More Than Oil in Luling TX....Zedler's Mill & Cotton Gin

Before we headed to our next Luling adventure, we stopped for lunch at City Market. It is a well known and popular barbeque restaurant.

Once inside, you line up to go into the back room to get your order. This place is not fancy but most barbeque places aren't fancy.

Once through the swinging door, you place your order for meat.....brisket, ribs, sausage, chicken....all by the pound. Then you pay the guy smiling in the middle. Your order is given to you on brown paper, open or wrapped up depending on whether you are dining in or out. Then you go back to the front counter and pick out your sides and drinks and pay for them.

Then you sit down and enjoy your meal. The meat and sides were great. Neither Mary Jane or I like the sauce here. It was mustardy and vinegary but the meat was good without it.

We took a little ride in the park by the river....the San Marcos River. We found this building and wondered what it was. A city worker enjoying his lunch came over and told us that it was the old jail. It was evident that floods had come and gone here as the building was filled with silt.

Then we headed under the bridge to.....

The Zedler Mill.

 

The historic Fritz Zedler house. Once the home of the mill owner, it is now a guest house and event center. 

Next, the mill complex.

The first thing you want to do is check out this map of the complex and make sure you understand where everything is located. They have a phone number to call to get a recorded walking tour trhough the complex. We used this but we didn't see the map first so it was rather difficult to follow. The buildings are numbered to coordinate with the recording but there are no arrows or guidelines for you to follow as you walk through the complex so the recording didn't work well for us. A handout would have been much appreciated to get the most out of the visit.

Zedler Mill offers a rustic view of the 19th century life.

With many historic first to its credit, the mill was a small enterprise started in 1874 as a water wheel operated grist mill. It was bought by German immigrant Fritz Zedler who added a feed mill, a cotton gin, a corn sheller, a public water supply system, a blacksmith shop, and an electrical generating plant.

The restored feed mill and cotton gin museum show the intricacy and efficiency of the early industrial revolution.

Mule barn

The restored scale house, once used to weigh wagons full of produce, serves as the office for the complex.

Corn shelling building

To the right of the dam is where the water wheel would have been located

We saw a small carn of rocks on this little island of gravel below the dam

There were two dogs that wanted to cross the river.

We saw them swimming. One went back to the other side and this one kept going. We were hoping they made it okay as there was no way we could get to them.

 

There is a hug pavilion at the mill that is used for wedding receptions and other big events. It has large glass garage type doors which can be open or closed as needed.