The Texas Hills

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In fact, Wimberley has as dynamic and active a citizenry as I've ever encountered. Churches, clubs, action groups and other volunteers provide such things as firefighting, emergency medical services and a fine Senior Citizens Activity Center. They feed and clothe their needy citizens, test the water quality of the Blanco River and Cypress Creek, pick up litter, and recently organized to decentralize their school system. (Where most school systems have moved toward consolidation rather than decentralization, Wimberley decided to split away from the Hays County school district and educate its chil dren locally. The town recently completed a $2 million, 37,500-square-foot kindergarten through third grade school building.) The Chamber of Commerce takes charge of public garbage pickup and created a Wimberley Water Company. It once paid for streetlights, but 26 businesses and one resident recently "adopted" 27 streetlights and now pay for their use. The Chamber sponsors a "Funfest" each spring, a two-week-long series of parades, street dances and games to raise money for public projects. Likewise, the local Lions Club holds "Market Days" the first Saturday of every summer month on six acres called the Lions Field just outside of town. Each Market Day attracts hundreds of vendors and craftspeople and over 10,000 customers, and the stalls offer just about any art, craft and flea market item imaginable, including pets and livestock.

"Wimberley will 'club' you to death," one resident commented. "We have a lot of women named Dorothy in town, so there's even a Dorothy Club. They meet for lunch and whatnot."

Despite a lack of zoning or building codes (there is no sewer system, just septic tanks), Wimberley's architectural style is remarkably uniform (mostly stone or frontier-style wood), and businesses that put up offensive signs are boycotted.

Also, since this popular tourist destination has only one motel and one river resort, many residents have filled a need by turning their houses into bed-and-breakfast establishments, charging from $35 to $85 per night. For example, Leonard and Juanita Buxkemper, a people-loving couple who sold their business in Houston to move to the Texas Hills, have opened their $400,000 home to paying guests. While staying there, I had a first-hand taste of Texas's legendary hospitality, a graciousness that's truly as big as the state itself.

The Buxkempers aren't the only Houstonians who have found the mosquitofree, dry climate of the Hill Country attractive. Some estimate that 75% of Wimberley's population is from that economically hard-hit city, though I talked to residents from as far away as New York, Missouri, the West Coast and the British Isles. (I met only two Wimberley natives during my stay, but I was told that many families have been there for six generations.) It's partly this population of recent arrivals that makes newcomers feel welcomed here.

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