Peter Berg Hermit of the Hills. (original) (raw)

Berg loved music. He built a pipe organ from an old box and spare parts. The pipes were rolled up newspapers pasted together. Hunters passing through Cave Creek could sometimes hear him playing his organ and singing German songs.

He studied nature and the habits of wild animals. He sat in his rock tower at night and studied the movement of the stars. People who knew him say he could predict the weather.

He had no clock or calendar. For Peter Berg, the day of the week was an approximation. He measured time in passing seasons, not in hours and minutes.

Berg made wine from mustang grapes, colored with the bark from a Blackjack tree. He made some of the finest whiskey in the Hill Country and the oak barrels to store it in.

When he needed money he hauled his whiskey to Fredericksburg. He set up shop on the shady side the Vereins Kirche on Sunday afternoons. He sold whiskey for 30 to 50 cents a gallon.

Berg had a reputation as a mechanical genius. After someone stole a keg of whiskey from his cellar, he rigged an alarm system. If the door to the cellar opened while he was sleeping, a weight suspended over his bed would fall and wake him up.

His desire to make better whiskey almost sent him to jail. He wrote to a distillery describing his process and asking for suggestions to improve his product. The distillery notified the government. Revenuers raided his still, but the government refused to prosecute.

As Berg got older he found it harder to take care of himself. He had bad knees. He couldn't see or hear very well. A number of people in Fredericksburg offered financial help, but Berg turned them down. He was a proud man. He didn't want charity.

Then in his last years he accepted a pension of $8 a month. He saved half of it. After he died friends found quite a bit of money stashed in an old trunk and hidden behind a loose stone in the wall.

One morning some hunters called to him, but Peter Berg didn't answer. The hunters went inside and found Berg lying on his bed. The Hermit of the Hills had taken his own life.