Travis Audubon’s Blair Woods Sanctuary

Illustration of Coleman's Fort done by Noah Smithwick's daughter as part of his book The Evolution of a State. The photo appears in the first edition but not necessarily subsequent reprints.

The full report is too lengthy for a blog, but is available on the Travis County Archives website: click on Travis Audubon’s Blair Woods Sanctuary 

Key words: Travis Audubon Society, Fort Colorado, Coleman's Fort, Fort Prairie, Camino Real de los Tejas, Webberville Road, Jesse Tannehill, Civil War, freedom communities, J.P. Richardson, Swedes in Austin, Swiss immigrants, J.W. Thielepape, Moehr dairy farm, Susanna Moehr, Mary Starr Barkley, Dr. Frank Blair

In December of 2017 members of the Travis County Historical Commission made a field trip to the Travis Co. Audubon Blair Woods Sanctuary (Audubon property for short), 5401 E Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Austin, TX 78721, at the request of Paul Fushille, Travis County Natural Resources Specialist. The property was also home to Austin Wildlife Rescue which rents the main house from the Audubon society. The goal was to look at several old buildings on the property, determine if they were of historic significance, and hence worth restoring, or at least saving. In general, to determine the history of the property. 

At the outset the site had the promise of historical significance: its proximity to old Fort Colorado AKA Coleman’s Fort just across today’s MLK Blvd.; the location of Coleman Springs on the property, said to have been a water supply for the fort; the property being part of Fort Prairie, the community that grew up around the fort; and stories of residents of Fort Prairie, indeed Jesse Tannehill, having used materials from the fort to construct buildings. 

Following the site visit, Lanny Ottosen and myself Richard Denney did research based on old maps, deeds, newspaper articles. Aerials from Historic Aerials and Tobin from 1937 (the earliest known aerial of the property) aided the investigation. The TCHC has made numerous additional field trips to the property.

In short, the Audubon property preserves layers of history from prehistoric, possibly Spanish (Camino Real), Republic of Texas, Civil War, Reconstruction (a freedom colony is thought to be on the southern boundary) right up to modern times. It is a last remnant of the early community of Fort Prairie that sprang up near Republic of Texas era Fort Colorado. The outbuildings are most certainly (if not earlier) tied to the Moehr family that immigrated from Switzerland in 1908, and bought the acreage in 1911. The connection to the Moehr family also provides a primary source, Susanna Moehr, interviewed by historian Mary Starr Barkley, stating materials from Fort Colorado were used on structures at the farm. A prominent Austin family, the Thielepape (Koch) family lived on the property in the late 19th century so it’s possible some structures and or artifacts are from that period or earlier. In the process of researching Fort Prairie a freedom community was discovered just south of the Audubon property that has heretofore not been recognized.