Reichenau Gap

Duane's take

The official marker at Reichenau Gap is the source of this story, and I'm just the one bringin' it to you on the road. Now, there are gaps in the Texas Hill Country that feel like the land itself decided to part ways and let you through, and Reichenau Gap is one of those places. For more than a hundred years, travelers followed the road from Mason to Junction right through this pass.

A hundred years of wagon wheels, boot heels, and weary horses, all funneling through the same narrow corridor cut into the Kimble County rock. The gap carries the name of one Adolph A. Reichenau, a German emigrant who found his way to this corner of Texas and settled near the pass in 1860.

He established himself as an early landholder in the nearby Big Saline Valley, and you get the sense this was a man who meant to put down roots and stay. But Texas in 1860 was not always a place that let you keep your plans. Indian depredations drove Reichenau out.

By 1866, he was gone. He left behind no permanent homestead that history recorded. What he left behind was his name, pressed into the landscape, attached to the pass, carried forward by every traveler who came through after him asking, what do you call this place?

Reichenau Gap. That's what you call it. And more than a hundred years of travelers couldn't argue with that.

What the marker says

For more than 100 years, travelers followed road from Mason to Junction through this pass. Named for Adolph A. Reichenau, a German emigrant who settled near pass in 1860 as an early landholder in nearby Big Saline Valley. He moved in 1866 because of Indian depredations. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1966