Mount Bonnell: Highest Point in Austin?

Panorama from Mt. Bonnell with Mt. Barker in distance to right. Photo courtesy Austin PARD

An often cited “fact” is that Mt. Bonnell is the highest point in Austin. Many websites appear to be “copy and paste propagation” of this claim as they have nearly the same verbiage:

“Mount Bonnell is considered to be the highest point in Austin, offering one of the most exquisite vantage points in the entire city.”

Such websites can be forgiven because this misconception has been around far longer than the internet. But the fact is, Mt. Bonnell is not the highest point in Austin. And more to the point, Mt. Bonnell was probably never the highest point in Austin.

Below is a table of the 4 highest summits listed for Austin[1] by the USGS with Mt. Bonnell in 4^th place. Cat Mountain tops the list. In fact you might be surprised that many homes in Northwest Austin are higher than Mt. Bonnell; my house sits at about 905’. But let’s keep focused on summits.

Name	Classification	lat	long	Altitude (feet)	Topo Name
Cat Mountain	Summit	30.35243	-97.7797	928	Austin West
Mount Barker	Summit	30.32548	-97.7725	843	Austin West
Mount Lucas	Summit	30.32937	-97.7731	820	Austin West
Mount Bonnell	Summit	30.32076	-97.7733	781	Austin West

If you are one that needs to see with your own eyes to believe, do this: go to Mt. Bonnell, then gaze at neighboring Mount Barker. It’s higher.

One argument for believing Mt. Bonnell is the “highest point” (or how that got started) might go like “Austin’s city limits have changed over time and at one point Mt. Bonnell was the highest point in the city limits”. Let’s tackle that argument.

At Austin’s founding in 1839 the western boundary of the city was West Avenue, hence the name; Shoal Creek flows just west of that boundary. Clearly, in 1839 Mt. Bonnell was outside of the city limits so did not qualify as the highest point then.

It then becomes a matter of knowing when Mt. Bonnell entered the city limits. One might argue there was a time when the city limits expanded to include Mt. Bonnell, but excluded all those higher peaks, including neighboring Mt. Barker. For this we can turn to the “History of annexation actions taken by the City of Austin”[2]. Per city data, Austin had "full purpose" jurisdiction of both Mt. Bonnell and Mt. Barker "on or before" 1951. By the COA data both were annexed as part of the same parcel. That would seem to be a clear indication Mt. Bonnell was never the highest point within the city limits of Austin: it entered Austin at the same time as Mt. Barker, its higher neighbor.

Okay, facts be damned. One might argue along these lines: It’s the shear drop from the top of Mt. Bonnell to the Colorado River below that makes Mt. Bonnell the highest. Well, if you’ve ever sat on the deck of the County Line on the Lake (FM 2222 on Bull Creek) and gazed up at the peak of Cat Mountain you know that’s a pretty impressive drop!

My guess is it was the early awareness, popularity and access to Mt. Bonnell  -- along with those spectacular 360 degree views -- that led to this misconception; that along with a loose definition of “in Austin”.

So does this belittle Mt. Bonnell somehow? I don’t think so. Mt. Bonnell has ample valid bragging rights in the history of Austin. So, how about we change the verbiage to something like this:

“Mount Bonnell is considered to be the highest public park close to Austin, offering one of the most exquisite vantage points in the entire city.”

Works for me!

Maps

 

1925 map of Austin. Mt. Bonnell is still outside the city limits [3]

1938 map shows the city limits have pushed past Camp Mabry,  but not quite to Mt. Bonnell [4]

1961 map shows that the Austin City Limits have finally expanded west to take in both Mt. Bonnell and Mt. Barker [5]

Footnotes

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[1] I’ve kept this list to “core Austin” by filtering on the Austin named topos; Mt. Bonnell’s ranking only goes down the further out you look from core Austin. Mt. Larson, 909', is excluded as it is in Rollingwood / Westlake Hills. As a side note, did you know that Austin is not fully contained in Travis County? Portions of Austin are located in Hays and Williamson County.

[2] https://data.austintexas.gov/Locations-and-Maps/Annexation-History/amuv-wxzr

[3] 1925 City of Austin and Suburbs, Texas State Archives Map Collection https://www.tsl.texas.gov/apps/arc/maps/maplookup/04015 

[4] 1938 Traffic Map, Travis County, Texas State Archives Map Collection
https://www.tsl.texas.gov/apps/arc/maps/maplookup/06635

[5] 1961 General Highway Map. Detail of Cities and Towns in Travis County, Texas. City Map, Austin and vicinity, Travis County, Texas https://www.tsl.texas.gov/apps/arc/maps/maplookup/05313