Just 30 minutes outside of fast-moving Austin, serenity exists on the banks of the Colorado River. The Barton Hill Farms is a tranquil and beautiful little place with a five-acre corn maze easy to get lost in and offers a lovely environment to get away from it all, if only for the day. 

Barton Hill Farms features a corn maze, hayrides, a hay barrel swing and a giant sandbox within a replica of a historic ship with a little-known story. What is most interesting about the farm is the historical aspects incorporated into it. The property the farm is built on has quite a story behind it. 

“This property was settled back in the 1820s by Josiah Willbarger, and Josiah was one of the first nine settlers in Stephen F. Austin’s Bastrop colony. Josiah came here with Ruben Hornsby. He was a surveyor, and he was a hunter. He’d take hunting parties out,” Craig Swanson, one of the owners of the farm, said. Swanson co-proprietors the farm with Andrew Taft. 

The story Craig shared detailed how Josiah Willbarger was out on a hunt near Onion Creek when a group of Native Americans attacked the party and Josiah was severely injured, so much so that the party left him there because they believed him to be dead. One of the settler’s wives dreamed that he was still alive and insisted they go out and search for him. Sure enough, Josiah was found alive, hanging onto a tree. He had been scalped and shot in the neck with an arrow, miraculously surviving, and lived 11 more years.

All throughout the property, different signs are posted that relay this same history. 

“We began doing research after we bought the property, which is named the Josiah Willbarger Tract No. 5, and we talked to the old timers in the area, who still knew the stories that had been passed down,” Swanson said. 

One little-heard story is the story of the Lively, a ship with an unknown fate. Stephen F. Austin commissioned this ship to be built to bring provisions from New Orleans to his colony. The intention was for Austin to meet the ship at the mouth of the Colorado River. He waited for thirty days, but the ship never arrived. 

“After that, the ship kind of disappeared. It likely shipwrecked off the coast, but there were also stories of a similar ship that was privateering and had been taken by pirates wrecking havoc on the Texas coast,” Swanson said. 

The farm has a fifty-foot replica of the Lively and shares the mysterious history of this ghost ship. Aside from these unique stories, the farm has booths set up, along with a stage for live music. Snacks and beverages are offered throughout to satisfy those who have ventured through the maze. 

This charming and serene place has something to offer for everyone. 

“It’s all very refreshing. It’s nice to get away from the busyness of Austin to come down to the relaxation of Bastrop,” Christian Anhalt, St. Edward’s University freshman, said. 

Barton Hill Farms is located at 1115 Farm to Market 969 in Bastrop Texas, and is open until Nov. 18. Hours are from 9 a.m. until dusk. Tickets are $10 for adults.