Visiting Sauer-Beckmann Farm, An Early Farm Living in Fredericksburg
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A visit to Sauer-Beckmann Farm brings you back to an early farm living in Fredericksburg, Texas, back in the 1900s. If you want to learn about it, don’t forget to stop at Lyndon B. Johnson State Park & Historic Site. It is one of the places in Fredericksburg that you must visit on your first trip there.
Sauer-Beckmann Farm, an Early Farm Living in Fredericksburg, Texas
Sauer Beckmann farm is a living history farm, where interpreters wore period clothing and did the farm and household chores as they did back in the 1900s.
When we visited the farm, we first walked into the barn, where they put all the tools used on the farm back then.
Outside, something was cooking inside the burning stove while chickens were roaming the farm. We could pick into their coop and see fresh eggs lying in the nest.
Then we walked into the rooms in the house where they displayed furniture and household items they used back then.
On the other side of the house, we learned how they made and preserved sausages without a freezer. Too bad we could not taste it because we arrived too early.
Then we walked to the laundry room, separated from the main house, and teased our son to wash clothes using a washboard and an old washing machine.
I told him that in Indonesia and a lot of countries on the other side of the world, that’s how most people do when they wash clothes today.
After that, we continued walking on the trail behind the house to see bison in the back pasture. But there were no bison sightings at the time.
Then we headed to the car. I would say it’s a good one and a half hours of exploring the Sauer Beckmann living history farm.
On the next visit, a volunteer was cranking ice cream at home. Again, we arrived when they had just started, so there was no tester. Another volunteer was harvesting sweet potatoes from the vegetable garden. They were huge!
The History of Sauer-Beckmann Farm
The setting for this farm is an authentic Hill Country farm. The Sauer family settled this land in 1869, eventually prospered and grew, and by 1885 built several buildings in addition to the original rock and log cabin. They had ten children, and one of them, Augusta Sauer Lindig, served as a midwife at the birth of President Lyndon B. Johnson.
In 1900, the Beckmann family acquired the property. Later in 1966, the ancestor sold the site to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
After restoration worked, the farm opened to the public in 1975. Since then, it became one of the places to learn about farm living at the beginning of the 20th century in Fredericksburg.
Location: 199 Park Road 52, Stonewall, TX 78671. Phone: (830) 644-2252.
Hours: 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. year-round, closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day.
Tips:
– Free.
– Stay as long as you want.
Note: click here for more information about Sauer-Beckmann Farm.
From here, drive across the Pedernales River to do a self-guided tour of LBJ Ranch. It is part of the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park.
Things you can do at the self-guided tours: visit the one-room school that four-year-old LBJ attended in 1912, LBJ’s birthplace, LBJ’s burial site at the Johnson family cemetery, and the Texas White House.
Rangers from National Park Service are on duty at the Visitor Center. You can get your National Parks Passport stamped here. If visiting with children, encourage them to do the Junior Ranger Program.
