Quintessential Small Texas Town is a popular film location and home to a World Record Gingerbread Man.
Smithville, nestled along the banks of the Colorado River just under an hour east of Austin, will feel familiar to first-time visitors with its friendly locals and small-town charm.
The locals like to say that Smithville, with less than 4,000 residents, is bigger than it looks, as it is home to film productions, popular annual events, and even a Guinness World Record Gingerbread Man!
Texas Monthly calls Smithville the “Best Little Film Town in Texas” as it has been the shooting location for such movies as Hope Floats with Sandra Bullock, Tree of Life with Brad Pitt, and Bernie with Matthew McConaughey and Jack Black.
“It’s plain what filmmakers see in Smithville. Despite the changing times, Smithville looks every bit the small town that it often plays on-screen— still the sleepy idyll of nostalgic imagination, with a population hovering just around four thousand and nary a condo or big-box store in sight,” wrote Sean O’Neal for Texas Monthly.
Smithville was also the first Film Friendly Community designated by the Texas Film Commission.
“This is a place big on downhome hospitality and packed with plenty to do,” says the ROUNDTop publication.“The charming town is filled with beautiful and historic homes, including the Hope Floats house, where the … movie was filmed. It's easy to get lost in the historic architecture of this unique town, which includes gingerbread clapboards and stately neoclassicals with their heavy white columns and dreamy upper balconies.”
Smithville is full of photo opportunities from the scenic Colorado River to the historic residential district to Smitty, the 20-foot-tall Gingerbread Man (located at 102 NE 1st St) that commemorates the Guinness World Record Gingerbread Man baked in 2006 at the annual Festival of Lights celebration.
“The gingerbread man has symbolized Smithville’s annual Festival of Lights celebration for many years, but in 2006, one of the community baked a huge gingerbread cookie – in fact, the world’s biggest – to show the world that Smithville thinks big,” says Explore Bastrop County.
Thinking big indeed, the record-breaking Gingerbread Man weighed just over 1,308 pounds and measured 20 feet.
“After a year of experimenting with recipes, calculating the outdoor baking conditions, creating a giant cookie sheet, and gathering the needed sponsorships and ingredient donations, the gingerbread man became a reality on December 2, 2006,” says the Smithville Area Chamber of Commerce.
Ingredients included:
“He was baked over a dump truck load of charcoal before being raised by crane to an angle of 65 degrees in order to qualify for the Guinness World Record,” says the chamber.
The world record was recognized in 2008 and made the 2009 Guinness Book of World Records. That same year, the world record was broken by the Ikea Corporation in Norway, so Smitty must settle for America’s biggest Gingerbread Man.
Today’s giant Gingerbread Man in Smithville was made from the cookie sheet used in the world record bake! And don’t forget to visit the 2025 Gingerbread Man Farm, Nov. 14-15, to adopt a Gingerbread Man.
Smithville likes to say that you won’t find a weekend with “nothing to do” in the welcoming town.
Events that attract locals and visitors include:
On any weekend, visitors can enjoy the local parks, including Buescher State Park with camping, hiking, biking, and fishing, and Riverbend Park with recreational facilities along the Colorado River, including disc golf and kayaking, shopping, eating, and checking out the galleries and public art in the eclectic Richard D. Latham Cultural District.
Smithville’s deep Texas roots predate the Texas War for Independence, with Dr. Thomas Jefferson Gazley building the first home in the area and establishing a general store in 1827.
“He worked as a Clerk and Secretary in the Mexican government and was granted a Mexican license to practice medicine. Gazley helped write the Texas Declaration of Independence and the Texas Constitution,” says the Smithville website.
Gazley was a citizen soldier/surgeon in the battles of Gonzales, Concepcion Mission, and San Jacinto.
He returned to Smithville in 1846 and established a riverboat landing with service from Matagorda to Austin.
Smithville is named after the William Smith family, which owned a store in the area. Interestingly, it was a coin toss in 1886 that settled the name on Smithville instead of Burlesonville in honor of another local businessman, Murray Burleson.
Previously, most area families lived along the banks of the Colorado River, but it was Burleson who helped locate the present town site with the arrival of the Taylor, Bastrop, and Houston Railroad.
“Almost overnight, the town flourished with new railroad workers, followed by commerce and service industries that supported the town's incoming residents,” says the city’s history.
For nearly 50 years, Smithville, incorporated in 1895, was the largest city in Bastrop County, thanks to the railroad.
Smithville today has just a few more residents than in 1900, when the census showed 3,500 people.
People continue, however, to flock to Smithville to attend annual events and enjoy the everyday charm of the historic downtown area and residential district.