Sentimental Sunday: Mom & Dad at a Bandera Bar, ABT 1954

This is a photo of my parents at a bar in Bandera, Texas, about 1954, while they were on a Rosarian Club trip to the nearby Dixie Dude Ranch.  I'm not sure, but I think they may have been in what is now Arkey Blue's Silver Dollar Saloon, based on some photos I found online of a downtown Bandera bar with similar decor. 

According to the 2012 Handbook of Texas Music, second edition, edited by Laurie E. Jasinski,
"The building was constructed in 1921 and opened as a social establishment called The Fox Hole.  In the 1940s the dance hall became The Silver Dollar."  Other sources say the building dates to the 1890s.  This honky-tonk is located in the basement under the Bandera General Store.  

Or, it might have been the nearby Cabaret. According to the 2002 Dance Halls and Last Calls: A History of Texas Country Music by Geronimo Trevino II, pages 75-77,

The Bandera Cabaret opened its doors in 1936 as a small honky-tonk that catered to folks in nearby counties.  Military trainees in San Antonio and Hondo helped popularize the Cabaret, and in the 1940s it was enlarged to its present size.  The famous "hump" on the dance floor was caused by an uneven pour of concrete during the expansion.  Past owners decided to leave it rather than make the effort to break it up and level it.  It gives you a strange sensation as you dance over that portion of the 2,400-square-foot dance floor.  The hall is over 10,000 square feet....The dude ranches around Bandera bring in people who enjoy going to the Cabaret year after year.

The Cabaret has been closed since 2006, but is currently (as of August 15, 2013) being restored.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Those Places Thursday: Dixie Dude Ranch near Bandera, Texas, 1954 and 1998

Above are my parents at what I am pretty sure is the  Dixie Dude Ranch near Bandera, Texas, around 1954.  They've often spoken of a Rosarian Club trip they took there while they were dating.  The fence in the photo looks an awful lot like the fence at the Dixie Dude in the photo below from July 1998:

My parents took the offspring and myself to the Dixie Dude for a few days in July 1998.  We had a duplex cabin with a connecting door, very close to the  ranch headquarters, where three hearty meals a day were served family-style.  Every day, weather permitting, there was an hour-long morning trail ride and an afternoon trail ride.  Above is Eric saddling up, and below is Dad heading out on one of the trail rides:

mid-1990s Dixie Dude postcard

In the photo above, Mom stands in front of the ranch headquarters and dining hall, under the iconic Dixie Dude sign.

There was a lot to do at the Dixie Dude.  Besides trail rides, swimming in the pool, and hiking around to explore things like the Range War Cemetery, you could watch the ranch hands at work. You could also just laze around on the front porch of the ranch house, and watch zillions of hummingbirds fighting over the multiple feeders hung there.

There was also entertainment each evening.  Besides a sing-along (similar to that pictured in the postcard at bottom left), one day we were given tickets to the evening rodeo in nearby Bandera.  We also had country-Western dance lessons one night, followed the next evening by the opportunity to try our new steps out at the honky-tonks in town.

The Dixie Dude Ranch was established in 1937.  Mom said she slept in a dormitory when she was there in the 1950s.  A brochure that I found (online) from that era indicated that the original ranch house (which burned in 1964) originally had two-and-a-half stories.  Room and board was "$3.50 per person per day, or $22.00 per person per week for iron cot beds on sleeping porch (men) or large upstairs dormitory (girls), 3rd floor."  Two-person bedrooms were available on the second floor for $4 per day per person or $25 per week per person.  Trail rides cost $1.50 each in addition.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Tombstone Tuesday: William Julius Maass and son Charles, "Range War Cemetery" on the Dixie Dude Ranch near Bandera, Texas

The Dixie Dude Ranch, near Bandera, Texas, has a so-called "Range War Cemetery" on the grounds. When we visited in July 1998 (more on that in a future post), we hiked out to it one day.  Under a tree, in a small area enclosed by a barbed-wire fence, there were a couple of wooden crosses and a pink granite marker.

Here's what it said on the marker:

Here lie the remains of our great-grandfather, Wm. J. Maass, buried here in 1893 - and his son Charles, killed in a range war in 188?.  Erected with our various Maass relatives Oct. 1985.

Charles Toudouze

Mitchell Anderwald

A little research showed Toudouze (1923-2009) and Anderwald (1920-2010) were second cousins, sharing the same grandfather too, William Julius Maass Jr. (1863-1935).  William Julius Maass Sr. (1821-1893) was a German immigrant who can be found in Bandera County on the 1880 census with his wife Charlotte Oelze Kissling Maass (1839-1907) and sons William Julius Maass Jr. (1863-1935), Albert Maass (born ABT 1866-1868, died 1918), and Charley/Carl (born ABT 1869/70-, died 188?); and daughters Hellena "Lena" Maass (born July 11, 1875) and Albertina "Tina" Maass (Mrs. Charles) Straus (ABT 1878-1919).   An older daughter, Louisa Wilhelmina Maass Eckhart Evans (1862-1945) had married Christian Eckhart in 1877; he was murdered in 1885).  Charlotte also had two children by her first marriage, Adolph Kissling, born about 1860, and Mary Kissling (Mrs. Claus H.) Thick (1858-1953). Charley/Carl is listed as age 10 on the census day of June 24, 1880, and age 1 on the 1870 Census (taken July 25) so he was probably born in late 1869 or early 1870.

An entry for the Maass Family on pages 106-107 of Pioneer History of Bandera County: Seventy-Five Years of Intrepid History, written by J. Marvin Hunter in 1922, states that William Maass Sr. and family moved to Bandera from San Antonio in 1874, "and located on Middle Verde Creek, on the place now occupied by W. W. Whitley."  Whitley was the original owner of the Dixie Dude Ranch.

Interestingly, the book entry doesn't list Charley as one of William Sr.'s sons, but it does list a Reinhardt, with no other information.  Perhaps Charley and Reinhardt are one and the same?

I could not find any information about a range war in Bandera County.  According to a July 26, 2012 article in the Bandera County Courier about the Dixie Dude, Charley was killed by a cattleman wanting to drive his herd across the Maass property.  Fence cutting was common in this part of Texas in the 1880s, and it often resulted in murders. 

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.