broke a peace treaty with the Comanche Indians, with whom they bartered and traded.

Citizens of the town claimed one of them had launched the first airplane years before the Wright Brothers.^[1]

Its population increased to a high of 492 in 1904, but by the 1960s, Luckenbach was almost a ghost town.

An ad in the paper offering "town — pop. 3 — for sale" led Hondo Crouch, rancher and Texas folklorist, to buy Luckenbach for $30,000 in 1970, in partnership with Kathy Morgan and actor Guich Koock. While modern-day Luckenbach is part of Fredericksburg, Hondo used the town's rights as a municipality to govern the dance hall as he saw fit.

1 Modern Luckenbach
2 Country music
3 Visiting
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Modern Luckenbach

Today the town still maintains a ghost town feel with its small population and strong western roots. Two main buildings are the top sites, one of which houses the post office, saloon, and general store, and the other is the dance hall.

[edit] Country music

Luckenbach's association with country music began in the summer of 1973, when Jerry Jeff Walker, backed by the Lost Gonzo Band, recorded a live album there called Viva Terlingua at Luckenbach Dancehall. That album became an outlaw country classic.

Four years later (and a year after Crouch's death), Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson memorialized Luckenbach with the song "Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)," cowritten by rock and soul producer Chips Moman and guitarist Bobby Emmons. In the book Are You Ready for the Country ? (Penguin 2000), without citing a source, author Peter Doggett wrote that Jennings later told audiences that "he hated the song and admitted 'The guys that wrote the thing have never been to Luckenbach. Neither have I.'" (p. 368)

Notable concert appearances in the town include Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Pat Green, Robert Earl Keen, and Lyle Lovett. The little community is still an active home to country music as of 2007, where folks gather by the score to listen to area musicians and drink cold beer, particularly Shiner Bock, a local favorite brewed by the oldest brewer in Texas.

[edit] Visiting

Sign above post office in Luckenbach, Texas

Luckenbach hosts a wide range of visitors each weekend, including bikers, bankers and everyone in between, with a separate area for motorcycle parking and car parking, usually in the grass. On Sundays, it is common for people to bring instruments and those in the crowd entertain each other, taking turns performing on a hill. There is a wide variety of Luckenbach-related shirts, bumper stickers and other novelties. No hard liquor is allowed, and no law enforcement is necessary as the crowd tends to self-police.

There are RV camping spots, and a small river that runs nearby where the signs state "No Swimming Allowed". This is usually ignored and it is common to see parents there with their children. Areas are set up for pitching washers, which is similar in style to the game of horseshoe, except using a can buried in the ground and players toss large fender washers. It is common to see local and regional celebrities attending on Sunday, as this is the most relaxed day to visit. There is no charge to visit.

A map or directions are needed to get to Luckenbach. The signs leading to the town are often stolen as souvenirs by tourists. Legitimate souvenirs are available at the general store and include postcards, t-shirts, sarcastic and humorous signs, and the local newspaper, the 8-page monthly Luckenbach Moon.