You might expect that this Hill Country town 70 mi/115 km north of San Antonio was renamed in honor of its famous native son—former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson—but it wasn't: Instead, a relative of LBJ's—his grandfather's nephew, to be exact—donated the land for the town and thus gave it his name. Nonetheless, the late president is the reason most people visit.
The Lyndon B. Johnson National Historic Park has several sights in the area (http://www.nps.gov/lyjo). Right in Johnson City are the president's boyhood home and the "Johnson Settlement," a ranch owned by his grandfather that's now a living museum depicting life in the Hill Country in the 1850s. If you go west on Highway 290 from Johnson City, you'll reach the LBJ Ranch (near Stonewall), a 600-acre/245-hectare spread that was purchased by Johnson after he became a legislator. Bus tours of the ranch visit a replica of Johnson's birthplace, the cemetery where he's buried, an old schoolhouse and several ranch buildings—a very nicely done tour. (The ranch house is not open to the public.) The buses leave from LBJ State Park, which has a visitors center with exhibits on the president, several pioneer buildings and a living-history farm.
