General-

Kyle is eight miles north of San Marcos in Hays County and 20 miles south of Austin and is the second largest city in the county.  Here the Balcones Escarpment meets the blacklands prairie.  The town was established on July 24, 1880, when David E. Moore and Fergus Kyle (for whom the city was named) gave 200 acres for a townsite to the International - Great Northern Railroad.  Lots were first sold in October, 1880, at an auction held beneath a live oak tree, now known as the Kyle Auction Oak.  An 1895 election incorporated the town but voters discontinued the status  two years later.   It was incorporated again in 1906.  Farming and ranching add to the economy of other businesses in this fast growing community.

Claiborne Kyle Log House -

Claiborne and Lucy Bugg Kyle married in1829 in Tennessee and moved to Texas in 1844.   In 1850, they built this massive log house on a bluff overlooking the Blanco River where he, Lucy, and their eight children and one adopted son lived.  Built of huge cedar logs, the four-pen, linear dog trot house has four rooms, each about 16 feet square lined up, tow on either side of the dog trot.  The home has been restored and furnished by the Kyle Log House Commission.  Listed in the National Register of Historic Places.  On County Road 136 southwest of Kyle.  Open first Sunday of the month April - August, 2 - 5 p.m.
For information, call 512/ 268-5341.

Porter Museum -

This quaint museum is housed in the house where Katherine Ann Porter spent some ten years of her childhood.  The Pulitzer Prize winning author is probably best known for her novel, "Ship of Fools", published in 1962 and later made into a movie.  The museum contains Porter memorabilia and  items relating to other Southwest writers, artists and poets. 

Open Tuesday - Friday 1 - 6 p.m.  At 508 West Center Street.