This is the burial site of Adolph Korn. Indians captured him as a young lad out tending sheep on the Llano River a short distance upstream from Castell, Texas.

This small community is located approximately 18 miles west of Llano on FM Road 152 and sits above a crossing of the clear running Llano River. This is a remote area of ranches that still retains most of the rugged character from that time long ago when Indians freely roamed the hills.

It’s not hard to imagine the terror that Adolph must have felt when you view the banks along the river where he was plucked from his familiar surroundings. He eventually returned to his family forever changed after his experience of learning to survive in an alien culture. He came back more of an Indian than the German boy he had been before his abduction.

Author Scott Zesch in his book, The Captured, tells his sad tale eloquently. This book brings to life the story of Adolph and other Indian captives with fascinating details portraying the struggles of pioneers on the Texas frontier. The woes of the abducted children and the anguish suffered by their families created a long lasting tragedy. These true tales from the history of Texas provided material for the fictional accounts told in Hard Land to Rule and helped ground the story in reality. The two books complement each other with intertwined stories of fact and fiction.