Cross Mountain

Cross Mountain, a marl and limestone hill with an elevation of 1,915 feet, served as an Indian signal point warning of the intrusions of white settlers. The German geologist Dr. Ferdinand Roemer first recorded and described the hill in 1847, and a timber cross found on its summit that same year suggests that Spanish missionaries had recognized it as a landmark on the route from San Antonio to Mission San Saba. John Christian Durst, who arrived from Germany with his family in 1847, received a town lot and 10 acres of land including the hill and, after finding the cross, named it Kreuzberg, or Cross Mountain. Easter fires on the mountain and nearby hills recall a German tradition of burning the old growth to make way for the new and also commemorate the 1847 treaty by which John O. Meusebach and the settlers established peace with the Comanche nation. In 1849 Father George Menzel, a Bohemian priest, erected a more substantial cross as a symbol of redemption and civilization. Easter Sunrise Services were held there for many years before 1941, and in 1946 the Very Rev. F. X. Wolf illuminated the permanent metal and concrete cross built by St. Mary's Catholic Church.

Fredericksburg, Texas · United States