Hays County offers many volunteering options throughout the area to those who wish to give back to their community. Whether it’s donating food, helping to make sure a child is fed and protected or finding a forever home for our four-legged friends, residents in Hays County will find no shortage of o...

hy not start your first garden right now? The weather is still mild, there are chances of spring rains and it’s your best opportunity to get the warm weather crops planted, such as beans, cantaloupe, cucumber, eggplant, tomatoes, squash, okra and peppers. While the idea of growing food and flowers f...

(photos by Moses Leos III) ith spring in full bloom, rows of native wildflowers dot the Texas Hill Country landscape. Of course, the urge is there to stop along a Central Texas highway to snap a few photos. Here’s a list of places where wildflowers are not only present, but also in a location that i...

evere weather was once the stuff of nightmares when Dripping Springs resident Ryan Hearne was growing up. Such was the case one night in 2010 when a hail-producing storm forced him to the confines of his mother’s closet. But intrigue about the magnitude of the storm made him overcome his fear – and ...

(photo courtesy of Cecilia Barrentine) At the time of printing for our March edition of the Hays  County Echo , which was devoted to the 50th anniversary of the Hays School District, we did not have a photo of Eric Dahlstrom, namesake of Dahlstrom Middle School. Since then, granddaughter Cecilia Bar...

Fifty years ago, the newly formed Hays Consolidated Independent School district, which at the time featured the combined cities of Wimberley, Kyle and Buda, had 1,100 students. Fast forward half a century and the number has grown exponentially. With a population of 19,260 students, Tim Savoy, Hays C...

efore having a stadium named after him and earning a spot in the Texas High School Football Coaches Hall of Honor, Bob Shelton was front and center to the old Buda-Kyle rivalry. Shelton, who for four years was the Buda Bulldogs head football coach, said Kyle was the basketball power, while Buda was ...

hen long-time Hays teacher Joyce Smithey grew up in Halletsville she wanted to be a nurse. She went to Victoria Junior College, before studying at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. After a year there, she decided nursing wasn’t what she wanted to do, so she switched her degree to ...

(photo by David White) Blanco Vista Elementary Blanco Vista, which opened in 2008, is named for its location in relationship to the Blanco River which is almost in view from the campus.

ongtime resident Delvin J. “Red” Simon remembers when the eight miles between what were the Buda and Kyle High campuses wasn’t nearly enough separation.  Sure, Buda and Kyle High students and supporters expressed pleasantries when they passed each other on the street back in the day. When it came ti...