By David Patterson

From 1950 until 1957,  there was a long multi-year drought in Texas and Hays County. During this drought, the annual rainfall averaged seven inches a year. Our normal annual rainfall is 32 inches. Here is the punchline: In 1957, the last year of the drought, the Hays County population was 16,870. Let that sink in, Buda alone now has more people than that!  As of the 2020 census the Hays County population was 241,000. During this drought farmers had to abandon their fields and...