At the LBJ National Historical Park in Stonewall, next-door—well, actually across the Pedernales River—to the LBJ State Park, the LBJ Ranch sprawls over Texas Hill Country. On the property in less than a quarter mile, Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th President of the United States, was born and is buried. Johnson’s boyhood foot prints were all over this ranch land, on the road between his birthplace and his grandfather’s house, and along the sandy banks of the Pedernales. In 1952, Lyndon Johnson, then a U.S. Senator, purchased a rambling white farmhouse and land from his Aunt Frank Martin. Growing up, he had spent many hours, especially Christmases, in the old two-story house that had its origins as a simple one-room cabin with a loft. He and Lady Bird Johnson immediately started renovations to create what they called their “Heart Home.” Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Johnsons continued to improve and update the house and grounds—adding bedrooms, office, airstrip, and a swimming pool.

When Johnson became president, he placed a mat at the front door that read: “All The World Is Welcome Here.” Indeed, the world did come to his doorstep; the national press corps, cabinet members, heads of national departments, his secret service entourage, and leaders from other countries flew into the newly created air strip, adequate for the Lockheed C-140 Jet Star that transported the president from Austin to the ranch. President Johnson, attired in khakis, boots, and a western hat, delighted in giving tours of the airplane hangar, the livestock pens, and the comfortably furnished home that he called the Texas White House.

The president routinely watched three television sets at once. A telephone was always by his side, even in the pool. One entire building on the grounds housed a communications system that could provide instantaneous international connections. Yet, during his terms as senator and later, as president, Lyndon Johnson kept a finger on the pulse of his ranch and his herd of registered Herefords. Although in 1972, the Johnsons donated the Texas White House to the National Park Service and the American people, the LBJ Ranch remains a viable cattle operation.
Today, Workampers like Bill and Karen Fischer work as volunteers in the Show Barn at the LBJ Ranch. Bill says, “We basically worked as blue collar helpers from October 2012 through March 2013. We fed the cattle every morning. Then, we tackled whatever assignment had a high priority—mending and painting fences, taking animals to the veterinarian's office, cutting grass, moving hay, or talking with visitors that were touring the show barn.”

Bill Fischer says their experience with horses and large animals, as well as the rural lifestyle, qualified them for their volunteer positions. The Fischers chose the outdoor work with animals over guiding guests through the Texas White House. They worked a four-day-on and four-day-off schedule from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The compensation for volunteering at the LBJ National Historic Park? The Fischers and some other volunteers parked on the property about 100 yards from the Show Barn.

The LBJ Park also utilizes volunteers to conduct tours of the Texas White House. Greg and Cathy Taylor were two of those volunteers, arriving in early February in Johnson City—the second location for the Lyndon Baines Johnson National Historic Park—to check in at the Visitor Center for their duty assignment and their RV site location. To their delight, they were given a site right on the LBJ Ranch.

“How cool is that?” Cathy says. “LBJ’s deer and his Hereford cattle roamed all around us. After the gates closed at night, we could wander around the ranch, although we could not get close to the house.”

However, Cathy and Greg did get close to the house—in fact, inside the house. For about a week, they shadowed other interpreters and read volumes of books and private papers regarding the lives of LBJ, Lady Bird, and their daughters. She says interpreters are encouraged to develop their own talks. She and Greg discovered that some interpreters take an antiwar stance, some a civil rights perspective, some a devious LBJ viewpoint, and others simply focus on the items in the house.

Cathy admits that she has never been a historian like Greg, so the interpreter’s job had a learning curve for her. Yet, Greg’s problem was paring down all the information he acquired to a 30-minute talk. The Taylors noted that running tours on time was important so that fellow-volunteers would not have to hold up their groups.

As official volunteer park interpreters, they reported at 9:00 a.m. to the Visitor Center in the old hangar of the property and were assigned a slot in the daily rotation of tours. The interpreters’ moniker is TWI, affectionately known as “twit followed by a 1, 2, or higher number. Twit1 opened the White House; Twit 2 opened the birth home on the property and the Junction School House. And so went the assignments. After checking into work, the interpreters gathered in the pool house where they could study materials, chat with each other, and wait to be assigned a tour.

Just as the Taylors felt comfortable at the Ranch, they trained to give tours of the LBJ Boyhood Home in Johnson City. Instead of scooting down the pasture road to the Texas White House, they got in the car and drove for 20 minutes to Johnson City.

“Three LBJ Visitor Centers so close together is confusing to guests,” Cathy states. “One is in Johnson City; one is on a state park, and the other is on the ranch. All are intertwined. Part of our job was to show people on a two-sided map where they were and what activities were available. The front side shows Johnson City; the back outlines the ranch and the state park. Functionally, it works.”

Lyndon Baines Johnson’s boyhood home sets only a block from the Visitor Center in Johnson City. Curt Chesnut is another volunteer who rotates tour duty between the Texas White House and boyhood home. Like the Taylors, Curt shadowed park rangers and other volunteers and read numerous books on the history of President Johnson, his family, and the area around Johnson City. He echoed Greg Taylor’s problem:  “We learn so much that we talk too much on our tours. The tour of the LBJ’s boyhood home is supposed to be about 20 minutes, every hour on the hour. Often, I got carried away and told too much history.”

On his tour, Curt explained how LBJ followed his father’s footsteps, learning about Texas politics by traveling with his dad, Sam Johnson, as he campaigned for the Texas legislature. None of the furnishings are original to the Johnson family, but they are all in the period and are items that family has documented that the family owned. LBJ’s father did well in real estate, so despite the modest size of the house, the family had purchased nice furnishings. However, Sam Johnson lost money in the cotton business and the family became quite poor for most of LBJ’s childhood. His college-educated mother, Rebekah, determined that each of her children would attend college. LBJ finally did—piecemeal and on borrowed money. When he became eligible to teach, he acted as a principal for a segregated school close to the Mexican border long enough to pay off all his debts and his Model T. As an interpreter, Curt pointed out how the experiences of LBJ’s childhood and young adulthood influenced many of his passions and programs in his presidency.

Curt lived on park property in Johnson City while he served as a volunteer. For his services, he received his site, hookups, uniform, and propane. He pointed out that not all National Parks provide propane.

Most volunteers for the Lyndon Baines Johnson National Historical Park prefer winter and spring assignments due to the hot temperatures of Texas Hill Country summers. Most find job openings on the National Parks website: www.volunteer.gov/

 

 

Volunteers at Sauer-Beckman Living History Farm

The LBJ State Park and Historic Site is a day use area with picnic tables, a swimming pool, and nature trails. But the focal point is the Sauer-Beckmann Living History Farm where life slows down and steps backward to 1915 in an old farmstead under live oak trees. No electricity. No running water. The volunteer interpreters, women in long calicos and men in overalls, take on the daily chores of a Texas-German family living on a Hill Country farm. Some chores are seasonal, such as planting a garden, canning vegetables and fruits, butchering, and making lye soap. But day-to-day living means the cow has to be milked, the hogs slopped, and the eggs gathered. Naturally, all farm animals have to be fed. Dinner—the noon meal—is cooked and the house is cleaned, butter is churned, cheese is made, and laundry is scrubbed and hung on the line to flap in Texas breezes.

A daughter of the Sauer family, Augusta Sauer Lindig, serving as a mid-wife in 1908, delivered the first child of state representative Sam Ealy Johnson, whose family lived across the Pedernales River from their farm. That child, Lyndon Baines Johnson, grew up to become the 36th president of the United States.

After the property sold to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Lyndon Johnson had the idea of preserving and operating the farm as though it was still the early 1900s. Archeological surveying and restoration work started and the farm opened to the public in 1975. Since then, the farm remains forever a small piece of Texas as it was at the beginning of the 20th century. Time stands still when one of the interpreters says: “Welcome to my parlor.” When observing the canning or the cheese making, they often overhear guests’ remark: “That’s just how Mama did it!”

Because the Beckmann's, the second family that owned the farm, prospered, the Victorian house is filled with furnishings that might not have been found in every Texas farm home at that time. Each item in the house, including a collection of period clothing and a hand crank sewing machine, is inventoried and archived with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

The LBJ State Park volunteers thrive on reenacting life as it happened on a Texas Hill Country farm back in the early 1900s. Beth and Neil Dennis from Ontario, Canada, are two individuals who fit into that lifestyle. Neil works three eight-hour days weekly in maintenance while Beth spends her time cooking on a woodstove in the old farmhouse. She also sews on the hand crank sewing machine in addition to doing other daily chores such as gathering eggs, hauling in firewood for the stove, making cheese, and churning butter.

The state park provides four full hookup sites for its RVing volunteers. Although summer months are open, few volunteer for duty in a kitchen where temperatures often reach 115 degrees.

For more information: www.tpwd.state.tx.us/state-parks/lyndon-b-johnson