Reflections of the 60s at LBJ Ranch - 4/11

The 7th Annual Reflections of the Sixties education conference at the LBJ Ranch is a learning opportunity for persons interested in understanding the impact of the 1960′s on the fabric of our country.  Guest speakers will talk about topics relevant to the 1960′s and the role Lyndon B. Johnson played during this time.

This year, the 50th anniversary of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act will be celebrated.  Highlighting the day will be a ceremony at 2 pm at the one-room Junction School.  At that site on April 11, 1965, President Johnson signed the landmark law that for the first time provided extensive federal funding of the nation’s elementary, junior high and high schools.

Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park on Hwy 290 E near Stonewall.  For more information, call 830-868-7128, ext. 244.

8th Annual LBJ 100 B ike Ride - 3/28

8th Annual LBJ 100 Bicycle Tour provides routes of 10, 30, 42, 62 and 85 miles throughout the scenic Texas Hill Country taking riders on quiet country roads and past historical landmarks.  The ride begins and ends on the LBJ Ranch airstrip. At the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Parks in Stonewall. Registration is online at www.LBJ100BicycleTour.org

Smokehouse Secrets at LBJ State Park & Historic Site - Febraury 28

From stuffing to storage, discover how sausage, bacon and ham were cured a century ago, before electricity and refrigeration came to LBJ Country.  At the Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site, 16 miles on E. US Hwy 290 in Stonewall.

10 am to 3 pm.  Free, but donations are appreciated. (830) 644-2252

Farm Demonstration Day at Lyndon B. Johnson State Park & Historic Site - 9/27

Step back in time and come visit and tour the Sauer-Beckmann Living History Farm, at the LBJ Ranch.  Period-dressed costumed park interpreters will take you back in time to the traditions of a 1915 German farm family and will show how the necessary, low profile chores needed to be done in order to survive in the Texas Hill Country prior to electricity and running water.  Visitors will discover how common things used today were vital in life of yester years.  All park visitors should stop first at the State Park Visitor Center to obtain a free park permit, map and visitor event information before they travel back in time at the living history farm.

10 am to 3 pm.  Free, but donations are welcome. Call 830-644-2252 for details.

Movies Under the Stars at the LBJ Ranch - 10/3

The public is invited to enjoy a free 7:30 p.m. screening of the "A Hard Day's Night", this Saturday, September 13, at the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park on Hwy 290 E. near Stonewall.  The program starts at 6 pm when The Eggmen, from Austin, will play the first of two 50 minute sets.  At 8:30 pm, the park will show the film.   Parking is available on the airstrip. Bring your chairs, blankets and picnic baskets for this fun night under the stars! Free popcorn will be available. For details, call 830-868-7128.

106th Birthday Celebration for President Lyndon B. Johnson - 8/27

The public is invited to participate in commemorating President Lyndon B. Johnson’s birthday at the LBJ State Park in Stonewall.  Visitors are invited to the Visitor Center first for a welcome kit, park permit and information on the day’s activities.  The public can see a film about the President and the Texas Hill Country along with many exhibits.  Throughout the day, visitors can visit the Sauer-Beckmann Living History Farm and participate in old-time family games and see how President Johnson grew up in the Texas Hill Country.  While at the park, make sure to see the presidential exhibits, pack a picnic basket, enjoy the Pedernales River and visit the park store for park and historical-related souvenirs.

There will also be a wreath laying ceremony at his gravesite in the Johnson Family Cemetery by representatives from Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio at 10 am.

Call (830) 644-2252 ext 222 for more information.

Easter at the Sauer-Beckmann Living History Farm - 4/19

Celebrate Easter with a traditional 1915 German farm family at Sauer-Beckmann Living History Farm at the LBJ State Park and Historic Site on Highway 290 East in Stonewall on Saturday April 19 from 10 am to 3 pm. Natural-dyed Easter eggs, lamb cake and grass Easter nest can be seen as they would have been made by the early settlers. Experience the old-time traditions of friendship card giving and make your own to share. This event is free and open to the public and donations are welcome. Please call 830/644-2252 or 830/644-2455 for more information.

Movies Under the Stars at the LBJ National Historical Park & Ranch - 6/14

Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park invites the public to view a classic American western movie on Saturday, June 5 at 8:30 p.m. by attending a screening of From Russia With Love, starring Sean Connery as James Bond. The movie will be projected onto an 18 by 25 foot outdoor screen that includes a professional sound system.

Everyone should bring their own choice of seating, and picnicking before and during the movie is permitted. President and Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson often invited friends and neighbors to attend movie showings in their airplane hangar, which also served as a location for press conferences and family gatherings. The movie will be shown in the area adjacent to the historic hangar. The public can drive on to the LBJ Ranch beginning at 7:00 pm with free parking on the taxiway adjacent to the ranch airplane hangar.

For further information and driving directions, please call (830) 868-7128, ext. 244.

Holiday Cookie Decorating & German Traditions - 11/24

Bring the family and get into the holiday spirit learning about edible ornaments, wreath making, candle making and other holiday activities and traditions from the early 1900’s.  Free, but donations encouraged. 

At the Sauer-Beckmann Living History Farm at the LBJ State Park & Historic Site on Hwy 290 E. from 10 am to 3 pm. 

German Heritage Day at Sauer-Beckmann Farms

Traditional German heritage activities and everyday farm life at the Sauer-Beckmann Farm at the LBJ Ranch State Park will be celebrated June 18, from 10 am to 3 pm. See blacksmithing and soap making done the traditional way. Try your hand at rope making, but don’t get tied up there, move on over to rub-a-dub-dub at the clothes washing and see what the garden is doing. Discover the long lost art of hair wreath making and how skills and crafts are carried on from generation to generation. Learn how important a milk cow is to a farm family. Finish the day pitching some washers or learn the old German card game of Skät. Accessible for the mobility impaired. Call (830) 644-2252 for more information.

Movies Under the Starts at the LBJ Ranch: The Grapes of Wrath - 6/2

Johnson City, TX:  Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park invites to the public to a free showing of the classic movie, The Grapes of Wrath, on Saturday, June 2, at 8:30 p.m.  It stars Henry Fonda and tells the story of an Oklahoma family who become migrant workers in California after losing their farm in Oklahoma during the Depression of the 1930s.

The film received several Academy Award nominations and wins.  In 1989, this film was one of the first 25 films to be selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

The movie will be projected onto an 18 by 25 foot outdoor screen that includes a professional sound system.  Everyone should bring their own choice of seating, and picnicking before and during the movie is permitted.

The public can drive on to the LBJ Ranch beginning at 7:00 p.m.  Free parking is available on the taxiway adjacent to the movie site.

President and Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson often invited friends and neighbors to attend movie showings in their airplane hangar, which also served as a location for press conferences and family gatherings.  The movie will be shown in the area adjacent to the historic hangar.

The next film in the Movies Under the Stars series is Marooned on Saturday, July 14.

For further information and driving directions, please call 830-868-7128, ext. 244.

Barbecue on the LBJ Ranch

In keeping with the historic Head-of-State barbecues held on the LBJ Ranch during the Lyndon B. Johnson presidency of the 1960’s; the National Park Service is hosting a Barbecue on the LBJ Ranch on May 5, 2012 from 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM.

The 1960’s barbecues always included good entertainment and tasty food.  To ensure good times, the Friends of LBJ National Historical Park have arranged for The Salt Lick Barbeque to provide the food with all the trimmings.  Pecan Street Brewing will supply cold refreshments.  Following the “feast” America’s favorite cowboys, the “comedy and western” group, Riders In The Sky will provide a 90-minute show of true Western music with their own brand of wacky humor and way-out Western wit.

The classic cowboy quartet has chalked up over 6100 concert appearances in all 50 states and 10 countries.  Their cowboy charisma and comedic flair have earned them two Grammy awards and a membership in the Grand Ol’ Opry. Riders are happy to make a stop along the trail ride to pay a visit to the LBJ Ranch and the good folks of the Hill Country region.

For more information and to make a reservation for this special event and fund raiser for the national park go to www.friendsoflbjnationalpark.org.  For further information or to arrange to purchase reservations by mail call (830) 868-7128 x222.

Wreath Laying at LBJ Ranch - 8/27

The Lyndon B. Johnson State and National Historical Parks will hold a birthday celebration on Saturday, August 27 in honor of what would have been LBJ’s 103rd birthday. Festivities at the Hwy 290 E. locations near Stonewall include a wreath-laying ceremony at 10.00 a.m. at the Family Cemetery at the Lyndon B. Johnson Nationalhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif Historical Park, followed by an old-fashioned party with games and refreshments at the Sauer-Beckmann Living History Farm at Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site. In honor of the significant date, the $2 interpreter’s fee to tour the Texas White House, Johnson’s family home on the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, will be waived that day. For more information, call 830-868-7128, ext. 231 or visit www.nps.gov/lyjo.

LBJ 100 Bicycle Tour - March 26

Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park announces the 4th annual LBJ 100 Bicycle Tour, “A Ride to Preserve History,” which begins on the historic LBJ Ranch airstrip near Stonewall, Texas on Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 9:00 a.m.

The tour provides four separate routes of 10, 30, 44 and 65 miles throughout the scenic Texas Hill Country and one special historical tour narrated by Luci Baines Johnson beginning at approximately 2:30 p.m. Cost of the event is $40.00 as of March 1, but there are discounts for kids, tandem riders and family riders. Registration includes the ride route of your choice, post-ride hot meal, Ranger-led tour of the Texas White House, and the tour led by Luci Johnson. Non-riders can also purchase the post-ride meal.

This year a contingent of Wounded Warriors – British and American troops undergoing rehab in San Antonio – will be riding in the event. “These guys are amazing”, marvels Superintendent Russ Whitlock. “We’re honored to have them, and I invite the public to come out and support them.”

Luci Baines Johnson’s “Historical Tour of the Ranch” is 10 miles in length and will feature her reminiscences and stories about her parents and life on the ranch in the 1960s. It includes several stops at various historic locations. This event is one that supports Ms. Johnson’s desire “to get the owners of the park to use it.”

The LBJ 100 Bicycle Tour is sponsored by the Friends of Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, the Hill Country Bicycle Touring Club, the National Park Service, and Western National Parks and Monuments Association. All net proceeds will support the educational programs and historic preservation of Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park.

Timeless Christmas at LBJ Boyhood Home

Johnson City, Texas -- Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park invites everyone to experience "Timeless Christmas at the LBJ Boyhood Home and the Johnson Settlement" on Saturday, November 28. In conjunction with Johnson City’s “Lights Spectacular,” National Park Rangers will provide an open house of these historic sites, all decked out for a Christmas celebration in the 1920s and the 1860s from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.

The LBJ Boyhood Home will be lamp lit, giving visitors an opportunity to experience family life at the Johnsons' house as it was more than eighty years ago. National park rangers and volunteers team up to portray a 1920s Christmas, complete with a cedar tree in the parlor adorned with handmade ornaments and a toy display beneath, and authentic decorations and seasonal goodies throughout the home. This experience is a great contrast to the lights display of “Lights Spectacular” in the rest of Johnson City.

Visitors can walk the short lighted trail from the front of the visitor center or board the shuttle bus at the back gate of the LBJ Boyhood Home for a five-minute ride to the Johnson Settlement, where they are guided by lantern light even further back in time to a late 1860s Christmas in frontier Texas. The Exhibit Center will be open for visitors wanting to immerse themselves in what life was like on those cattle drives of long ago, or learn about Lyndon Johnson’s ancestors and what their lives were like on the settlement lands and about other families who came after them and farmed this harsh land. Further up the path is the original Sam Ealy Johnson cabin, where Lyndon Johnson's grandparents first homesteaded in 1869. Here the lighting is provided by candles, oil lamps, and two fireplaces. The decorations here are much simpler, but there is also a tree and some toys. Just as strangers were welcomed in the past, visitors are offered refreshments before they strike out again on the trail home.

The LBJ NHP Visitor Center, located at 100 Ladybird Lane, will also be open and provides lighted parking to visitors. The park store, with a great selection of books and gift ideas for all ages, will be offering a 15% discount on all purchases the evening of November 28.

The following three Saturdays, December 5, 12, and 19, everyone is invited to experience "Christmas at the LBJ Boyhood Home". National Park Rangers will provide an open house of this historic home, all decked out for a Christmas celebration in the 1920s from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. each evening.

These park events are free of charge and are complemented by the stunning lighting display at the Pedernales Electric Cooperative, across the street from the LBJ Boyhood Home, with majestic live oaks resplendent in hundreds of thousands of tiny white lights. In addition, the Blanco County Courthouse, just two blocks north of the Boyhood Home on Avenue G, is the centerpiece of the town's seasonal celebration "Lights Spectacular" and is not to be missed.

The turn for the LBJ Boyhood Home is just three blocks (turn left onto Avenue G) west of the intersection of Highways 281 and 290 in Johnson City.

Parking is available in the Visitor Center lot at Avenue G and Ladybird Lane. For detailed directions or additional information, please call (830) 868-7128, extension 244.

The 3rd Annual LBJ 100 Bicycle Tour on March 27, 2010 will signal the beginning of the spring cycling season in the gorgeous Hill Country of Texas. Beginning (9:00 AM) and ending on the air strip of the historic LBJ Ranch, with routes of 10, 30, 44, and 65 miles, the venue is one of scenic, quiet country lanes and hilly, traffic-free, smooth-surface ranch roads. There's a cycling route for all abilities!

As an added feature, Luci Baines Johnson will lead a 'Historical Tour of the LBJ Ranch' (2:00 PM depart). This narrated tour of the ranch landmarks is a not-to-be-missed event included in the registration price. Listen to Presidential history from someone who lived it!

An exciting new addition to the 2010 LBJ 100 is the addition of historic Gillespie County rural schools as rest stops. What better way to honor Lyndon B. Johnson, the thirty-sixth President of the United States, widely acknowledged as the 'Education President'! His progressive education bills and many of his 'Great Society' legislation programs were designed in the tranquility of his ranch. This truly will be a 'Ride to Preserve History'!

For more information, contact Nolan Kuehn (210-355-2645) or Ethel Pedraza (210-414-8559).

Conducted by the Friends of LBJ National Historical Park and the Hill Country Bicycle Touring Club, the tour provides net proceeds for the betterment of the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park.

LBJ Ranch Bus Tour Schedule

The two-hour National Park Bus Tours for the LBJ Ranch, Sauer- Beckmann Living History Farm and the Texas White House are available daily – one at 11:00 a.m. and one at 2:00 p.m. Self-guided personal vehicle tours with loaned CD audio are available throughout the day. For more information, please contact the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historic Park at 830-868-7128.

Soap Making at Sauer-Beckman Farm - 5/24

Come to the LBJ State Park & Historic Site, east of Fredericksburg on Highway 290 in Stonewall and see how lye soap is made, how it was used in the 1900's and why it was so vital to a farm family. There will demos of cooking lye soap over an open fire and visitors will be able to interact with the process. Donations are welcome. Please call 830/644-2252 or 830/644-2455 for more information

First Annual Texas Bison Festival - 5/3-4

Celebrate Texas Bison Week with the first annual Bison Festival at the LBJ State Park & Ranch, East of Fredericksburg on Highway 290 in Stonewall. Enjoy a live bison herd, exhibits, speakers, music, poetry, storytellers, art & crafts, food and much more. Cost is $5 for adults, with children 12 and under free.

LBJ 100 Bicycle Tour - 4/19

Come join a group of bikers in the gorgeous Hill Country for the LBJ 100 Bicycle Tour, commemorating the birth centennial and the "can-do" spirit of President Johnson and in observance of Nation Park Week. The tour will happen, rain or shine, in the LBJ Ranch. The ride will introduce planned changes to the Park, whereby cyclists and other visitors will experience a wide and welcoming exposure to the history and majesty of this national treasure. Tour cost is $25 until April 5, $35 thereafter. All riders get a t-shirt and a commemorative bandanna. Please call 830/868-7128 x231 for more information.