Dallas wasn’t for sale - besides the American way is to start small and work your way up.

~One of the many reasons Hondo bought Luckenbach

Slow down.  Ditch the hustle and bustle of Austin and see the treasure we have in Luckenbach.   In 1849 Minna Engel opened a “First Class Country Store,” selling everything from the cradle to the grave when Texas was still frontier, serving Texas settlers and Comanche Indians, with whom the Germans never broke a peace treaty.  The combination Post Office/General Store/Beer Joint was fashioned in 1886 by August Engel and remained in the family until 1970 when Benno Engel retired as postmaster and placed an ad: “TOWN FOR SALE” —lock, stock and dancehall.

Luckenbach was purchased by some true Texans—Hondo Crouch, Guich Koock and Kathy Morgan.  Hondo refashioned Luckenbach as an old west town, elected himself Mayor, appointed his friend Marge as Sheriff and others as ambassadors to foreign countries.  They held festivals of all kinds. “Hug-Ins”, a Luckenbach World’s Fair, a Ladies State Chili Bust, and Mud Dauber Festivals, and always singing, picking, and plenty of beer drinking beneath the 500-year-old oak trees. Today, over thirty years later the guitar pickers are still pickin’ every day and night under the big oak trees. Or there’s a dance goin’ on in the old dance hall.

The cotton gin closed in 1929.  In 2002 a flood swept away the cotton gin and blacksmith shop.  But nothing can stop the power of Luckenbach.  Stop in, any old day, and set a spell under those oak trees and wait, while the sun begins to settle, with a cold beer from that same general store.  Listen as the pickers arrive.  They meet.  They greet.  They tune their guitars and voices, and soon, far sooner than you think, transport you to the land that is Luckenbach.  Not some fairytale, faraway place, but a very real and comfortable piece of Texas.  Texas like it should be… sharing a table with strangers soon to be friends, singing along to some old familiar song, and knowing, deep in your heart of Texas, that all is right with the world.