DUANE
Duane's take
Now, I'm tellin' this one straight from the official marker, the way the Texas Historical Commission recorded it — so let's climb Cross Mountain together. Out in Gillespie County, there's a hill that doesn't look like much at first glance. Marl and limestone, rising to 1,915 feet.
But don't let that fool you. This particular hill has been sending messages — literal messages — for longer than Texas has been Texas. Before any German settler ever set foot on it, before any priest hauled timber to its top, that hill was an Indian signal point.
News of white settlers moving into the territory traveled from this hilltop outward, carried on smoke and fire, a warning system older than anyone alive could remember. Then came 1847. A German geologist by the name of Dr.
Ferdinand Roemer was the first to record and describe the hill formally — put it on paper, gave it scientific standing. But here's the thing that stops you cold: when Dr. Roemer got up there, there was already a timber cross standing on the hilltop.
Already there. Which tells you that Spanish missionaries had been through before him — they'd recognized this rise as a landmark on the path running from San Antonio all the way to Mission San Saba. They left their mark in wood.
Also arriving in 1847 — same remarkable year — was a man named John Christian Durst, coming over from Germany with his family. He received a town lot and ten acres of land, and that ten acres included this very hill. When Durst climbed up and found that old timber cross waiting for him, he did what any man of his time and tongue would do.
He named it. He called it Kreuzberg. Cross Mountain.
Now the hill had a name. But it wasn't done earning it. Two years later, in 1849, a Bohemian priest named Father George Menzel came along and decided that old timber cross needed an upgrade.
He erected a more substantial cross on the summit — a symbol, the marker tells us, of redemption and civilization. The mountain was becoming something people looked to, not just looked at. And then there are the Easter fires.
Every spring, flames light up Cross Mountain and the surrounding hills, and there are two things those fires are remembering at once. First, a German tradition of burning the old growth to make way for the new — out with what's spent, in with what's coming. Second, and this one carries real weight — the fires commemorate a treaty made in 1847 between John O.
Meusebach, the settlers, and the Comanche nation. A peace established right here in this country. That fire on the hillside holds both meanings at the same time, and neither one lets go of the other.
For many years before 1941, Easter Sunrise Services were held on that mountain. People climbing in the dark, waiting for the light to come up over the hill. Then in 1946, the Very Reverend F.
X. Wolf threw the switch — and a permanent cross of metal and concrete, built by St. Mary's Catholic Church, blazed to life on the summit.
A hill that once carried smoke signals for one people. A cross raised in wood by missionaries on an old trail. A German settler who looked up, found something already waiting, and gave it a name that stuck.
Signal fires, treaty fires, Easter fires — all of them lit on the same 1,915 feet of marl and limestone. Cross Mountain has been holding the attention of this land for a long, long time. And it doesn't appear to be finished.
What the marker says
This marl and limestone hill, elevation 1,915 feet, was an Indian signal point, advancing news of the intrusions of white settlers. The hill was first recorded and described by the German geologist, Dr. Ferdinand Roemer in 1847. A timber cross found on the hilltop the same year suggests that Spanish missionaries recognized it as a landmark on the path from San Antonio to Mission San Saba. John Christian Durst (1825-1898), arriving with his family in 1847 from Germany, received a town lot and 10 acres of land, including this hill. On finding the cross, he named it "Kreuzberg," or Cross Mountain. The Easter fires on Cross Mountain and the surrounding hills recall a German tradition of burning the old growth to make way for the new, and also commemorate the 1847 treaty made by John O. Meusebach and the settlers to establish peace with the Comanche nation. In 1849, a Bohemian priest, Father George Menzel, erected a more substantial cross as a symbol of redemption and civilization. Easter Sunrise Services were held on the mountain for many years prior to 1941. In 1946 the Very Rev. F. X. Wolf threw the switch to illuminate the permanent cross of metal and concrete built by St. Mary's Catholic Church.