Sunday, November 13, 2016
Our drive today takes us just to the north of Kerrville to the
community of Ingram where we find a side road with some old buildings (what
else?) selling antiques and a couple of restaurants.
Ingram
was founded in 1879 by J.C.W. Ingram and is located along the banks of the Guadalupe River
Ingram is another of those small Texas towns with old
buildings and quaint shops and small population. Just to the north of town is a dam where the
water flows gently over the dam allowing algae to grow down the concrete. Locals congregate here swimming around the
dam and sliding down the slick algae for recreation. What fun that must be. It is too late in the year for swimming here
now.
Just beyond this area on the main highway are these
structures which resemble Stonehenge found on Easter
Island . Where did they come
from, how long have they been here? The
structures started out as an amusing art project by a gentleman by the name of
Al Sheppard from Hunt, TX when his friend offered him a limestone slab left
from the construction of his backyard patio.
Mr. Sheppard got an idea to stand the slab on end and then got
Stonehenge Fever. The next year Mr.
Sheppard had his friend erect a 90% scale replica of the original Stonehenge made from plaster and graphite-covered metal mesh and steel frameworks
in his pasture. Mr. Sheppard added two
13 foot Easter Island heads a year and a half
later. He died in 1994. In 2010 the property where Stonehenge
stood was sold and the new owners wanted to tear it down. The city of Ingram ’s Hill Country Arts Foundation bought
the monument and the heads
and moved them 8 miles into Ingram and near the
river which flows through the area.
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