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TRAVEL AND TOURISM

Wimberley: Small-town America, Texas-style

Nancy Trejos
USA TODAY

WIMBERLEY, Texas — Patti Morgan was born in England and has traveled all over the world.

She’s also lived in many cities here and abroad, including New York, Houston and an island in Norway.

But when it came time to decide where she wanted to settle down for good, she chose this small town about an hour’s drive from Austin in Texas Hill Country.

“The way that I think about Wimberley is that it’s good for your soul,” she says. “I came out to try to find peace and quiet and a beautiful sense of small-town America, where you could actually walk down the street and know your neighbors.”

She found that and more in Wimberley — population 2,600 — where she has lived since 1999. Located where Cypress Creek and the Blanco River meet, Wimberley has all that makes small town America so charming: mom and pop shops in a central square, swimming holes, an outdoor movie theater, art galleries, and a playhouse.

Non-Texans often think of Texas as flat and dry. But this is a different type of Texas. Hill Country is all rolling hills, cypress trees and lush strips of land. A number of wineries dot the landscape.

“People come here and take a deep breath and slow down,” says Cathy Moreman, executive director of the Wimberley Valley Chamber of Commerce.

Just over a year ago, though, that sense of calm was temporarily shattered when days of intense rainfall caused the Blanco River and nearby San Marcos River to flood. On Memorial Day Weekend 2015, the Blanco River’s water level rose from nearly nine feet to more than 40 feet in less than three hours. Hundreds of homes were destroyed across Wimberley and the nearby town of San Marcos. Eleven people lost their lives.

“It was a shock to a lot of people to witness the power of water as it raced through the watershed and picked up everything on its way,” Morgan says.

The flood tested Wimberley’s small-town strength and Texas mettle, and by all accounts, the people delivered, helping their neighbors rebuild.

“It was drastic but the people here are survivors,” Morgan says. “Bad things always actually create some kind of real seed that ends up having good elements. This is still a sweet little town. You’ll find an absolute spirit of ‘we got through it and we helped each other and we are moving on.’”

Fast forward a year, and you wouldn’t even think that this town had been through such trauma. It remains bucolic and quiet, a nice respite from sprawling Houston, where my trip to Texas had begun.

“My husband and I loved the fact that it was away from all the hustle and bustle of the big cities,” says Jeanne Leonard, who is visiting from Connersville, Ind. “Wimberley has managed to stay small, but yet had plenty to do.”

The couple are staying in the San Miguel cottage at the Blair House Inn, a bed-and-breakfast with hiking trails and a grotto. While sipping coffee on her deck one morning, she spotted three deer grazing.

It’s that kind of setting that attracted Courtney Collings and Matthew Midkiff, when they were trying to pick a wedding spot.

I meet the bride and groom at the Cypress Creek Café, which attracts locals and visitors with live music every night.

The couple graduated from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, where they have lived for 10 years. She’s originally from Palm Springs, Calif. He’s from Midland, Tex.

They didn’t want to get married in a big city so they settled on Montesino Ranch in Wimberley.

“Wimberley is as if hippie California meets rural country cowboy Texas,” Collings, now Midkiff, says. “It was a perfect match for my California family marrying into a large Texas Family. The close-knit community, the amazing food, the art scene, and extremely beautiful hills and river make Wimberley such a special place.”

Wimberley has also attracted many artists from throughout Texas and as far away as California. Last September, the Texas Commission on the Arts granted the Wimberley Valley Arts and Cultural Alliance formal designation as a Texas Cultural District.

The town has about a dozen art galleries, including Pitzer’s Fine Arts.

Pitzer’s has works from more than 30 artists from Texas and beyond. Pitzer, who grew up in Houston, briefly moved his gallery to California.

“I was born with that Texas gene in my body,” he says. “Sooner or later, you come back.”

He had been visiting Wimberley since 2006, and decided it was the perfect place for his gallery.

“It’s a small country town, an interesting little place, but when I need the city, I’m 50 minutes away,” he says. “It’s the best of all worlds, at least for me.”

To highlight the arts in Wimberley, the cultural alliance started the “Bootiful Wimberley” project in 2014. A total of 50 giant boot statues have been sponsored and painted by area artists. They are sprinkled throughout town.

“They really push the arts here, and I think it’s wonderful,” says B.J. Ritchie, a painter who is exhibiting her work at the Art on 12 gallery.

Wimberley’s natural beauty has been an inspiration to many of these artists.

The 126-acre Blue Hole Regional Park has a swimming hole enveloped by trees and shrubs. On a recent afternoon, adults and kids alike use rope swings to catapult themselves into the water.

The Jacob’s Well Natural Area is an 81.5-acre ecological reserve. The well itself is an artesian spring surrounded by limestone cliffs. It is 22 feet deep from the surface to a series of underground caverns.

Equally beautiful are the wineries, including Driftwood Estate Winery, which has an expansive view of the valley. Texas wines are not all that well-known outside of Texas, but Driftwood owner Gary Elliott says the state’s wine industry is rapidly growing.

“You can grow grapes anywhere, contrary to popular belief,” he says as he unrolls bottle labels.

Driftwood produces 5,000 cases per year. Elliott says he sells out of his wine, so he plans to double that production level.

“It’s such a good market here that if you’re not here, you’re locating here,” he says.

Wimberley Valley Winery, located on 30 acres of land between Wimberley and Driftwood, has been around since 1983. Dean Valentine, originally from a suburb of Chicago, is now the winemaker. It’s a family enterprise with two of his three children also working there.

Valentine has managed to ferment and store 25,000 gallons of wine, mostly sweet ones.

Valentine doesn’t regret leaving the big city for small town Texas.

“My grandfather had a summer farm in Indiana,” he says. “Going to my grandfather’s farm was the best time of my life. That stayed with me. I wanted to replicate that as close as I could.”

There are many other agricultural pioneers in Wimberley.

Jack Dougherty, a former computer industry executive from Santa Clara Valley in California, bought Bella Vista Ranch in 1996.

Realizing that Hill Country has soil and weather similar to the Mediterranean, he decided to try growing olives. He now has 1,200 olive trees on his 27-acre ranch.  He opened an olive-pressing facility in 2001.

“Back 20 years ago, I thought I’d be the first to plant olives in Texas and make Texas olive oil,” he says. “People over the last 20 years have learned the value of olive oil.”

Dougherty gives tours and tastings of flavored olive oil such as blood orange and white truffle.

“That’s our mission in life — to introduce people to virgin olive oil,” he says. “We call it a day trip to Italy, without the 21-hour flight and $3,000 ticket.”

Wimberley’s agricultural spirit has resulted in a vibrant food scene.

Kate Tilton opened Kate’s Place in 2009. She had worked in restaurants most of her adult life and completed a Texas Master Gardener Program from Texas A&M University.

Her love of gardening shows. She has large vegetable gardens on site that produce herbs, vegetables and flowers for the restaurant. She emphasizes healthy eating, and even bans deep-fryers from her kitchen.

“This is my little project,” she says.

She and her husband, a university professor, have had a house in Wimberley since 1999. She’s seen the town change drastically in that time.

“We were a one-stoplight town,” she says. “Now we have seven. There was no such thing as a traffic jam.”

That doesn’t mean Wimberley’s character has changed in any significant way, says Matthew Buchanan, owner of The Leaning Pear, another popular restaurant in town.

“Even though we’ve got a few more stoplights than we used to, it still feels like we’re an iconic small town,” he says. “It’s still rugged. The people here are old-fashioned yet not close-minded.”

Buchanan studied at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. He and his wife Rachel, both originally from Texas, also spent time in Perugia studying Italian cooking.

The Leaning Pear’s menu is centered on fresh, seasonal and local products. Items include wood-fired-oven pizzas as well as traditional dishes such as chicken and grits. The dining room has a rustic feel with limestone and western cedar being incorporated into the décor. The patio, set on a buff, overlooks Cedar Creek.

“First and foremost, we want to be a community restaurant,” Matthew Buchanan says over a glass of red wine. “We strive to be an important part of our town.”

Despite his lofty culinary degree, Buchanan does not plan to leave Wimberley again.

“This is it. This is the end of the line,” he says. “This is our perfect little spot. I’m exactly where I want to be.”

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