When playing tour guide for visiting friends and family, there’s plenty of culture and history in San Antonio to draw from. But sometimes you want to take things up a notch.
To that end, we rounded up these quirky and lesser-known facts about the Alamo City, covering everything from cryptozoology to the world’s largest tamalada. They’re guaranteed to impress your out-of-town visitors.
San Pedro Springs Park is the second oldest park in the U.S., and the oldest in Texas.
During the Civil War, it was used as a camp for prisoners of war. Today you’ll find the San Pedro Library, a swimming pool, a skate park and hiking trails. Credit:Photo via Instagram / saparksandrecYou can actually take the stairs at the Tower of the Americas.
It’ll only take you 952 steps to reach the top of the 750-foot-tall structure. Credit: Photo via Shutterstock / FotosForTheFutureThe dirt at the SA Stock Show & Rodeo is the same 2,160 tons of dirt that’s been used since 1988.
It’s sifted through, of course. Credit:Photo via Wikimedia Commons / Carol M. HighsmithTom Slick, the founder of Southwest Research Institute and Texas Biomedical Research Institute, was fascinated by cryptids.
Slick went on expeditions to investigate both Bigfoot and the Yeti in the ’50s and early ’60s. Artist Elizabeth Carrington took inspiration from Slick’s passion for cryptozoology for her public artwork Nessie, a statue of the Loch Ness Monster in Tom Slick Park. Credit:Photo via Instagram / schraderfotowerksSan Antonio’s Martin Luther King Jr. March is the largest in the country. Credit: Photo by Jaime MonzonKatherine Stinson, the namesake for Stinson Middle School, was the fourth woman to receive a pilot’s license in the U.S.
Stinson, who lived in San Antonio in the early 1900s, set flying records for distance, endurance and aerobatic maneuvers. Stinson Municipal Airport is named after her family, full of pilots, and is the second oldest general aviation airport in the country. Credit:Photo via Flickr / The Library of CongressSan Antonio is home to the oldest church in Texas — the San Fernando Cathedral. Facing downtown’s Main Plaza, this structure built between 1738 and 1750 was considered the city’s geographical and cultural center. In addition to being the oldest continuously functioning place of worship in San Antonio, it’s also one of the nation’s oldest cathedrals. Credit: Photo via Shutterstock / Kit LeongGrave of Pat the Horse Cunningham Gate of Ft. Sam Houston, Corner of Cunningham Ave. and N. Pine St., history.army.mil/museums/fieldMuseums/FSHMuseum/index.html
Located on the northwest side of Ft. Sam Houston near the Westfort neighborhood is a single, large grave, where the beloved Pat the Horse is buried. Pat was a cavalry horse in the U.S. Army in the early 1900’s. When the army decommissioned its cavalry, Pat was in his 20s and was set to be euthanized, but the soldiers at Ft. Sam Houston lobbied Washington for him to be spared. The request was approved and Pat spent his retirement at the fort. When Pat died at the ripe old age of 45 he was honored with a grave with his portrait on the headstone. Credit: Photo by Sanford NowlinGatorade was invented by Robert Cade, who grew up in San Antonio.
Cade was born in the Alamo City and went to Brackenridge High School. Credit: Photo courtesy of GatoradeSan Antonio is home to the World’s Largest Cowboy Boots.
Made by the larger-than-life artist Bob “Daddy-O” Wade, these boots were installed at North Star in 1979 and officially made it into the Guinness Book of World Records as the World’s Largest Cowboy Boots four decades later. Credit: Photo via Shutterstock / MACH PhotosCool Crest Miniature Golf is one of the oldest mini golf courses in the U.S.
The golf course first opened in 1929, and in 2009 the city’s Historic and Design Commission designated it as a historically significant site. Credit:Photo via Instagram / coolcrestgolfThe first-ever Church’s Chicken was in San Antonio.
In 1952, Church’s Fried Chicken To-Go opened in Alamo Plaza. Credit: Photo courtesy of Church's ChickenSan Antonio became the first city in the U.S. to have an air-conditioned office building – the Milam Building – back in 1928.
Imagine surviving summer without one. Credit:Photo courtesy of UTSA Libraries Digital CollectionsBracken Cave, not too far from Natural Bridge Caverns, is home to the world’s largest bat colony. Credit:Photo via Instagram / ella__fergusonBefore his days in the White House, former president Theodore Roosevelt recruited his famous Rough Riders over at the Menger Hotel.
There’s even some memorabilia on display at the hotel today. The hotel, built in 1859, itself is the oldest continuously operating hotel west of the Mississippi River. Credit: Photo via Shutterstock / 4kclipsCredit: Shutterstock / 4kclipsLanier HS holds the Guinness World Record for the most tamales ever made.
In 2011, the West Side community gathered at Lanier HS for a 10-hour giant tamalada, during which 1,300 students and volunteers made 17,106 tamales. Credit:Photo via Unsplash / Jacob ThomasSt. Mark’s Episcopal Church is the home to quite a bit of history.
President Lyndon B. Johnson married Lady Bird Johnson here in November 1934 after only dating for less than 3 months. The bell at the church was cast from a bronze cannon, most likely from the Alamo. It was found buried in a backyard not too far from the Alamo. Credit:Photo courtesy of LBJ CollectionFritos were invented in San Antonio.
While it’s not under debate that the popular corn chip was created in the Alamo City by Charles Elmer Doolin in 1932, the origin of Frito Pie is contested. For its part, Frito-Lay insists that Frito Pie was created by Doolin’s mother Daisy in San Antonio, but an alternate story claims that the Frito Pie originated in Santa Fe. Credit:Photo via Wikimedia Commons / Leonard J. DeFrancisciThe Lone Star Lagoon at Six Flags Fiesta Texas contains a half-million gallons of water.
The giant, Texas-shaped wave pool is located in the White Water Bay water park. Credit:Photo via Wikimedia Commons / Jpp858
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