Legends of the Falls a theatrical trip through history
Colton Krudop (right), a ninth-grade homeschooler, portrays Gen. Adam R. Johnson (left), the founder of Marble Falls. Despite his blindness, Johnson laid out the numbered and lettered streets of the city’s downtown area. Krudop, who wrote his own script and came up with his own costume, has previously portrayed Johnson at the Old Burnet County Jail and Fort Croghan. Courtesy photos
Noah Smithwick, Adam R. Johnson, and Logan Vandeveer are the newest additions to the historical figures who will spin their timely tales for the third edition of the theatrical hayride through history known as Legends of the Falls.
This year’s event is from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, a later date than usual in the hope for cooler weather. As always, you can jump on the hayride at Cottonwood Shores Community Park, 4111 Cottonwood Drive.
Gen. Johnson and Vandeveer, who contributed to the founding of Marble Falls and Burnet respectively, will send hayriders on an adventure through the streets of Cottonwood Shores to an old family cemetery and the banks of Lake Marble Falls, where the bones of a young Native American were found. Each legend is portrayed by youngsters who honed their re-enacting talents during presentations at the Old Burnet County Jail and Fort Croghan, both in Burnet.
Colton Krudop, a ninth-grade homeschooler, portrays Johnson, while Jonah Prothro, a homeschooled freshman, will regale audiences with tales of how he supplied beef to the soldiers at Fort Croghan when Burnet was the community of Hamilton. Vandeveer also built the famous and abandoned — but still standing — Bluebonnet House on U.S. 281 North in Marble Falls.
A second tour guide has been added to double the available info-taining trips through local lore. Cottonwood Shores resident Kim Clemens, who has an acting background, will take over half of the hayrides from veteran Debbie Holloway, a founder and organizer of the event.
“I know the facts, but I suspect her delivery will be very exciting,” Holloway said. “I know I’m going to learn from her.”
Adding to the excitement at this year’s festival are more vendors and children’s activities, including a petting zoo, bounce house, and cake walk. Food and drink will be for sale.
If you’ve been on either of the first two historical hayrides, you’ll learn something new with your third trip as the event continues to grow and encompass even more of the rich Highland Lakes history. The re-enactors do their own research and write their own scripts.
“At first, we all talked about who was related to who,” said Charles Watkins, who will be portraying Noah Smithwick this year after two years as Hermann Fuchs. “The next year, we put in more story and less relatives.”
Now, the circle of influence has widened to include more of Burnet County’s legends, branching out from the Fuchs family, who were among the area’s first non-native settlers.
Some of the influencers of yore you’ll meet on the road are Mark Bloschock as Burnet County Sheriff Nimrod J. “Dock” Miller, who went down into Dead Man’s Hole in Marble Falls to pull out the body of a missing man. This is Bloschock and Sheriff Miller’s second year, as they were added to the lineup in 2022. The actor is a fourth-generation Texan, semi-retired engineer, and long-time resident of Horseshoe Bay.
Eva Alpar is a newcomer to the troupe, playing Ino Fuchs Varnhagen, a veteran legend of the event. Alpar is from San Antonio, where she works as a singer and professor of voice and opera at St. Mary’s University. Ino was the youngest daughter of Louise and Adolph Fuchs who was 13 years old when she arrived in the Texas Hill Country from Germany. She died in childbirth and is buried in the Fuchs Cemetery, where a historical marker now honors the family that settled in the area in 1845.
Another new actor taking on the role of an original founder is Graham Avery, who portrays Adolph Fuchs, a Lutheran minister who brought his family to Central Texas from Germany. Adolph was known as the “father of public schools in Texas” for starting the first state-supported school system. Like Adolph, Avery is a musician (four years in the Texas Longhorn Band!) and an educated man. He is a locally retired ophthalmologist/retinal surgeon.
Replacing Watkins as Hermann Fuchs is newcomer Tom Maynard, brother of veteran cast member Jim Maynard. Hermann brought angora goats to the Hill Country and is now being portrayed by a goat rancher. Tom also served on the State Board of Education and has a 30-year career in agriculture education.
Jim, who is playing one of the grandsons of Louise and Adolph, is a real modern-day cowboy, having worked ranches in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Wyoming. He is traveling from Las Cruces, New Mexico, to play Oscar Fuchs, who changed his name to the more Americanized Fox. (By the way, Fuchs rhymes with books.) Jim Maynard’s tales of Oscar include how the young man learned to play the piano before he could say the alphabet. Oscar Fox is best known for having penned the music for “The Hills of Home,” “The Old Chisholm Trail,” and “Whoopee Ti Yi Yo (Git Along, Little Dogies).” He wrote and published 50 cowboy songs.
Roy Hernández, a student at Gateway Tech High School in Georgetown, takes on the part of the young unnamed Native American who was murdered on the banks of the Colorado River some 2,000 years ago. Hernández is a direct descendant of the Yucatán Peninsula’s indigenous Mayan people and a native of Cozumel. 
Returning to the parts they have taken on for the past two years are Francie Dix as Anna, wife of Conrad Fox, and Mike Brittain as Adolph Hoppe.
Hoppe is one of the murdered men whose bodies were thrown into Dead Man’s Hole over the years of the Civil War (not the one brought up for a proper burial by Sheriff Miller).
Dix is well steeped in Fuchs history. She served for several years as chair of the Fuchs House Committee. The house, which was built in the 1870s, was renovated 100 years later and is now privately owned. It can be seen atop a hill across from the Cottonwood Shores Community Center but is too far away to be part of the tour.
Brittain is a founder of the Horseshoe Bay Business Alliance, which is now a community-owned entity that produces Holidaze, Boogie at the Bay, and about 27 other local events. Both Dix and Brittain are veterans of Hill Country Community Theatre.
Adding some noise and gunpowder to the event are the Sons of the Republic of Texas and their working cannon. Cover your ears for this part!
Legends of the Falls
WHEN: Nov. 4 from 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
WHERE: Cottonwood Shores Community Park, 4111 Cottonwood Drive
FREE ACTIVITIES: petting zoo, cake walk, bounce house, and more
FOR PURCHASE: food, drink, arts and crafts, and more
HAYRIDE TICKETS: $10 each; presale begins Oct. 16 at cottonwoodshores.org/legends-of-the-falls. Riders must be at least 9 years old.