Llano Historic Cemetery Tour tells story of city’s Boom Era
DANIEL CLIFTON • PICAYUNE EDITOR
LLANO — During the 1800s, people flocked to California for the Gold Rush. But in the later part of the century, a great deal of attention focused on Llano.
And you can learn a great deal about this explosive time — known as Llano’s Boom Era — during a tour of the Llano Cemetery.
“The late 1880s marked this incredible growth in Llano,” said Tommi Myers of the Llano County Library System. “There was this rush here because of the iron ore in the area. This group of speculators bought up almost all of Llano.”
On Oct. 21, the Llano County Library is holding its annual Historic Cemetery Tour starting at 5:30 p.m. at the Llano City Cemetery, 1400 Hickory St. Each year, Myers and other organizers focus on a specific part of Llano’s history for the tour.
This year, it’s the Boom Era.
As people enjoy the guided tour, they’ll stop by graves of those who played a pivotal role in the Boom Era or were part of it. And it’s more than just looking at the graves.
“Like last year, we’ll have people dressed up (in period attire),” Myers said.
When the group stops by one of these particular markers, the volunteers will share that family’s story through either a monologue or a conversation among the family members, now long deceased.
Myers does a great deal of research into the families who are highlighted during the tour as well as the times they represent. This often means hours pouring over the details of the era to bring Llano’s history to life. She even delved into what some of the local restaurants and hotels were serving during this period just so the scripts would be more authentic.
“This was a remarkable time for Llano,” Myers said of the Boom Era. She pointed out that, during this decade, a basically new city of Llano popped up on the northern part of the community with hotels, businesses, banks and other more because of the coming iron ore rush.
“This was a major part of Llano’s history because 1892 was the first city council and a lot of other things,” Myers said. “But the boom only lasted a few years. A lot of the people who bought all this land and built the buildings lost it all.”
The iron ore found in the area apparently wasn’t the highest grade, so it didn’t fetch the price speculators hoped. And though Llano has a railroad, it only connected to Austin, which limited the shipment of iron. Of course, there also was the lack of coal to use in the smelting process.
So in the end, the boom exploded. But as quickly as the dust settled, the wind scattered a lot of hopes and dreams across the Texas Hill Country.
But those stories make up the intimate history of Llano, which is what Myers and the volunteers want to share during the tour.
“These stories really help us understand the people who lived here and make up Llano’s history,” Myers said.
The guided tour gives participants the opportunity to hear those stories and see history not as something to be studied and read in a book, but something that lives.
The tours take place at the Llano City Cemetery from 5:30-7 p.m. Tours leave every 15 minutes. Tickets are $5 per person (children 16 and under can take the tour for free.) Tickets are available at the Llano County Library, 102 E. Haynie St. Call (325) 247-5248 for more information.
daniel@thepicayune.com