Methodology · coordinates · scoring
About the Map
Hill Country Towns is a geography project first. The goal is not to define one legally perfect Hill Country boundary or rank destinations. It is to build a useful mental map of the communities people encounter across the region.
Hill Country Wayfinder currently uses 36 towns chosen to cover a mix of major anchors, recognizable day-trip towns and smaller “deep cut” communities. The set is intentionally broad enough to teach the region without becoming a list of every settlement in Central Texas.
How town locations are chosen
Each town has one canonical coordinate used by the game. Where possible, those coordinates are checked against authoritative place data such as the Texas State Historical Association / Texas Almanac, official municipal sources and geographic datasets.
A town is not a mathematical point in real life. The coordinate is a consistent reference location used for scoring and visualization, not a claim that every part of the community belongs at that exact latitude and longitude.
How distance scoring works
When a player drops a pin, the game measures the distance between the guess and the town’s canonical coordinate. Nearby-town cards use the same coordinate system so the relationships remain consistent across the game and town guides.
When a page displays “straight-line distance,” it means geographic distance between the two reference coordinates—not road mileage or driving time.
What counts as the Hill Country
The Hill Country has no single legal boundary. The project follows the practical cultural and geographic understanding of the region: the dissected eastern Edwards Plateau, the Llano Uplift / Central Mineral Region, the major Hill Country river systems and the towns commonly associated with the region.
Edge communities are included when they are useful to understanding how the Hill Country meets the Austin–San Antonio corridor. The longer version of that answer lives at Where is the Texas Hill Country?
Corrections
Geography projects get better when local knowledge meets good source material. If a town coordinate, fact or map relationship looks wrong, email [email protected] with the town, the issue and a source worth trusting. Verified corrections ship in the next update.