WIMBERLEY, TEXAS. Wimberley is on Farm Road 12 fourteen miles northwest of San Marcos and forty miles southwest of Austin in western Hays County. The Blanco River and Cypress Creek are the local streams. In addition to the bald cypress and pecan trees that line the riverbanks, cedar, oak, and grasses grow in shallow, clay loams on the area slopes and benches. When Hays County was organized in 1848 the site had a small trading post settlement. In 1856 William Carvin Winters, a veteran of the battle of San Jacinto,^qv built a gristmill on Cypress Creek, and the settlement came to be known as Winters' Mill. John M. and Nancy Winters Cude bought the mill in 1864, and the settlement then came to be known as Cude's Mill. On March 5, 1874, Pleasant Wimberley^qv from Blanco County bought the mill from the Cudes for $8,000 in gold, and the settlement then came to be known as Wimberley's Mill. On January 19, 1880, San Marcos postmaster Alfred vom Stein made application for a post office to serve the community. He submitted the name Wimberleyville and recommended Robert Moore as first postmaster, but the name granted was simply Wimberley. The Wimberley mill served as a lumber mill, shingle mill, gristmill, flour mill, molasses mill, and cotton gin. It ceased operation in 1925 and was demolished in 1934. In 1985 Wimberley had three schools, eleven churches, and fifty businesses, including a bank on the site of the old mill. The climate and setting make the community a health center and resort town. Its location near Austin and San Marcos makes it attractive to commuters. Tourism is a major industry in the area. A "Market Days" flea market is held on the first Saturday of each month from April through December. A rodeo lasting several days is held to celebrate the Fourth of July each year. Just outside Wimberley is the incorporated development of Woodcreek, with an eighteen-hole championship golf course. In 1990 the population of Wimberley was 2,403. The population reached 3,797 in 2000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Dudley Richard Dobie, A Brief History of Hays County and San Marcos, Texas (San Marcos, 1948). Dorothy Wimberley Kerbow, Wimberley: Historic Belle of the Blanco (Austin: Eakin Press, 1995). Frances Stovall et al., Clear Springs and Limestone Ledges: A History of San Marcos and Hays County (San Marcos: Hays County Historical Commission, 1986).

Dorothy Wimberley Kerbow