Kerr County · Western Hill Country
Kerrville is the county seat of Kerr County in the western Texas Hill Country, built along the Guadalupe River about 65 miles northwest of San Antonio. On the Hill Country map, look southwest of Fredericksburg and east of Ingram and Hunt.
Kerrville sits in the western half of the Hill Country, where the Guadalupe River cuts through Kerr County. If Fredericksburg is your central anchor, move southwest. If you already know Ingram or Hunt, move east along the river corridor. Bandera lies to the southeast. That cluster makes Kerrville one of the easiest western Hill Country towns to place once the river system starts to make sense.
Kerrville is also a useful dividing line on a mental map of the region. East of it, the Hill Country becomes increasingly connected to Fredericksburg, Comfort, Boerne and the Austin–San Antonio side of the plateau. West of it, towns thin out and the landscape opens toward Junction, Leakey, Camp Wood and the upper river country.
Kerrville’s location is not an accident. Joshua D. Brown came up the Guadalupe in the 1840s looking for cypress timber that could be cut into shingles. After an early attempt in 1846, Brown returned in 1848 and established a settlement called Brownsborough. The river supplied timber, water and power, and the settlement grew into a commercial center for the surrounding ranch country.
When Kerr County was created in 1856, Brown asked that the settlement be renamed Kerrsville for Major James Kerr, a fellow veteran of the Texas Revolution. The name eventually lost its “s” and became Kerrville. The city incorporated in 1889, but the Guadalupe still provides the geographic spine that makes Kerrville easy to understand on a map.
The Kerrville Folk Festival began in 1972. Its home, Quiet Valley Ranch, is about nine miles south of Kerrville. The festival helped make the town’s name familiar far beyond the Hill Country, especially among songwriters and folk-music fans.
In 1905, Florence Butt opened the C.C. Butt Grocery Store in Kerrville with a $60 investment. That small Hill Country store became H-E-B. It is a useful historical surprise—and another reason Kerrville matters far beyond its size on the map.
No town labels this time
Use the Guadalupe and the western half of the Hill Country as your clues. Drop a pin, then see how many miles you missed by.
Tap or click the map to drop your pin.
Kerrville becomes easier to remember when you learn the towns around it.
Approx. straight-line distances, measured from the game's coordinates — not driving distances.
Yes. Kerrville is in Kerr County in the western Texas Hill Country and is one of the region’s major population and commercial centers.
The Guadalupe River runs through Kerrville. The river is one of the strongest geographic clues for locating the city on a Hill Country map.
Kerrville is southwest of Fredericksburg. On an unlabeled regional map, Fredericksburg is a useful central anchor and Kerrville sits down and to the west.
Kerrville is roughly 65 miles northwest of San Antonio, with Interstate 10 providing the main connection between the two.