Native Americn Springs of Travis County

This article is a compendium of information on springs in Travis County with prehistoric or historic links to Texas Indians. Information is based primarily on Gunnar Brune’s report to the Texas Water Development Board, “Major and Historical Springs of Texas”[1], and his book, Springs of Texas[2]. Additional sources are cited with associated springs.

As Brune noted in his report to the Texas Water Development Board, “Springs have been very important to Texas from the time of its first inhabitants. Many battles were fought between the pioneers and Indians for possession of springs”. Understanding these springs is important to understanding Travis County from the perspective of those first inhabitants, the Texas Indians: where they camped, the trails they used.

Springs are listed alphabetically.

Barton Springs. At least five groups of springs, including Upper, Main, Upper Left Bank, Lower Left Bank, and Old Mill or Walsh Spring; the farthest downstream. This was a gathering place for the Caddo, Tonkawa, Apache, and Comanche Indians. An old Comanche Indian trail from Bandera County to Nacogdoches passed here. The early settlers had a trading post at the springs. Early Spanish explorers wrote that in 1714 wild horses were numerous. Three Spanish missions were located here from 1730 to 1731. Early in the 1880's a fort was located at the springs. This was also a stop on the Chisholm Cattle Trail from 1867 to 1895.  Located at 2201 Barton Springs Rd. Austin, TX. (30.2638194, -97.7713947)

Cold and Deep Eddy Springs. Brune’s report says at least seven springs. Many Indian projectile points and tools have been found at the springs and in Bat Cave downstream and Bee Cave just upstream. An old Comanche Indian trail from Bandera to Nacogdoches passed the springs. Only two springs are now above the level of Town Lake. Brune says the springs are near Valley Springs Road in Austin (30.2799298,- 97.7800062).

Coleman Springs. These were the springs located at Fort Colorado, also known as Coleman’s Fort. Brune’s book states soldiers from the fort used the water from the spring between 1836 and 1838, and was also a favorite Indian campground in earlier days. A historical marker located near the springs was erected by the State of Texas in 1936 and reads: “Site of Fort Colorado (Also called Coleman’s Fort) June, 1836 - November, 1838. Established and first commanded by Colonel Robert M. Coleman. Succeeded by Capt. Michael Andrews And Capt. William M. Eastland. An extreme frontier outpost occupied by Texas Rangers to protect Anglo-American civilization from savage Indians in this vicinity”. The springs are now located on land associated with the Austin Wildlife Rescue, at 5401 E Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Austin, TX. (30.285276,-97.674621).

Levi Spring. Rock shelter with associated springs along Lick Creek, a tributary of the Pedernales River, near Hamilton Pool and Westcave Springs. Artifacts at this site date to Clovis and Plainview, possibly older, i.e. 10,000+ years old.[3]Located about 1.2 kilometers south of the intersection of Highway 71 and 2322 (30.375187,-98.087891)

Manchaca Springs. Several springs on a small tributary of Onion Creek. The springs were named for Colonel Jose Menchaca of the Army of the Texas Republic. In 1709 the Spanish expedition under Espinosa, Olivares, and Aguirre is believed to have stopped here. That the Spanish were camping at Manchaca Springs is because it was on a branch of the Camino Real leading into Austin before turning east to Nacogdoches.[4]And of course, the Spanish were usually following pre-established Indian trails, and Brune’s book states “Many projectile points have been found here.” Later the springs would be utilized again, this time by the Chisholm Cattle Trail from 1867 to 1895. In 1840, seeking retribution for the Council House Fight of 1840 in San Antonio, a large group of Penateka Comanche mounted the "Great Raid of 1840", said to be the largest raid ever mounted by Indians against cities in the United States, namely Victoria and Linnville, Texas (at the time of course, Texas was still a Republic). James Wilson Nichols account of the raid states that Comanches, enroute to Victoria and Linnville "emerged from the mountains into the prairie near the Manchac (sic) Springs in Hays County"[5]Indians – presumably Comanche – “emerging from the mountains west of the springs” is a theme in other tales about Manchaca Springs. Wilbarger tells of an encounter at the springs between Texans and Indians in 1844 when a “party of Indians .. came down from the Colorado mountains .. where they succeeded in stealing a large number of valuable horses.” On their return to the mountains the Indians “camped for the night at or near a noted watering place known as the Manchaca Springs”. Texans under the command of Captain Wiley Hill attacked their camp the next morning. The Indians were eventually able to make good an escape back to the mountains and the Texans returned to Manchaca Springs where they retrieved their horses, plus the Indian “camp equipage”.[6]John Holland Jenkins recounts another encounter between Texans trying to retrieve stolen horses, led by Captain Gillespie, attacking Indians camped at “Manshak Springs”, “Manshak” being the common pronunciation of Manchaca.[7]Texans didn’t always fare well when encountering Indians at the springs. In 1845 two pioneer German-Texan authors, Friedrich Wilhelm von Wrede Sr. and Oscar von Claren, were killed and scalped by Indians at Manchaca Springs. Both were buried there by United States soldiers, who gave them military honors[8]Brune’s book locates the springs on private property, half a kilometer west of I-35, just north of the Hays County Line. Today County Road 117, Old San Antonio Road, passes near and over part of the spring’s drainage near the Hays and Travis County line (30.101939,-97.814569)

Hamilton Pool. At the writing of Brune’s Springs of Texas, the springs were owned by Eugene Reimer, but are now part of Hamilton Pool Preserve, part of the larger Balcones Canyonlands Preserve, owned and managed by Travis County, Texas. Following archeological studies done in the late 80s, the Hamilton Pool Preserve was designated as a state archeology landmark.[9]The Travis County Parks webpage says cultural remains date back over 8,000 years.[10]Elaine Perkins says that the pool had long been a camping place for Indians and in the early days an old Indian trail led down to the pool. Bernhard “B.J.” Reimer, who “discovered” the Hamilton Pool in 1898, remembered when “Old-timers” said “300 Indians lived here and used this place for a trail post. It was also a fortress against intruders.”[11]Perkins also states that “At the time of the Civil War .. it was still a spiritual meeting place for Indians, as well as a hiding place for Unionists”, i.e. those Texans opposing secession from the Union needing to take refuge from pro-secessionists.[12]. Located at Hamilton Pool Nature Preserve, 24300 Hamilton Pool Rd, Dripping Springs, TX (30.342348,-98.126879).

Hornsby Springs. Brune’s book says “They were the scene of an Indian campsite in prehistoric times. In 1830 Reuben Hornsby built a cabin here, beginning what was later called the Hornsby’s Bend settlement”. Brune locates the springs three kilometers south of Long Lake, which is the general vicinity of the Reuben Hornsby historical marker, on Webberville Road, 0.2 miles east of N Farm to Market Rd, 9737 (30.255071,-97.608478). That marker reads “Reuben Hornsby, 1793-1879, First Settler in Travis County. Surveyor with Stephen F. Austin's Little Colony. He surveyed the site of this settlement in 1830. In July 1832 with his family he established his home at this place, since called Hornsby's Bend”.

Pecan Springs. The springs where Josiah Wilbarger and his surveying party were attacked by Indians in 1833.[13]Location is near 5020 Manor Road, Austin, TX (30.298074,-97.688586).

Santa Monica or Sulphur Springs. Brune says these springs were once the basis for Comanche and Tonkawa Indian campgrounds. Gelo called them “a watering place” for the Comanche[14], and are about 6.6 kilometers south of Comanche Peak and Defeat Hollow, the location of an encounter between Joel Harris, an early settler to Hudson Bend, and Indians, probably Comanche.[15]The springs were also a favorite resort for early Austinites, and the waters were bottled and highly valued for medicinal purposes. It’s worth noting that the USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) has an incorrect location for the springs, showing them in the Steiner Ranch neighborhood by the lake. The springs were in fact on the edge of the Colorado River, and now beneath Lake Austin, located across from what is now Commons Ford Ranch Metropolitan Park, Austin, TX.[16](30.343658,-97.88892)

Seiders Springs. At least two springs. Between 1846 and 1865 many Army troops, including those under the command of General Custer and General Lee, camped at the springs. Wilbarger notes “There were quite a number of murders committed in Travis county during the year 1842. Gideon White was another who fell a victim to the preying bands of Indians who were continuously scouring the country around Austin.” Gideon White settled on Seider Springs about 1840, and was killed near the springs in 1842. Wilbarger states “When the Indians made the attack they were on horseback ..  [Gideon White on foot] ran for some distance, but finding the Indians were gaining on him rapidly, he sprang behind a tree, in a thicket, and defended himself as best he could. The Indians, however, finally killed him, in sight of and within a quarter of a mile of his house.” Wilbarger noted that marks of a number of arrows and bullets which hit the tree were visible for many years. Seiders Springs are now in Seider Springs Park, managed by the City of Austin, and located on Shoal Creek Trail, between 34th and 38th , Austin, TX (30.305826,-97.747294).

Spicewood Springs. Brune’s book says these springs are said to have been a stop on an old Indian Trail. Josiah Wilbarger tells a story Indians stopping at the springs in his book Indian Depredations in Texas.[17]In 1842, a Mrs. Simpson living on West Pecan Street, about three blocks west of Congress, in Austin had two children – a daughter 14, a son 12 -- abducted by Indians while the children were in the adjacent Shoal Creek valley. The Indians “seized the children, mounted their horses and made off for the mountains ..  going in the direction of Mt. Bonnell.” A posse was raised and gave pursuit. “At one time the citizens came within sight of the redskins just before reaching Mt. Bonnell, but the Indians, after arriving at the place, passed on just beyond to the top of the mountain, which being rocky, the citizens lost the trail and were never able to find where the savages went down the mountain”. The Simpson girl was killed, but the boy survived and was later “traded off to some Indian traders, who returned him to his mother”. It is because the boy survived and was returned home that we know what happened after the posse lost the trail of the Indians. From Mt. Bonnell they stopped to rest at Spicewood Springs where the Simpson girl was killed. Located near the intersection of Spicewood Springs Road and Ceberry Street in northwest Austin, Texas. (30.362901,-97.747889)

Westcave Springs. At the writing of Brune’s book, Westcave Springs was privately own. The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) acquired the property in 1983 and operates it in partnership with Westcave Preserve Corporation.[18]The springs and setting are similar to Hamilton Pool, and indeed are only 1.6 kilometers south-west of Hamilton Pool, across the Pedernales. Four archeological sites have been recorded in Westcave Preserve, all with prehistoric components.[19]Located at Westcave Preserve, 24814 Hamilton Pool Rd, Round Mountain, TX ‎(30.33626,-98.140882)

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[1] Brune, Gunnar, (1975) “Major and Historical Springs of Texas”, Report 189, Texas Water Development Board. The report is available on the Texas Water Development Board website at www.twdb.texas.gov. The report states “Authorization for use or reproduction of any original material contained in this publication … is freely granted.”

[2] Brune, Gunnar, (2002) Springs of Texas, Volume 1, Texas A&M University Press, 2002. Travis County is covered on pages 430-436

[3] Herbert L. Alexander, Jr., "The Levi Site: A Paleo-Indian Campsite in Central Texas," American Antiquity 28 (April 1963)

[4] McGraw, A. Joaquin, John W. Clark, J.R.; and Elizabeth A. Robbins, Editors. A Texas Legacy, the Old San Antonio Road and El Caminos Reales: A Tricentennial History, 1691-1991. Texas State Department of Highways and Public Transportation. Austin, 1991. This branch is called Camino Real de los Tejas. See page 187

[5] Nichols, James Wilson. Now You Hear My Horn; the Journal of James Wilson Nichols, 1820-1887. Austin: University of Texas, 1968.

[6] Wilbarger, J. W. Indian Depredations in Texas. Austin, TX: Hutchings Printing House, 1889. Print.P 284

[7] John Holland Jenkins, Recollections of Early Texas, ed. John H. Jenkins III (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1958; rpt. 1973)

[8] “Pioneer German authors killed by Indians”, Handbook of Texas Online, http://www.tshaonline.org/day-by-day/31077

[9] Robinson, David G., and Solveig A. Turpin. Cultural Resource Investigations at Hamilton Pool County Park, Travis County, Texas. Austin, TX: Texas Archeological Survey, University of Texas at Austin, 1986. Print.

[10] https://parks.traviscountytx.gov/find-a-park/hamilton-pool

[11] Perkins, Elaine. A Hill Country Paradise? Travis County and Its Early Settlers, iUniverse publishing, 2012, p 59

[12]Perkins, Elaine. A Hill Country Paradise? Travis County and Its Early Settlers, iUniverse publishing, 2012 p 106

[13] Wilbarger, J. W. Indian Depredations in Texas. Austin, TX: Hutchings Printing House, 1889. Print. pp 7-14. Gelo, Daniel J. ""Comanche Land and Ever Has Been": A Native Geography of the Nineteenth-Century Comanchería." The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 103.3 (2000)

[14] Gelo, Daniel J. ""Comanche Land and Ever Has Been": A Native Geography of the Nineteenth-Century Comanchería." The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 103.3 (2000)

[15] Perkins, Elaine. A Hill Country Paradise? Travis County and Its Early Settlers, iUniverse publishing, 2012, p 70

[16] Hill, Robert Thomas. Geologic Atlas of the United States: Austin Folio, Texas. Reston, VA: U.S. Geological Survey, 1902.

[17] Wilbarger, J. W. Indian Depredations in Texas. Austin, TX: Hutchings Printing House, 1889 p. 139.

[18] http://www.lcra.org/parks/natural-resource-areas/Pages/westcave-preserve.aspx

[19] Balcones Canyonlands Preserve Land Management Plan, Tier III, The Westcave Foundation and LCRA, Westcave Preserve, Pedernales Macrosite, Travis County, 2007

34th is remnant of old road to Mount Bonnell, segment still there over Shoal Creek

from http://www.main.org/oakmont/history.html

OAKMONT HEIGHTS - A BRIEF HISTORY

Tonkawa, Comanche, and Lipan Apache tribes were among the original inhabitants of the region that now includes the Oakmont Heights neighborhood. Arrowheads have been found along Shoal Creek indicating that it was used as a hunting area. One of the earliest Anglo-American settlers in the area was Gideon White, who built a cabin along Shoal Creek in 1839 at Seiders Springs, now on the hike-and-bike trail behind Shoal Creek Hospital. While out looking for cattle in October 1842, White was attacked by Comanches and killed.

The Oakmont Heights area was far from the new capital city when Austin (formerly Waterloo) was founded in 1839, and it developed slowly. Among the early settlers was Ed Seiders, who married one of Gideon White's daughters and settled next to the springs that bear his name. Federal troops under Gen. George Armstrong Custer, sent to occupy Austin in 1865 as the Civil War ended, camped next to Seiders Springs. In the late 19th century, the springs were a popular resort area that included bathhouses and a lake on Shoal Creek behind Alamo Dam, which later washed away. One of the greatest tragedies in our area occurred on Memorial Day 1981, when two people drowned when their houses were submerged by fast-rising Shoal Creek floodwaters. The greenbelt along the creek in the Ridgelea neighborhood marks where those houses once stood.

Early travelers headed west toward Mount Bonnell used a road that roughly follows the modern 34th and 35th streets. The footbridge across Shoal Creek just north of W. 34th St., built in 1916, is a remnant of this road, once called State St.. 

Bull Creek Rd. also dates from the mid-19th century. The oldest surviving home in the area is the McCary-Theil house at 4712 Bull Creek Rd., built by rancher James D. McCary in 1859 and currently the fellowship hall for the Highland Village Church of Christ.

One of the most prominent local landowners was Dr. W.C. Philips, a local physician and Unionist politician who briefly served as Texas Secretary of State under the Reconstruction administration of Gov. Elisha M. Pease. Dr. Philips owned the property between Bull Creek Rd. and Shoal Creek where the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and the State Cemetery Annex now are located. He built a home there in 1864 that included a well-known horse racing track.

In 1876, the International & Great Northern Railway was completed to Austin, with the route running through the Oakmont Heights area. Later purchased by the Missouri Pacific line and now owned by Union Pacific, right-of-way for the route almost a century later would be used to build MoPac Blvd. (Loop 1).

In 1887 came one of the highlights of the history of the Oakmont Heights area. State schools for the blind and the deaf had been established in the 1850s, but did not admit African-Americans. The State of Texas purchased Dr. Philips's home and land for $10,000 and established the "Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Asylum for Colored Youth" (one of many different names over the years). Located far outside the Austin city limits, the school initially had to be self-sustaining, with its own farm and artesian well and later a small electric generating plant.

The Legislature appropriated funds to build new buildings for the school, but it was never adequately funded. When the state schools were desegregated in 1961, the school and its buildings became an annex to the nearby Austin State School. The old school buildings fell into disrepair, with the last remnants demolished in December 1995. The State Highway Department had long used part of the property for parking for its nearby Camp Hubbard facilities, and in 1987 the Texas Legislature transferred the entire property from the Austin State School to the Highway Department. TxDOT considered using the mostly vacant property as a new campus consolidating various offices around the city, but none of these plans were implemented.

At the instigation of Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock, the Texas Legislature in 1995 designated the vacant portion of the old state school property as the future annex for the Texas State Cemetery and removed it from TxDOT's jurisdiction. TxDOT kept the portion of the property along Bull Creek Rd. used for offices, storage, and parking. The State Cemetery Committee commissioned a master plan to develop the property as a future cemetery, but other than the digging of an artesian well and construction of a pump station, plans to develop the cemetery annex property are on hold. TxDOT has discussed selling part of its remaining portion of the land for future private development.

Another milestone was the 1892 donation by Austin businessmen of land as a parade ground and headquarters for the Texas State Guard. This land was accepted by the state and named Camp Mabry, which at one time was the headquarters of the Adjutant General's Officer (as it is today), the State Highway Department, the Department of Public Safety, and the Texas Rangers.

In 1935, the Legislature transferred the portion of Camp Mabry east of the railroad track to the Highway Department, which had begun using part of the area for equipment maintenance as early the mid-1920s. Known as Camp Hubbard, named for former highway commissioner R.M. Hubbard, this area now is used by TxDOT for various purposes, most notably as the headquarters of the Vehicle Titles Division in the five-story Building # 1, built in 1955. Many of the early residents of Oakmont Heights worked for the Highway Department at Camp Hubbard. The Materials Testing Laboratory was located for many years in Camp Hubbard Building # 5, but has since been shifted to the TxDOT facilities near Cedar Park. (Plans in the mid-1990s to build a large new laboratory at TxDOT's Bull Creek Rd. campus were scrapped.) In the 1950s, the State Archives were stored in a quonset hut at Camp Hubbard until transferred to the Lorenzo De Zavala Building near the State Capitol in 1961. The Legislature in 1979 appropriated funds to build a new six-story administrative office building at Camp Hubbard, but when Gov. Bill Clements vetoed the appropriation, the building was never constructed.

For most of the early 20th century, the area around Oakmont Heights was sparsely settled, but the city of Austin would soon require room to grow to house its fast-growing population. Hyde Park was developed in the 1890s only a few miles east, and new neighborhoods such as Rosedale and the various subdivisions that would become known as Bryker Woods were developed in the early 1930s. Much of the area between the state school and Camp Mabry/Camp Hubbard consisted of pasture land, mostly for dairies. The fact that most of the area was cleared pasture is explains why, despite being called Oakmont Heights, not many original live oak trees are found in the neighborhood, except for a few in the northern portion.

In the 1920s, a subdivision in the Oakmont Heights area was platted, but never developed. Called "Military Heights," its streets would have tracked some of those existing today. The original names for Jackson Ave. and Lawton Ave. survive, but what is now W. 36th St. was to be called Hale St., W. 37th called Hulen St., W. 38th called Burns St., and Oakmont Blvd. called Mabry Ave.

The current Oakmont Heights neighborhood developed in stages. The original Oakmont Heights subdivision consisted of W. 36th and W. 37th streets and the south side of W. 38th St. and was first developed in the 1930s. One feature that distinguishes the original Oakmont Heights subdivision from the rest of the neighborhood is the alleys behind the houses.

In the 1940s the subdivision was expanded. The first annex to Oakmont Heights included the north side of W. 38th St. and W. 39th St. W. 40th St. also was added but not developed until the second expansion phase of the neighborhood in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when W. 41th and W. 42nd streets were added. The post-war building boom saw houses built on many of the still-empty lots in Oakmont Heights, but the early streets remained unpaved. This changed after the City of Austin annexed the area in 1946.

The area north of Oakmont Heights saw considerable new development in the mid-to-late 1960s with construction of the Agudas Achim synagogue (later the Gateway Church, demolished early in 2006), Westminster Manor at 4100 Jackson Ave., the Masonic Lodge (now Meridian plastic surgeons) at the tip of the neighborhood at Jackson Ave. and Bull Creek Rd., and the apartment complexes on Bull Creek Rd. between the synagogue and the residences on W. 44th St. Also, construction of MoPac Blvd. began in 1969, with the Central Austin segment completed by the mid-1970s.

TxDOT at various times has proposed extensive redevelopment at its Camp Hubbard and Bull Creek Rd. campuses, leading to considerable discussion within the neighborhood, but its facilities have remained mostly unchanged for the past several years. In 1998, the Oakmont Heights Neighborhood Association, with support from Westminster Manor and other nearby neighborhoods, successfully blocked an attempt to add a regional vehicle titles office at Camp Hubbard, which would have meant substantially increased traffic, including large trucks, in the neighborhood.

In 2001, area neighborhoods, including Oakmont Heights as part of the MoPac Neighborhood Associations Coalition (MoNAC), united to oppose a proposal to expand MoPac Blvd. that would have included elevated access ramps adjacent to Camp Hubbard and required elimination of homes in nearby neighborhoods. TxDOT still has long-term plans to expand MoPac Blvd. by two lanes each direction and build noise walls along the corridor, but has committed to using existing right of way and no elevated ramps. Another long-term project now on the drawing board would be conversion of the Union Pacific line to a Georgetown-Austin-San Antonio commuter rail line, with a possible train station located between the tracks beneath the W. 35th St. bridge, possibly incorporating a portion of Camp Hubbard.

Mount Bonnell's American Indian Trail

At Austin’s founding, historically recorded American Indian tribes included Apache, Comanche, Tonkawa and Waco (a branch of the Wichita) to name a few. The Tonkawa were probably the oldest residents of the area, but the dominant tribe was the Comanche.

Gelo's "Comanche Land and Ever Has Been": A Native Geography of the Nineteenth-Century Comancheria provides insight into the prominence high ground -- peaks, mesas -- played in Comanche history: places of spirituality; aids to navigation; places from which to see long distances, and be seen (signalling).

Central Texas' band of Comanche were the Penateka with a homeland near the headwaters of the Colorado River. In T.R. Fehrenbach's Comanches: The Destruction of a People he comments that at Austin's founding, while surveyors and engineers worked to construct the new Capital of Texas, curious parties of Penateka "sat on their ponies on the surrounding limestone bluffs above the river, watching" (p.315). One spot from which they surely observed was Mount Bonnell. If you have been to the top of Mount Bonnell you know it provides excellent views in all direction, up and down the Colorado River, and into Austin. The trail into Austin across Mount Bonnell would have provided one a chance to observe what was going on in Austin before committing to entry.

In this blog I pull together primary and secondary sources describing an American Indian trail that passed over or around Mount Bonnell. While many accounts from early Austin usually referred generically to "Indians", use of a trail at Mount Bonnell would have especially been used by those traveling into and out of Austin along the Colorado, such as the Penateka Comanche.

Note: a good portion of the this blog is based on a write-up I did for Wikipedia about Mount Bonnell, hence the similarity!

 

Bigfoot Wallace: "...the cave was right on the old Indian trail leading down to Austin..."

A historical marker was placed near Mount Bonnell in 1969 by State Historical Survey Committee. A snippet from the marker reads:

Rising 775 feet above sea level, this limestone height was named for George W. Bonnell, who came to Texas with others to fight for Texas independence, 1836. ... Frontiersman W.A.A. "Bigfoot" Wallace killed an Indian he met face to face while crossing a narrow ledge 50 feet above river, 1839. He also took refuge in a Mount Bonnell cave to recover from "flux", but was missing so long his sweetheart eloped.

Years after Bigfoot Wallace's refuge in the cave on Mount Bonnell, when asked why he had chosen the cave as a refuge, he responded "Well ... the cave was right on the old Indian trail leading down to Austin, and I thought I would be able to keep my hand in by 'upping' one now and then; and besides, the cave was in the best hunting ground for bear in all this country..."

Julia Lee Sinks: "Our home was on the beaten track of the Indians into town from the pass of Mount Bonnell."

Julia Lee Sinks, author and historian, was an early settler to Austin, arriving in the spring of 1840. Before meeting and marrying George Sinks, chief clerk of the Post Office Department during the Republic years, she lived on West Pecan, present day 6th street, and later wrote “Our home was on the beaten track of the Indians into town from the pass of Mount Bonnell. The knolls beyond the quarry branch were interspersed with timber, and sometimes though not often, we would see galloping past the open spaces beyond the blanketed Indian. The path along the quarry branch, secluded as it was, became their main inlet to the town. It was a sheltered road, never traveled at night by whites, so the Indians claimed right of way, and all full moons brought moccasin tracks in abundance”.

Abduction of the Simpson Children

If Mount Bonnell was on an Indian trail into Austin, it was also a trail out, as illustrated in another story included in Wilbarger’s Indian Depredations of Texas. In 1844 (Wilbarger cites 1842, but see notes below), a Mrs. Simpson living on that very same street as Julia Lee Sinks, West Pecan, about three blocks west of Congress, had two children – a daughter 14, a son 12—abducted by Indians while the children were in the adjacent “valley” (Shoal Creek). Wilbarger says that at that time there were no houses there. The Indians “seized the children, mounted their horses and made off for the mountains .. going in the direction of Mt. Bonnell”. A posse was raised and gave pursuit. Wilbarger then says “At one time the citizens came within sight of the redskins just before reaching Mt. Bonnell, but the Indians, after arriving at the place, passed on just beyond to the top of the mountain, which being rocky, the citizens lost the trail and were never able to find where the savages went down the mountain”. The Simpson girl was killed, but the boy survived and was later “traded off to some Indian traders, who returned him to his mother”. It is because the boy survived and was returned home that we know what happened after the posse lost the trail of the Indians on Mount Bonnell. From Mt. Bonnell they stopped at Spicewood Springs, “which is situated in the edge of the mountains”. This is where the Simpson girl was killed. Spicewood Springs is located about 5 miles north of Mount Bonnell, near the present day intersection of MoPac Expressway and Spicewood Springs Road.

This incident, involving Mount Bonnell as the route by which the Indians made good their getaway, was understandably one of the defining moments in the relationship between the citizens of the young city of Austin and the American Indians that still claimed the area as their own. This story was told and retold in all the Texas history classics of the late 1800s: Indian Depredations of Texas; Recollections of Early Texas; Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas; Texas Indians Papers. The story still captures the imagination of modern Texas historians, retold in recent publications such A Fate Worse than Death, and Austin resident historian Dr. Jeff Kerr’s The Republic of Austin.  Some sources cited the Indians as being Waco, but a good case has been made in A Fate Worse Than Death the Indians were Comanche, and probably a rogue party at odds with other bands intent on trying to achieve peace with Texans.

Janet Long Fish's Comanche Trail; tie to Mount Bonnell Trail and Beyond to Comanche Peak

The dominant tribe at Austin's founding were the Comanche. Janet Long Fish, daughter of Walter E. Long, in 1952 pioneered work on a walking trail (today’s Shoal Creek Greenbelt Hike and Bike Trail) along what she called the “old Comanche Trail” that ran from the shoals in the Colorado River up along Shoal Creek to 34th Street where it crossed the creek and continued west and north into the hills. 34th Street at Shoal Creek Greenbelt is historically significant in that it is the location of Seiders Spring, a spot known to have been visited by Indians in early Austin. West of Seiders Springs 34th turns into 35th street and is the old road to Mount Bonnell. In 2000 Janet Long Fish was interviewed about the general history of Bull Creek in which she elaborated on the connection between the Shoal Creek "Comanche Trail", Mount Bonnell, and Bull Creek:

“The Shoal Creek Trail tied into the Bull Creek setup. And the Shoal Creek Trail—it’s hard to look at the river now because the lake is covering a lot of what was bottom land, and we forget that you could come right below Mount Bonnell. And this is what the Indians did, they came up Shoal Creek, and they turned left at Thirty-fifth Street. They went below Mount Bonnell, and then they went below Mount Bonnell and on up. Now, how far up Bull Creek they went, I don’t know. I know the Comanche Trail out by Lake Travis is a continuation of the Shoal Creek Trail.”

The “Comanche Trail out by Lake Travis” mentioned in the interview is the road today that runs by the Oasis Restaurant, next to Comanche Peak, the only natural geographic place in Travis County named after an American Indian tribe. It sits on the norther edge of the Bull Creek watershed. 

That Bull Creek was on a Comanche trail from Mount Bonnell to Comanche Peak (essentially the route of today's Mount Bonnell Road / FM 2222) jives with oral traditions of some early settlers. Will Preece, wife Elizabeth Gideon, and sons Richard Lincoln Preece (also known as Dick Preece) and Will Jr., were early settlers to the Bull Creek area during the days of the Republic of Texas. Both Dick Preece and Will Jr. served as Texas Rangers before the Civil War. Preece family history records their cemetery along West Bull Creek, just off today's FM 2222, was the "site of a Comanche hunting ground". In his article, “My Grandfather, Dick Preece”, Harold Preece, grandson of Dick Preece, says “A few miles from the Preece ranch lay the southern terminus of the bloody Comanche Trail” and describes his grandfather's days with the Texas Rangers before the Civil War combating the Comanche in Texas.

Another reference to Indian activity around Bull Creek. In 1936, the Texas Centennial, Travis County published The Defender 1936: Travis County Rural Schools. One of the schools described was the old Bull Creek School later renamed Pleasant Valley School. That school was located on what was then called Bull Creek Road, today's FM 2222, where it today intersects Loop 360. In describing the history of the school: “The first school at Pleasant Valley was established sixty-nine years ago [1867]. It was a private school in a log house on the old Walden place. This was during the time when Indians were prevalent.."

The Day the Comanches Returned

I'll conclude with a recent historic event between Austin and the Comanche. The Comanche Nation Tribal Complex is based near Lawton, OK; their Elder Council makes trips to locations their ancestors used to call home as a way to reconnect with their past. A reconnecting with Austin was long overdue, so April 26th 2017 30+ members of the Elder Council traveled to Austin, and I had the honor of hosting that visit. One of our stops was atop Mount Bonnell. You can read more about the overall trip in this blog:

http://txcompost.blogspot.com/2017/05/comanche-nation-elder-council-visit-to.html

But I'll conclude this post with a video one of the elders, Ron Parker, descendant of Comanche Chief Quanah Parker, made while we were atop Mount Bonnell. We gathered on the concrete picnic table near the top to get a wonderful view of downtown Austin, and the Colorado, just as their ancestors would have done 178 years ago:

https://youtu.be/1AvFNuTvTQU

Notes and References

Fehrenbach, T.R.,  Comanches: The Destruction of a People, 1974.

Gelo, Daniel. "Comanche Land and Ever Has Been": A Native Geography of the Nineteenth-Century Comancheria.  The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 103, July 1999 - April, 2000.

Historic Marker Database listing for Mount Bonnell marker, see https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=20136

Wilbarger, J.W. (1889). Indian Depredations in Texas. Austin, TX: Hutchings Print House. p. 665

Julia Lee Sinks. This story is available in the Julia Lee Sinks Papers, 1817, [ca. 1840]-1904, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin. The story was also published in an article by Julia Lee Sinks, "Early Days in Texas". The Galveston Daily News. (Galveston, Tex.), Vol. 54, No. 322, Ed. 1 Sunday, February 9, 1896, p.18. A note of clarification: the "Big Foot" discussed in this article was an Indian of some legend, not Bigfoot Wallace. Online access to the The Galveston Daily News article available through The Portal to Texas History at http://bit.ly/2yRcwsQ

The Death of Jane Simpson at Spicewood Springs. Years and names of the children vary by source. The date was almost certainly 1844 given Congress’ documented resolution to appropriate a ransom. See http://txcompost.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-death-of-jane-simpson-at-spicewood.html 

Cash, Elizabeth A.  and Suzanne B. Deaderick, Austin's Pemberton Heights (Images of America), 2012. Discusses Janet Long Fish’s work in preserving the “Comanche Trail”, today’s Shoal Creek Greenbelt Trail.

Preece, Harold (1964). "My Grandfather, Dick Preece". Real West. VII (38): 22. Story of Richard Lincoln Preece, AKA Dick Preece, as a Republic era Texas Ranger fighting Comanches. I've donated a copy of this magazine to the Briscoe Center for American History as part of their "Richard Lincoln Preece Papers, 1859-1919".
 
Michno, Gregory and Susan Michno, A Fate Worse than Death: Indian Captivities in the West, 1830-1885, Caxton Press, 2007

Janet Long Fish, Oral History Transcript. Interview by Thad Sitton, July 20, 2000. Available at Austin History Center.

The Defender 1936: Travis County Rural Schools, published 1936. A copy is available at the Austin History Center.