Burnet County is known for several industries with various minerals or tourism being at the heart of most bustling enterprises.

However in the early 1900’s cotton was king there like many other areas of Texas.

The little town where I now reside, Bertram, had 4 cotton gins at one point. I think I’ve read that it also had about that many banks. The soil around this area is more suited to ranching than farming, but that didn’t stop the industrious folks from making the most of black land areas spotted around the county. Besides the four in Bertram, there were other cotton gins located in Burnet, Marble Falls, Spicewood and even in Smithwick the small community I grew up in.

Of course the Great Depression changed many things, but it really brought a screeching halt to the cotton farming in this area. There was also the droughts and boll weevils.