The Origins of
Guadalupe River and Honey Creek
The Waters (and Regional Lands) - Our Namesakes:
Guadalupe River & Honey Creek The place names of
the two bodies of water that serve to anchor our part of the
world – Guadalupe River (map left) and Honey Creek
(map below) – come from different pedigrees, but within their
background stories are rich links to the past – both are tied to
epic eras of Texas history. Since Honey Creek feeds into the
Guadalupe River, one could call them “kissing cousins.”
Still, notwithstanding these waterways’ linkage here, their
contrasts in heritage and physical
description are dramatic. The
Guadalupe extends 230 miles
and Honey Creek is only 5 miles
long. The former was first designated in the 1680s and the latter’s
first formal recognition has only been traced to 1846 records. And
there other differences: one has its headwaters many miles away and
the other’s origins are practically in our backyard. One’s date of
dedication or naming can be pinpointed to the specific day, month
and year and the other’s date of recognition can only be estimated to
have occurred within a range of years. Yet their common link is
that they both drew settlers to our region and today they will
serve as our introduction into Guadalupe River State
Park/Honey Creek State Natural’s regional history.
The Guadalupe River As personal as our stretch of the Guadalupe River seems, the facts
are that the naming event originated nearly 100 miles away, and in a much earlier time. In
1689, Spain had claimed this land but they had no formal outposts in Texas. During a
manhunt to find the settlement of a foreign intruder, the Frenchman, LaSalle, an
expedition of 85 well-armed Spanish soldiers approached a large river in mid-afternoon
and camped by it. On April 14, 1689, the river was christened Nuestra Senora de
Guadalupe.
Honey Creek (Later Defining a Small Region) Honey Creek existed
in the earliest records of regional settlement, traced back to 1846 land
surveys. The Honey Creek region, which contained approximately
10,000 acres of land, came later as the lands surrounding it — Anhalt,
Bulverde, Curry Creek and Spring Branch — had taken more formal
root. As it was settled, Honey Creek evolved as a loosely defined area
that straddles Comal & Kendall counties, and spills over a 16-squaremile box at different points (see map left). The headwaters to our five
mile stretch of paradise lay just outside the western edge of HCSNA
boundary. With a slight twist of irony, while the Honey Creek headwaters are practically
right in our backyard, with settlement in the 1860s, when contrasting details to the
Guadalupe River naming ceremony, which was both distant in time and location yet
precise in date and namesake, the origins of our local creek come from family lore and
carry an indistinct date. The earliest known printed reference to Honey Creek is April 12,
1846, and was penned onto a Comal County land survey. Just a few years after the
conclusion of the Civil War, the area around the Honey Creek headwaters and springs
began receiving settlers with direct links to the early days of German immigration. In
Alfred Engel’s Centennial - St. Joseph’s Catholic Church of Honey Creek 1876 – 1976,
he describes his forebears’ journey to obtain land. While spending a few days at Anhalt
to rest, they also began looking for another running stream. As they walked north
from Anhalt, they were to come upon some unclaimed land belonging to the state.
There they found another stream which emptied into the Guadalupe River, but there
was very little tillable land here, rather, the land was covered with cedar. They went up
this stream and found where the water was bubbling from under a rock ledge. They
decided to look no longer for the land because this would be the place for their new
home. Just think, in their search for land, they traveled along Honey Creek right
past the turn-around point of our Honey Creek tour.
We’ll supplement the family heritage with the fact
that in 1867, five families, whose names were
interwoven with the evolution of the Honey Creek
name, had available land surveyed just outside the
park’s boundaries. One of these surveys was for
Alfred Engel’s Grandfather, Michael Bechtold;
another, for his Great Grandparents, G. F. &
Christina (Bechtold) Kunz. Added into this mosaic of
early land grants were Johann Kneupper, and Robert
& Casper Moos (see red stars on map right).
Various theories exist for the inspiration of the
Honey Creek name. One comes from the fact that
there are a large number of honey-combed rocks in
the area. Another holds that at certain times of the
day, the tree-filtered light that reaches the creek
creates an amber hue. And although we now know
that the creek was named decades before their arrival in the 1860s, the homesteaders’
family legend would have certainly reinforced the pre-existing Honey Creek name. Mr.
Alfred Engel relates that while constructing a cedar house, some children were sent on an
errand to collect spring water from their creek. When they arrived at the spring, there
were so many bees they were afraid to near the spring. Then they looked up above and
discovered a big bunch of bees hanging in a lump and more adding to it. So they ran
back to their parents to tell of their discovery... Two or three days later the boys went
for water again and almost the same thing happened again as it did the days before.
The children are credited in his accounting of saying, “where there are so many bees,
there must be honey.” The reality is that the Honey Creek name, first penned on old
survey maps to describe the body of water, ultimately defined the small region.
Assembled by Bryden E. Moon Jr. - Historian - Friends of Guadalupe,
Honey Creek, Inc. (revised 6/11/2011)