Lockhart, Texas

We arrived at Lockhart State Park for a 4-night stay after a short 55-mile drive from Lakeway. It’s a beautiful, well-maintained state park with a swimming pool, public 9-hole golf course, and small campground. There are 10-sites with full hookup and 10-sites with water and electric. It was very quiet there and we saw many deer and wild turkeys wandering across the fairway in front of our camp site.

 

Lockhart, with a population of nearly 13,000, was established in 1848. Lockhart was on the historic Chisholm Trail, used to drive cattle overland from Texas ranches to Kansas railheads in the post-Civil War era. We were truly impressed with architecture of the county courthouse built in 1894 and the library built in 1898.

 

Lockhart, on the “Texas BBQ Trail”, was proclaimed to be the Barbeque Capital of Texas in 1999 by the Texas legislature. So we thought we’d try all four barbeque restaurants in town: Black’s Barbeque, Kreuz Market, Smitty’s Market and Chisholm Trail BBQ.

 

After trying all four restaurants, we found Kreuz Market and Smitty’s Market to be almost identical in style (no forks, no sauce), preparation and taste. We thought Chisholm Trail had the best variety and tasting side dishes. They also were the least expensive. Overall, we both liked Black’s Barbeque the best. Although it was a little more expensive than the others, the meat was definitely the most tender and flavorful.

We drove back to Castroville and the San Antonio area yesterday. We're spending the Christmas holiday with Julie's mom, sister, brother-in-law and nephew.  No desire for barbeque this coming week.

Steve & Julie Cornelius