Niederwald, TX

Niederwald is a city on the Hays-Caldwell county line, built along the old Austin-to-San Antonio road now called State Highway 21. German pioneers established the community in the 1890s, and the name means low wood, a reference to mesquite growth in the shallow valley. The place had one of Hays County's early schools, a church, a post office, a general store, cooperatives, and a cotton gin before its numbers thinned during the 1900s. Niederwald incorporated in 1987 and now sits between San Marcos and Bastrop on the Central Texas road map. The county line runs through the city's story as much as the highway does. Niederwald is a small Texas city with German roots, a brushwood name, and a road that still carries the old regional connection.