Willow City Loop Ranch Pioneer Payroll — Gillespie County

The Willow City Loop is a famed Ranch Road corridor through northeastern Gillespie County connecting Crabapple, Willow City, and the Enchanted Rock country. Anglo and German ranchers have run cattle and sheep across the granite-and-cedar hills since the late nineteenth century. Ranch-payroll folklore places strongboxes along remote loop roads where weekly wages moved as cash before rural banking reached the northern Gillespie hills. The loop remains a popular route to Enchanted Rock State Natural Area from Fredericksburg. Coordinates approximate the Willow City Loop ranch country between Willow City and Crabapple northeast of Fredericksburg.