Visible for miles, Pilot Knob served as a beacon for early Texas pioneers traveling inland from Old Indianola to Helena and San Antonio during the 19th century. On the hill they found charred rocks and artifacts from an earlier Indian campground. The Goliad Land District first surveyed the area in 1838, and in 1886 the San Antonio & Aransas Pass railroad was built through the region. For years, a sign at the Weldon Switch depot, present Nordheim, proclaimed that its 400-foot elevation was the highest on the line between Houston, San Antonio, and Waco. Nordheim was platted in 1895, and numerous German immigrants afterward came to the area. Beneath the sturdy oaks on Pilot Knob, young and old took part in band concerts, shooting matches, harvest and May festivals, and Easter Egg hunts, while a refreshment stand and dance platform made the hill the center of social life for Nordheim citizens. The townspeople also buried their dead there, and after most activities had moved into town by about 1910, Pilot Knob gradually became the community cemetery.