Marble Falls historian seeks to correct Dead Man’s Hole misinformation

In researching local history, Marble Falls resident and historian Bob Kent discovered incorrect information on the Texas Historical Marker at Dead Man’s Hole. Kent wrote the following article for The Picayune Magazine based on his findings in hopes of having a new marker written and erected at the site on Burnet County Road 401 just south of Marble Falls.

According to the Texas Historical Commission, verified mistakes on a marker can be corrected and new markers issued at no cost to local historical commissions, the governmental body that usually applies and pays for them. In the case of the Dead Man’s Hole marker, that would be the Burnet County Historical Commission. 

Kent has a Bachelor of Science in geology and a Master of Arts in history. He has published more than 30 technical and history articles and is currently on The Falls on the Colorado Museum Board of Directors.

How old myths become historical facts

By Bob Kent

History is full of myths and legends that become perpetrated on the internet, in local history pamphlets, in tourist information, and in newspaper articles. Dead Man’s Hole near Marble Falls is an example of a myth enshrined in the text of a Texas State Historical Marker and in The Handbook of Texas. Both state that the vertical cave was discovered in 1821 by German entomologist Ferdinand Lueders; however, this author and other researchers have been unable to document that.

In addition, The Handbook of Texas states the hole was formed by gas pressure, which is also not true. The cave was formed like most other caves in the area, including Longhorn Cavern: from the dissolution of limestone by water. 

No reliable sources have been found to corroborate the initial discovery of Dead Man’s Hole. According to a Feb. 17, 1939, Lampasas Leader newspaper article by Mrs. L.R. Gray, the feature was known initially as Burnam’s Hole, after J.H. Burnam, the landowner and a hero of the Texas Revolution. The name was changed to Dead Man’s Hole after the Civil War when the bones of at least 16 people were found at the bottom. Many are believed to have been hanged over the hole by Confederate sympathizers known as bushwhackers or Fire Eaters.

The cave entrance is approximately 5 feet by 6 feet and descends 29 feet to a ledge, then drops another 103 feet to a fissure about 50 feet long. The cave extends another 15 feet into a pit covered by rocks and boulders, according to “The Caves of Burnet County, Texas” by the Texas Speleological Survey Bulletin 3, edited by Gerald L. Atkinson.

The major source for perpetuating the misinformation surrounding Dead Man’s Hole is a chapter in “History of Burnet County, Vol. 1,” edited by Darrell Debo and published in 1979.

In the book, Mary Alice Fuller and Iva Fuller wrote:

Ferdinand Lueders, an entomologist and naturalist hired by an Englishman, James Smithson, to explore the unexplored regions of the earth during the early 1800s, came to the vicinity of the “Great Falls” in 1821. He recorded coming across a family of settlers named Benson. Lighting candles at night to enable him to observe night-flying insects. Lueders reported hearing sounds like bugs flying into a well, and the next morning found what would later be called “Dead Man’s Hole.” 

In an interview with Greg Olds, published in the Dec. 2, 1971, issue of The Highlander, Mary Alice Fuller stated that Lueders published a book when he returned to Germany. The book was translated into English and was available in the University of Texas at Austin Library System, according to Fuller. However, Dr. Horace Burke, an entomologist at Texas A&M University, searched UT’s libraries but could not locate any books by Lueders. Also, research by Burke and others found no record of an entomologist named Lueders ever being in Texas.* 

In addition, the statement that Lueders came across a family named Benson near present-day Marble Falls cannot be supported. No records have been found of any Europeans or settlers in the Marble Falls area in 1821. At that time, Texas was part of Spain or Mexico and predates Steven F. Austin’s initial settlers. Austin brought what is now known as the “Old Three Hundred” to Texas in 1823. Research by three university professors on early Germans in Texas revealed no mention of Ferdinand Lueders.**

A young German immigrant named Ferdinand Lueders did travel to Texas by ship, but not until 1836. He was never in Central Texas or Burnet County. Available records reflect several different spellings of his name—Lüders, Ludas, Leuders, Lueders, and Lenders—all referring to the same person. Ferdinand Lueders fought in the Battle of San Jacinto and died in Galveston in 1836, the same year he arrived, records show.

Having fought in the Texas War of Independence, he was awarded three land grants. As Lueders died before his land grants were issued, they passed to his relatives in Germany. Two tracts of land were later patented near Double Horn Creek and Dead Man’s Hole.

Adolf Fuchs was a friend of Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Lueders, Ferdinand Lueders’ brother in Germany. In 1844, when Adolf Fuchs decided to immigrate to Texas, Carl Lueders gave Fuchs permission to obtain ownership of the land grants.***

How did the Fullers get it wrong? Possibly, they confused Lueders with two well-known Central Texas German scientists: Ferdinand Lindheimer, a well-known German scientist who arrived in Texas in 1836, and Ferdinand Roemer, a German geologist working in Central Texas in the mid-1840s. Neither of the men came to the Marble Falls area. 

In 1852, Roemer published a book on Texas geology, which was translated into English in 1935. That book is available in the University of Texas at Austin Libraries. 

Lindheimer joined the Texas Revolution, arriving at San Jacinto the day after the final battle. He was the author or co-author of a book on Texas botany.

Verified facts show Ferdinand Lueders, the man credited with finding Dead Man’s Hole, died on Galveston Island on Aug. 1, 1836. He could not have discovered Dead Man’s Hole because he was never in Burnet County. He was also not an entomologist. 

Because this myth is enshrined on a historical marker and in The Handbook of Texas, it is frequently repeated in newspaper articles, local publications, and internet articles, making it almost impossible to correct. The only way to correct this mistake is to have a new marker issued and update the entry in The Handbook of Texas. 

*Horace Burke, “Ferdinand Lueders Collecting Insects in Texas,” The Society for the History of Natural History Newsletter, No. 105, April 2013, pp 16-17; S.W. Geiser, “Notes on Some Workers in Texas Entomology, 1839-1880,” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Vol. 49, No. 4, April 1946, pp 593-598; and email from Dr. James C. Kearney, UT Austin, re: Ferdinand Lueders, 4/24/2024.

**Gelo, Daniel J. and Christopher J. Wickham, 2018, Comanches and Germans on the Texas Frontier, The Ethnology of Heinrich Berghaus. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 256 p and William, Chester and Ethel Hander Geue, 1966, German Immigration to Texas 1844-1847. Waco: Library Binding Co. 174 p.

***Kemp, Louis W., “Leuders, Ferdinand,” San Jacinto Museum of History, www.sanjacinto-museum.org/lib, downloaded 1/1/2021 and Jorden, James, R., A History of the Conrad L. Fuchs Family and the Fuchs House, Burnet County, Texas. Horseshoe Bay, Texas, July 2020.