Whiskey Bend Ranch

Durinng the years of prohibition (1920 - 1933), there was an illegal whiskey distillery located on a part of a large piece of property.  The sheriff came to his father and informed him they were going to raid it.  Ultimately two men were shot, one fatally and the other in the arm.  The one shot in the arm lived, but has his arm amputated.  He continued to live in the area until he was old.  The legend goes that the Texas Ranger who shot the two men later shot and killed Bonnie and Clyde in 1934.

A few years ago during a flood, the remnants of a still which sat in the middle of the current 31 acres, were washed away.  The original dirt and caliche trail remains has since been referred to by the previous owner as Whiskey Bend Trail.

Research on this topic shows that Frank Hamer shot and killed Bonnie and Clyde in Louisiana.  Frank was a Texas Ranger off and on from 1906.  In 1920, he served as a Federal Agent on the Prohibition Unit for a year before returning to Austin to serve as Senior Ranger Captain.  J. Edgar Hoover rated Hamer as being "one of the greatest law officers in American history."  It could be very likely that this same man was actually involved in the raid of the illegal distillery years back.

What is Caliche? Caliche (ka-lee'-chee) is a sedimentary rock, a hardened deposit of calcium carbonate. This calcium carbonate cements together other materials, including gravel, sand, clay, and silt.  The term caliche is Spanish and is originally from the Latin calx, meaning lime.  Lake Travis is a limestone bottom lake, which makes the water a beautiful blue green in color.