Hunt Is "Back." Here's Which Parts Actually Are Right Now.

If you drove out to Texas 39 last Saturday night expecting the rodeo lights at Crider's, you found the gate closed. Labor Day came and went on September 7, and with it went the last Saturday-night rodeo and dance of the season. That's not a setback. It's how Crider's has always operated, flood or no flood: Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend, every Saturday, then dark until next May. But if you've been following the "Hunt is recovering" headlines from earlier this year without living here day to day, that timing can be confusing. The story everyone told back in the spring was simple: the flood hit, and now things are reopening. The reality on the ground this month is more specific than that, and more useful to know if you actually live or spend time here.

Hunt isn't recovering on one clock. It's recovering on three, and they're moving at very different speeds.

Three Landmarks, Three Different Timelines

Crider's Rodeo & Dancehall, the Hunt Store, and the Hunt Post Office were all damaged in the same flood, on the same day, in the same square mile of this town. More than a year later, one of them is running a full public season again. One is operating in a smaller, temporary form while the real rebuild continues behind it. And one hasn't reopened as a physical building at all.

Here's where each one actually stands as of this month:

That spread tells you something the "Hunt is back" coverage from the spring didn't have room to say: recovery here isn't a single finish line. It's a set of separate projects, each shaped by what it takes to actually rebuild that specific kind of place.

Crider's Came Back Fast Because a Dance Floor Is a Simpler Problem Than a Grocery Store

Crider's has been a Hill Country institution since 1925, when Walter and Audrey Crider hosted a Fourth of July rodeo to benefit the Hunt School PTA. The flood in July 2025 tore through the complex just as the venue was preparing to celebrate its 100th year, overturning pool tables and burying the grounds in mud and debris.

Ten months later, it reopened. On May 17, 2026, owner Tracy Moore hosted a benefit concert called "Plant the Guadalupe," headlined by Texas music veteran Gary P. Nunn, with proceeds going toward the San Antonio Botanical Garden's project to replant native trees along stretches of the river that lost much of their canopy in the flood. From there, Crider's ran its normal season: rodeo at 8pm, live music and dancing at 9pm, every Saturday, with tickets priced at $7 for the rodeo, $10 for the dance, or $15 for both.

The reason Crider's could move that fast isn't luck. A dance floor and a rodeo arena are physically simple structures to rebuild compared to a building that needs plumbing, refrigeration, and a fuel system. And Crider's had something to rally around: a bookable date, a headliner, and a hundredth anniversary that gave the whole rebuild a natural finish line. That's a very different kind of project than what the Hunt Store is working through.

If you're planning your calendar around Crider's, the season is over for this year. The next Saturday-night rodeo won't happen until Memorial Day weekend 2027. Private events are still bookable in the off-season if you're planning something now.

The Hunt Store Came Back as Two Buildings, Not One

The Hunt Store has been the daily gathering point in Hunt since 1946, the kind of place where you'd grab gas, groceries, and a cup of coffee with the same three or four neighbors every morning. Owners John and Vikki Dunn, who had sold the store in 2024, bought it back to lead the rebuild after the flood gutted it. The stone fireplace and the original front doors somehow survived the water. Most of the rest didn't.

Rather than wait for a single reopening date, the Dunns split the rebuild into three phases. Phase one is already running: a smaller building next door, formerly used as real estate offices, now operates as the "Mini Hunt Store," carrying fuel, ice, snacks, drinks, and basic groceries. Phase two restores the original building, including the fireplace and the cypress tables where generations of campers and families gathered. Phase three, which John Dunn has said will bring back the fuel system, convenience store, restaurant, and café, is targeted for the 2026-2027 timeframe.

Part of why this is slower than Crider's comes down to funding. Dunn has noted there are limits to what a small business can receive in grant money, which means the full rebuild depends on revenue the store hasn't been able to generate at scale since the flood. It's a real chicken-and-egg problem: the store needs the income the finished building would produce, but it can't finish the building without that income first. The Mini Hunt Store is the bridge, not the destination.

The community's own shorthand for this effort came from the store's damaged sign, whose letters were rearranged after the flood to read "Hunt Strong," a phrase that's stuck around as the informal name for the whole recovery effort.

The Post Office Hasn't Reopened at All

Of the three, the post office is furthest from a public reopening. It's been running out of a mobile unit on the original lot since shortly after the flood, staffed without the woman who ran it for three decades. Gaylynn Hierholzer, who spent more than 40 years with the U.S. Postal Service and the last 30 of them in Hunt, retired in November without ever seeing the building rebuilt. Before she left, she arranged for P.O. boxes to be installed at the Ingram Post Office down the road, so residents could keep receiving mail around the clock rather than wait on the mobile unit's hours.

Construction on the actual rebuild only started this spring, according to reporting from April 2026, and there's no public completion date yet. If you're getting mail in Hunt right now, it's either coming through that mobile unit or through a box in Ingram. That's worth knowing before you assume the post office situation resolved itself along with everything else.

Why the Order Makes Sense

The Hunt Preservation Society, led by John Dunn in his role as its president, runs a program called CPR, short for Community Preservation and Revitalization, aimed at funneling money directly to local businesses and camps ahead of each summer season. The society has specifically named the Hunt Store, Crider's, the area's summer camps, and short-term rentals as the assets it's trying to support, treating vacation rentals as part of the same essential local economy as the grocery store and the dance hall, not as separate from it. As of February 2026, Hunt-area organizations had received nearly $5 million in grants from the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, with $500,000 of that earmarked for a long-term community recovery center meant to fill the gap the Hunt Store used to fill as an everyday gathering spot.

That framing matches what's actually happened on the ground. The places that depend on a single seasonal event, like Crider's summer run, came back fastest because there was a clear date to rebuild toward and a way to raise money around that date. The places that depend on daily infrastructure, like a working kitchen or a federal mail system, are moving on a slower and less predictable clock, because there's no single event that can finish that kind of project overnight.

If you live in Hunt, the practical version of all this is simple. Crider's is done for the year and will be back on its usual Memorial Day-to-Labor Day schedule next season. The Mini Hunt Store has your fuel, ice, and basic groceries covered while the real building comes back in stages over the next year or so. And for now, your mail options are the mobile unit on the old lot or a box in Ingram, at least until there's a firmer timeline on the new building.

Hunt isn't waiting for one grand reopening. It's already back to life, piece by piece, on its own schedule.

If you're weighing what a season like this means for property here, whether you're holding land near the river, thinking about a rental, or just trying to understand how a small Hill Country community rebuilds its everyday rhythms, Marjorie Group spends its time in these towns, not just writing about them. Let's Connect if you want a conversation grounded in what's actually happening on the ground in Hunt right now.