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River Tracing: Rio Frio 3

By Michael Barnes | Sunday, August 16, 2009, 11:50 PM

To read more “River Tracing: Rio Frio,” scroll down to the posts below, or follow the links to Part 1 and Part 2.

Tracing the 200-mile-long Frio meant driving more than 400 miles, and not too much hiking around the riverbeds in the heat. Getting back, however, would be a straight shot up Texas 123 from Live Oak County to Interstate 35 in San Marcos the next morning.

Our stay in George West, another former ranching center, proved uneventful. But just outside Karnes City, we spotted the famous hamlet of Panna Maria. The first Polish colony in America, it was founded in 1854.

The cluster of homes, stores and schools around the Catholic church are in remarkably good condition. You may recall that Pope John Pall II accepted tributes from Panna Marians during his 1984 trip to San Antonio. Somehow, I had imagined the pope actually visited here, but that does not seem to be the case. Other Polish towns with other Polish churches — not to be confused with the painted Czech churches of Schulenburg, Shiner, etc. — line Texas 123. But we had one last small-town attraction to visit before we skittered back to Austin.

That would be the Sebastopol House in Seguin. Made from formed, unreinforced “lime-crete” in 1854, it is lovingly preserved and explained by the Texas parks folks. It appears it was the unfinished city home for plantation owner by the name of Young, whose descendant sold it to the Zorn family. (The name apparently came from the Crimean War battle that intrigued the original owner’s children.)

One Zorn became mayor of Seguin and his daughter left the to a conservation society, who later let the State of Texas look after its not inconsequential upkeep. Park ranger Georgia Davis (above) proved a fount of well-calculated information, among the only tour-guides I’ve ever encountered who didn’t simplify the history for the purposes of mere entertainment. Some recent research, for instance, suggests that the style is not neo-Classical at all, but perhaps Caribbean.