 |
| Austin American-Statesman, 8 Feb 1925 |
Back in the day, for a very short while, Texas had a State Park on Bull Creek. Never heard of it? Here's the untold story, or more correctly, forgotten story, of the Champion State Park. Let’s start with an introduction to A.C. Champion and the families footprint on Bull Creek.
A.C. Champion on Bull Creek
According to A.C. Champion's granddaughter, Juanita Champion Meir (1925-2021), Abram Clark Champion (better known as A.C., 1842-1926) first acquired "240 acres of Bull Creek bottomland and the overlooking bluff" in 1866. In an interview in 1999 she described the all-day trip necessary to get to Austin at that time: "He would have to ride on horseback down across the mouth of Bull Creek, then around the bottom of Mount Bonnell toward [today's] Laguna Gloria, and then across into town."[1] The route she is describing, below Mount Bonnell towards Laguna Gloria, is the original Old Bull Creek Road, rerouted when it was flooded by Lake McDonald. The Austin City Directory of 1887 shows A.C. with a house in town so it’s not clear if the Bull Creek property was an investment or if he lived full or part time on Bull Creek.
What’s called the “Champion log cabin”, photos of which are at the Austin History Center, is probably the original one-room Bull Creek School. Started in 1867 it was later rebuilt and renamed Pleasant Valley School; it sat at the intersection of Loop 360 and 2222 on the Champion property.
In 1881 a search for a quarry for the new capitol building was underway and the Champion granite quarry was in consideration; it was located on Bull Creek about a mile from its mouth on the Colorado. "Along Bull Creek canon (sic) are immense hills of magnesium limestone of very fine texture and excellent susceptibulature (sic) under the chisel." Interestingly, the main objection to Champion’s quarry was the cost of transportation to the capitol grounds. That illustrates how remote Bull Creek was to Austin at this time.[2]
The first Austin dam was completed in 1893 creating Lake McDonald; Champion, who’s property along Bull Creek fronted the river, shows up in the news in 1892 preparing his property for the coming flood: “HUMAM BONES DISCOVERED UP ON BULL CREEK. Yesterday morning A. C. Champion, who has for some weeks been engaged in cleaning off the timber on the land that will be submerged by the water backed up by the dam, came into the city to bring in a human skull and thigh bone found while he was at work. He carried the ghastly objects to Dr. McLaughlin [for examination] ... Mr. Champion says that he found them near the banks of Bull Creek on the old Hancock property, which adjoins his place.”[3] The “old Hancock property” referenced is that of John Hancock (1824-1893), north bank of mouth of Bull Creek. Hancock was a congressman and judge; all around prominent figure in Austin.[4]
In the 1920s A.C. sold Champion Natural Mineral Water from a spring on their property on Bull Creek: “This water is recommended by those who have used if for stomach and bowel trouble in their various forms, indigestion, dyspepsia, constipation, etc. Also for the kidneys and liver, skin diseases and sore eyes and, as a tonic to build up the system.”[5]
In 1934 the land for Camp Tom Wooten on Bull Creek (today’s Courtyard subdivision) was purchased from the heirs of A.C. Champion by Dr. Goodall Harrison Wooten, physician, philanthropist, and civic leader. Dr. Wooten donated the property to the Boy Scouts of Central Texas that same year. The camp was named after Dr. Wooten’s only son, Tom Wooten, who died in his youth.
Son C.C. Champion's dairy barn ca. 1938 was located about where today's Waterloo Ice House on Loop 360 is today located. The old barn served as the Alligator Grill for years before being razed (rumor has it the building lives on in Long Canyon subdivision).
Descendants of Champion still own tracts of land along west Bull Creek. The new hotel planned on Bull Creek on the southeast corner of Loop 360 and 2222 (west of the County Line but on the opposite bank of the creek) was land sold by Champion descendants for the development. That is the location the old Pleasant Valley School was moved when Loop 360 was built.[6]
The State Park
Notwithstanding his various business ventures, A.C. Champion is best known for something that never came to fruition: a state park on Bull Creek. The seeds of an idea for a state park seem to begin in 1912 when Champion is trying to attract attention to Bull Creek. From The Austin Statesman, Nov 11, 1912:
Proposes lakeside road. A.C. Champion knows route to Bull Creek.
A scenic road to skirt lake Austin and bring the beautiful Bull Creek region as near as possible to the city, has been suggested to the city council and the Chamber of Commerce as a thing very much to be desired. The man who is prepared to locate such a road, and presumably to open it up, is A.C. Champion, owner of property on Bull Creek, who has been employed by the city to clear the timber and underbrush from the basin of the river and its tributaries, wherever these will be submerged by the rising waters of the lake. Mr. Champion has brought the matter of building such a road to the attention of the body's mentioned, proposing that those interested take a jaunt out that way and see for themselves. He suggested Thursday of this week... to make the trip and enjoy a barbecue with him at that time on the Highlands overlooking both the river and Bull Creek. The proposed road would skirt the lake in such a way that it's waters could be glimpsed at frequent intervals by passers, while on the other hand rugged hills would rise up to charm the eye.
Between 1912 and 1924 the “lakeside road” grew into a grander plan; from 1924 to 1926 the paper is abuzz with news of the possibility of a new state park at Bull Creek. The Austin Lion’s Club was a main proponent of the park working with the Champion family to get the project approved and funded by the state.
Governor Pat M. Neff[7] (governor 1921-1925) visited the site of the proposed park in 1924; various headlines from news articles that year show the park was obviously a go: “Landscape Engineer to Plan Champion Park”; “State Gets Park on Bull Creek”. One article from the paper that year features photos of the "State parks board and Austin committee" at the park site.[8] By January 1925 headlines from the paper reports: “State Deeded Travis Park. Champion Signs Papers on Bull Creek Tract.”[9] The deed stipulated the state must make improvements within a year, else title reverted back to Champion. Things apparently looked solid enough that Champion State Park appeared on a 1927 Rand McNally road map[10].
In 1926, the year after deeding the property, A.C. Champion passed, and by 1929 the plans for the park had fallen through, the land reverting to the Champion heirs.[11] The tract was now being considered as a state fish hatchery by the Game Commission. What happened is summarized in this article: “This site [proposed fish hatchery] located on Bull creek ... is part of the area once given the state for a park, but which reverted to the donor, the late A.C. Champion when the state failed to improve the park and build a road to it.”[12] It leaves a lot to the imagination as to why this would happen, but happen it did. The park was dead.
So where was the park? I’ve not yet located the deed to the state, but based on news articles and some grainy newspaper photos it looks to have been at the mouth of Bull Creek, with frontage on the Colorado, perhaps all or part of what would later become Camp Tom Wooten; today’s Courtyard. The reported park size varies from 80 to 100 acres, close in size to what A.C. Champion’s heirs would later sell for the creation of Camp Tom Wooten.
More Photos
 |
| The Austin American, Dec 7, 1924 |
 |
| Champion Natural Mineral Water advertisement. Photo courtesy family. |
 |
| Champion dairy barn. Photo courtesy family. |
References
[1] "Corner to Corner. Swelling Up: The Long, Winding, and Ever-Growing Road". Mike Clark-Madison, Austin Chronicle, Sept. 10, 1999. https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/1999-09-10/73817/
[2] Weekly Democratic Statesman, Vol. 10, No. 50, July 21, 1881
[3] Austin Daily Statesman, Sep 9, 1892. The story continued when more remains were found Austin Daily Statesman, Oct 4, 1892.
[5] From an advertisement courtesy descendants.
[6] For more on the Champion descendants land dealings along Bull Creek read "Corner to Corner. Swelling Up: The Long, Winding, and Ever-Growing Road". Mike Clark-Madison, Austin Chronicle, Sept. 10, 1999. https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/1999-09-10/73817/
[7] Mother Neff State Park is named after Governor Neff's mother, Isabella Eleanor (Shepherd) Neff
[8] The Austin American Dec 7, 1924, p.1
[9] The Austin American, 4 Jan 1925, p.2
[10] Rand McNally Auto Road Map, Texas. Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, Historic Road Maps. Publication date said to be 1927, surveyed earlier. The map shows the park on the wrong side of the river. A 1930s Marathon Oil Company Texas road map also showed the park, again in the wrong place, this time east of Austin.
[12] The Austin American, Oct 27, 1929
Good article Rich! We are by Bull Creek, but much further upstream.
ReplyDeleteOllie
Thanks, Ollie.
Delete