326 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.
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Andice, TX
Andice sits nestled in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, a land sculpted by eons of geological activity. Beneath the surface lies the Edwards Aquifer, a vast underground reservoir that bubbles up in springs and feeds…
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Andice Baptist Church
· 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Andice Baptist Church, a congregation with roots stretching back to the earliest days of Texas Baptists. Reverend Freeman Smalley, one of the first Baptists in the state, preached in…
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Site of Loafer's Glory Apostolic Church
· 3.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Loafer's Glory Apostolic Church, a place that began with a revival in 1908 at the Loafer's Glory School. Evangelist Fred Lohmann took over in 1909, drawing hundreds with his tent…
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Gabriel Mills
· 4.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Gabriel Mills, a town that once thrived right here. It started in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1849</say-as> when Samuel Mather settled and built a gristmill in <say-as…
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Smart-McCormick Home
· 4.3 mi · Historical Marker
Smart-McCormick Home, 1855. Built by Bryce M. Smart (1816-1880), who had a grist mill, tannery, freight line. His children rescued newborn calves abandoned on nearby Chisholm Trail. McCormicks, 5th generation…
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Rocky Hollow Cemetery
· 4.4 mi · Historical Marker
In the 1850s, a group of pioneer Black slaves came to this area from Union County, Arkansas, and founded what is now known as the Rocky Hollow Community. This cemetery soon was established on land given by Thomas P.…
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"Dog Run" Log Cabin
· 4.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Dog Run Log Cabin, built way back in 1851 by William Williams, a settler who came all the way from Arkansas. Look closely at the construction – cypress, oak, and cedar logs, all joined by wooden…
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Fore Cemetery
· 4.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Fore Cemetery, a final resting place established by a prominent settler. Wiley Fore arrived here in 1883, joining his nephew Robert Baker's community. Almost immediately, Fore organized the local…
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Williams-Buck Cemetery
· 5.0 mi · Historical Marker
Legend surrounds the first years of this burial ground. Local oral history relates that among the earliest graves are those of a slave called Willie Osborne and an unknown Native American. Members of the Stephens…
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The Dome Nobody Thought Could Stand
· 5.4 mi
Florence, Texas got its name in the eighteen-fifties, most likely from Florence, Alabama, the earlier home of its first postmaster, though some say it honors Florence Brooks, a merchant's daughter. Neither theory points…
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Not Italy, But Follow the Thread
· 5.4 mi
Here's a myth worth busting as you drive through Florence, Texas. It's easy to assume this town was named straight for Florence, Italy, that jewel of the Renaissance. But the documented theories don't say that. The…
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The Bankers Who Bought the Renaissance
· 5.4 mi
Florence, Texas got its name the plain way. Settlers arrived in the early eighteen-fifties, briefly called the spot Brooksville, and it was known as Florence by eighteen fifty-seven, when the first post office opened.…
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Where the Name Really Came From
· 5.4 mi
Rolling through Florence up here in northwestern Williamson County, you might picture Italy. Hold that thought, because the honest answer is: nobody's completely sure where this town's name came from. The site was…
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A Name That Means Blooming
· 5.4 mi
Whatever brought the name Florence to this Texas town, the word itself carries a lovely old meaning worth knowing. It reaches all the way back to Latin. The original Florence, the one in Italy, began as a Roman…
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Two Florences, Worlds Apart
· 5.4 mi
Let's play a little name game as you roll through Florence, Texas. Remember, this Florence most likely got its name from a first postmaster's old Alabama hometown, or from a merchant's daughter, not straight from Italy.…
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Mullen, John W.
· 5.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
John Mullen, farmer and Confederate officer, was born in New Castle County, Delaware, on January 20, 1811. On January 21, 1836, Mullen married Mary Hamilton of Butler County, Ohio, in Terre Haute, Indiana. This couple…
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Early Church
· 5.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a building that wore many hats right here in Florence. Back in 1845, John C. Caskey donated this land, first for a cemetery and then for a meeting house. That native stone structure,…
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Aynesworth, Kenneth Hazen
· 5.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through McLennan County, not far from Florence, the Texas town where Dr. Kenneth Hazen Aynesworth was born in 1873. He became a prominent surgeon in Waco, serving railroads and city boards. But Aynesworth…
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Ratliff, Archillus P.
· 5.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, an area that was on the Texas frontier when Archillus P. Ratliff first settled here in the 1840s. Ratliff wasn't just a farmer; he was a Texas Ranger, serving with John S. 'Rip'…
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Florence, TX
· 5.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Florence, Texas, a town with a name that might have come from a person or a place. Settled in the early 1850s and officially named Florence by 1857, its origin story is a bit of a mystery. Was it…
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Mahomet Cemetery
· 5.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Mahomet Cemetery, a community graveyard for Sycamore Springs and Mahomet. Interments here date back to the 1850s, and it still serves descendants today, with veterans from the Mexican War to Vietnam…
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First United Methodist Church of Florence
· 5.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Florence's first Methodist congregation. They shared a stone building with other groups starting in 1856, and officially got their first pastor in 1858. The current church building was…
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First Baptist Church of Florence
· 5.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the First Baptist Church of Florence, organized way back in April of 1856! The founding pastor, Reverend Robert Hay Taliaferro, was a real pioneer, helping establish Baptist congregations…
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Rock House Community
· 5.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Rock House, a pioneer community that thrived for over a century. It all started in the late 1840s when Uriah H. Anderson settled here, thanks to a Texas land grant. By 1875, kids were…
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Mahomet-Sycamore Springs Community
· 5.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Burnet County, past the site of what was once two distinct pioneer settlements: Mahomet and Sycamore Springs. They started out eight miles apart in the 1850s. Sycamore Springs had a general store,…
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Florence Church of Christ
· 5.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Florence Church of Christ. Established around 1853, this congregation was influenced by the Second Great Awakening and the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement. A deed in 1873 secured land for…
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Mount Horeb Lodge
· 5.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving near Briggs, Burnet County, past the site of the Mount Horeb Lodge. Chartered in 1854, they first met in a log schoolhouse before building their own hall in 1856, which also served as a church and school.…
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Site of Concord School
· 5.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of what was once Concord School, a hub for this community for decades. It began its life as Clear Creek School way back in 1857. By 1888, it was known as Concord School, and in 1896, this…
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Connell Cemetery
· 6.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Connell Cemetery, a final resting place for a family deeply woven into Texas history. Sampson Connell Jr. arrived in Texas as a boy in 1834. He fought for Texas independence at the Battle of San…
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Prairie View Cemetery
· 6.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Prairie View Cemetery, established in the early 1890s. It began as the churchyard for the First Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and includes graves of pioneer settlers and veterans.
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The Community of Briggs
· 8.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Briggs, a town with a story of resilience. Settlers from the Old South arrived here in the 1860s and 70s, building a community and holding services at nearby Gum Springs. The town got its post…
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Briggs State Bank
· 8.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're passing the site of the Briggs State Bank, built in 1909. This limestone and brick building was the heart of a town that thrived on cotton and wool for fifteen years. But by the mid-1920s, farming changes hit…
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Lawler Community
· 8.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through the Lawler community, a place that grew up around a generous man. Before the 1850s, this land was settled, and it got its name from L. T. Lawler, better known as 'Uncle Lee.' He was so beloved…
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Briggs, TX
· 8.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
Briggs is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 183 and Farm Road 2657 in northeastern Burnet County. The site is part of the Aaron F. Boyce survey patented to Boyce's heirs on September 30, 1850. The Boyce land is on the…
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Site of Prairie Point Community
· 8.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through what used to be Prairie Point, a community that sprang up in the 1850s with cattle ranches and family farms. By the 1870s, settlers were building their lives here. A schoolhouse opened its doors…
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Willie Nelson's Fourth of July Picnic
· 8.8 mi · Tsha Handbook
Since the 1970s the Fourth of July and Texas music have been synonymous with Willie Nelson's Fourth of July Picnic. The country music extravaganza began in 1973 and was inspired by a country music festival that took…
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Hickman, John Edward
· 8.8 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, not far from Liberty Hill, the birthplace of John Edward Hickman. He wasn't just any lawyer; Hickman rose to become Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, serving from 1948…
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Liberty Hill, TX (Williamson County)
· 8.8 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Liberty Hill, a town whose very location has been on the move. Back in 1853, the first post office was established three miles west of where you are now. The postmaster, William Oliver Spencer,…
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Bryson Stagecoach Stop
· 9.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Bryson Stagecoach Stop, a crucial hub for travelers in pioneer Texas. John T. Bryson and his wife Amelia built this home in the 1850s, using sturdy cedar logs and local stone. Imagine…
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Liberty Hill Methodist Church
· 9.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Liberty Hill, where this community's spiritual heart has beaten for over a century and a half. The Methodist Church here started way back in 1854, a mile and a half northwest of where you are now.…
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First Baptist Church of Liberty Hill
· 9.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the First Baptist Church of Liberty Hill. Organized in 1882 when the railroad brought the town to this location, its members erected this building on land donated by Rev. W.O. Spencer.…
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Stubblefield Building
· 9.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past what might be the oldest building still standing in Liberty Hill. Look to your right – this hand-cut limestone structure was built back in 1871 by S.P. Stubblefield, a veteran of the Mexican War. His…
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Liberty Hill Cemetery
· 9.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Liberty Hill Cemetery, a resting place that's been serving this community for over 170 years. The earliest burials here date back to 1852, when settlers were just putting down roots. In 1875, John T.…
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Manuel Flores
· 9.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site where a tense moment unfolded in Texas history. It's May of 1839. Manuel Flores, an emissary of the Mexican government, is leading a small group, carrying ammunition to Native Americans on…
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Liberty Hill Masonic Hall
· 9.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Liberty Hill, and right here is a building with a long history. It started in 1875 as the Liberty Hill Lodge No. 432, meeting first in the local Methodist church. But by 1883, they moved upstairs…
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Matthews, John G.
· 9.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a man who saw some serious Texas history. John Giles Matthews arrived in Texas back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1839</say-as>, settling in Austin. He fought as a Ranger for…
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Spencer, William O.
· 9.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Williamson County, near Liberty Hill. Look around – this was the frontier back in 1853 when William O. Spencer settled here. He'd moved to Texas years before, but after his wife Amy died, he…
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John G. Matthews House
· 9.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the John G. Matthews House, built in 1872. Matthews himself came to Texas way back in 1840, joining the Rangers and fighting in the Mexican War. He built this sturdy, hand-hewn limestone house for…
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Russell Fork Iron Truss Bridge
· 10.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving near Bertram, and right over the Russell Fork of the North San Gabriel River stands this impressive Iron Truss bridge. Built in 1911 after a county vote, it was designed by the Missouri Valley Bridge &…
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North Fork of the San Gabriel River
· 10.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising along the North Fork of the San Gabriel River, a key part of the Brazos River system. This stream has been a lifeline for ages. Spanish explorer Fray Isidro Felix Espinosa first named it Rio de San…
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Joppa Community
· 11.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Joppa, a farming and ranching community that started life as Pool Branch. In 1874, the William Alexander Faires family were among the first settlers. The nearby waterfall created a pool,…
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The Bryson Place
· 11.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Bryson Place, built in 1906 by local builder Marcus Langford for John H. Bryson and his wife Milda. The land itself has a long history in Burnet County, first purchased by Milda's uncle in 1855.…
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Georgetown Grace Academy - 2025 Texas 6-Man TAIAO III state football champion
· 12.0 mi · Sports News
You're near Georgetown Grace Academy High School in Georgetown. Last December, they took down Stephenville Faith fifty-eight to thirty-five to win the Texas 6-Man TAIAO III state football championship. They wear that…
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Chalk, Whitfield
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, maybe near Georgetown, and you're passing through the story of Whitfield Chalk. He arrived in Texas in 1839, and right away, he was in the thick of it. Chalk fought in the…
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Hughes, Thomas Proctor
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Georgetown, Texas, and right here is a place where a pivotal moment in Texas history unfolded. In <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1861</say-as>, Thomas Proctor Hughes, a lawyer who had just…
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Chambers, Iola Bowden
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Iola Bowden Chambers, music teacher and director of the Negro Fine Arts School, was born at Holder, Texas, on October 18, 1904. She was the daughter of Andrew Mack and Amanda (Heflin) Bowden. Her father was a doctor,…
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Cody, Claude Carr
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Georgetown, home to Southwestern University. Right here, Claude Carr Cody, a math professor and administrator, fought a major battle to keep the school from moving to Dallas. In 1910, a proposal…
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Dalrymple, William Cornelius
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, maybe near Georgetown. Right here, in the late 1860s, William Cornelius Dalrymple, a veteran soldier and politician, led two expeditions into the rugged Rio Grande country. What…
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Glasscock, George Washington
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, and right here is Georgetown, a town named for George Washington Glasscock. He was an early settler who helped organize this county back in 1846. But Glasscock wasn't just a…
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Graves, Harry N.
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, and right here in Georgetown, a pivotal moment in Texas law enforcement history unfolded. In 1930, a local lawyer and politician named Harry N. Graves, who served in the Texas…
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Hyer, Robert Stewart
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Georgetown right now, a place that was home to a scientific pioneer. Robert Stewart Hyer, a professor at Southwestern University, was experimenting with wireless communication. In 1894, he…
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Meyer, Henry Edwin
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Georgetown, home to Southwestern University, where Henry Edwin Meyer left an indelible mark on music education. Arriving in 1926, Meyer became a professor of piano, organ, and sacred music,…
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Mood, Francis Asbury
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Georgetown, home to Southwestern University. Right here, Francis Asbury Mood, a Methodist preacher, took charge of a struggling school in Chappell Hill in 1868. He saw its potential, but knew it…
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Reeves, George Robertson
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Grayson County, Texas, and the town of Georgetown right here owes its name to George Robertson Reeves. He was a legislator, a soldier, and a prominent figure in this area. Reeves fought in major…
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Southwestern University
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Georgetown, home to Southwestern University. It all started back in 1870 when five Methodist conferences decided to merge four existing colleges into one new institution. They named it Texas…
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Vontress, Edward Hughes
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, not far from Georgetown. Right here, in the mid-1800s, lived Edward Hughes Vontress. He was a lawyer, a judge, and a state representative. But when the Civil War broke out,…
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Stone, Robert James
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Georgetown, Texas, a town with a rich visual history thanks to photographer Robert James Stone. Stone made a name for himself right here as 'Southwestern's Photographer.' Though he never attended…
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Georgetown, TX (Williamson County)
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Georgetown, the county seat of Williamson County. This town got its start back in 1848, named for George Washington Glasscock, who donated the land. Pioneers were drawn here by the timber and…
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Critz, Richard
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, not far from Georgetown. Back around 1920, this area was a hotbed for the Ku Klux Klan. Right here, lawyer Richard Critz, who served as Georgetown's city attorney and later…
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Fort Johnston
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through northern Grayson County, not far from Lake Texoma. Right here, in November of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1840</say-as>, a temporary Republic of Texas fort called Fort Johnston was…
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Granbery, John Cowper, Jr.
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Georgetown, Texas, a town that was once home to John Cowper Granbery Jr. A Methodist minister by training, Granbery became a sociology professor influenced by Jane Addams and earned a doctorate…
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Makemson, William K.
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, where William K. Makemson's family settled way back in 1847. He grew up here, working as a farmer, drover, and shoemaker to support his family after his father died. He even…
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Snyder, John Wesley
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through West Texas, and right here, you're passing through land once owned by John Wesley Snyder. He arrived in Texas back in 1856, partnering with his brother on orchards and horse trading. But Snyder…
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Springer, Roland Angus
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Georgetown, home to Southwestern University, where Roland Angus Springer spent over three decades shaping the drama department. <break time="400ms"/> Arriving in 1943, he transformed a small stage…
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Bertram School
· 12.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Bertram, a town that got its start in 1882 with the Austin & Northwestern Railroad. One of the very first buildings here wasn't just a school, but a combined Sunday School and Masonic Lodge hall!…
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South Gabriel
· 12.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Burnet County, passing the site of what used to be South Gabriel. It started in 1871 as a mercantile store that also served as the post office, named for the nearby South San Gabriel River. The…
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Georgetown Railroad
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving near Georgetown, Texas, a town that owes its start to a railroad that almost didn't make it. The Georgetown Railroad was chartered in 1878, aiming to connect this city to Round Rock. They laid ten miles…
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Glasscock, George Washington, Jr.
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, maybe even passing Georgetown itself. Right here, in the late 1800s, George Washington Glasscock Jr. was making his mark. After serving in the Civil War and surviving a yellow…
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McLean, John Howell
· 12.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Georgetown, home to Southwestern University. Right here, John Howell McLean served as the university's regent from 1890 to 1897. He was unique – the only head of Southwestern to have actually…
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The Festival That Started as a Joke
· 12.2 mi
Every fall, Bertram throws a party for a town that barely exists. It’s the Oatmeal Festival, and it started in 1978 as a complete joke. Ken Odiorne and a few locals decided to spoof the endless chili cook-offs in Texas…
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The Railroad Engineered for a Capitol
· 12.2 mi
The railroad tracks running through Bertram carried one of the heaviest hauling jobs in Texas history. The Austin and North Western was chartered in 1881, and its narrow-gauge line from Austin through Bertram to Burnet…
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The Bertram Flyer
· 12.2 mi
On many weekends you can hear a sound that echoes Bertram's very beginning: a train horn coming up the old Austin and Northwestern line. The Austin Steam Train Association runs excursions out of Cedar Park to Bertram on…
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The Fire That Reshaped Downtown
· 12.2 mi
Bertram is here because a town picked itself up and walked. In 1882 the Austin and Northwestern Railroad came through Burnet County, and the community of San Gabriel moved over to meet it. The new townsite took the name…
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Bertram, TX
· 12.2 mi
Bertram isn't the kind of place that produces a lot of household names, but its story is filled with characters who shaped the community. The town itself is named for Rudolph Bertram, an Austin businessman and major…
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The Line That Carried a Capitol, Stone by Stone
· 12.3 mi
The same railroad that built Bertram did something monumental. The Austin and Northwestern started as a three-foot narrow gauge line, a track only thirty-six inches wide, which is cheaper to build through rough hill…
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The Town That Walked to the Railroad
· 12.3 mi
In 1882 the Austin and Northwestern Railroad laid its tracks about two miles past the little village of San Gabriel. Rather than be left behind, the residents picked up the whole town and carried it to the rails. They…
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The Town Oatmeal Put Back on the Map
· 12.3 mi
Just southwest of Bertram sits the tiny community of Oatmeal. In the 1970s the makers of the official Texas state map left Oatmeal off entirely, because no major highways crossed there. A former resident named Ken…
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Joppa Iron Truss Bridge
· 12.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Joppa Iron Truss Bridge, the only one still standing of three built in Burnet County in the early 1900s. Funded by a bond election in 1906, this 136-foot Pratt Truss bridge was completed in 1907.…
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Stewart Pioneer Home
· 12.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Stewart Pioneer Home, built in 1905 by Benjamin Hansford Stewart for his son. Stewart himself came to Texas in 1851, farmed and ranched, and even served as Burnet County sheriff. This Texas-style…
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James B. Williams
· 12.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the area where James B. Williams settled, a true pioneer of this region. Born in Kentucky in 1821, he arrived in Texas with his bride, Sarah Coffey, and his father's wagon train on Christmas Eve,…
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Bertram
· 12.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising through Bertram, a town that owes its very existence to the railroad. Back in 1882, the Austin and Northwestern Railroad laid down tracks right here, and boom – a town was born. It was named for Rudolph…
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Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Glenn (Leander)
· 12.7 mi
Glenn (Leander, TX) placed on the 5A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Shane McHenry (0.594 avg); Jordan Owens (0.478 avg).
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Pioneers' House
· 12.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the oldest house in Leander, built even before the town itself existed! Imagine, this rock-and-cedar home was a three-day wagon trip from Austin back in 1872. J.C. and Nancy Bryson built the first…
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Barton, D. Wilborn [Doc]
· 12.8 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burnet County, and right here is Bertram, the birthplace of D. Wilborn Barton, better known as Doc. Born in 1850, Doc learned the cattle business early, driving thousands of head north to Kansas…
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McFarlin, John Green
· 12.8 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Central Texas, maybe near Llano or Bertram, and you're passing through the homeland of John Green McFarlin. He was a Texas Ranger, born in Georgia but brought to Texas as a baby in 1825. By 1841,…
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Bertram, TX
· 12.8 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Bertram, a town that owes its existence to a railroad and a bit of irony. Back in 1882, the community of San Gabriel, just two miles east, packed up and moved lock, stock, and barrel to be closer…
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South Gabriel, TX
· 12.8 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burnet County, and right here, you're passing the site of what used to be South Gabriel. It started in 1871, first called Lewiston, but renamed South Gabriel because of its spot on the South Fork…
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Gillum Cemetery
· 12.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Oakalla, near the Gillum Cemetery. Absolom Barton Gillum and his wife Hannah arrived from Alabama in 1872, and he bought this land in 1880. Their four-year-old son Willie was the first to be…
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Sharp Cemetery and Rock Creek Baptist Church of Christ
· 13.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Sharp Cemetery and Rock Creek Baptist Church, a place born from heartbreak. Emily LeSeur Haynes Sharp, who arrived in Texas with her first husband and a cotton gin, lost him in 1849.…
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McBryde Cemetery
· 13.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the McBryde Cemetery, a quiet resting place with roots going back to the 1800s. Mancel T. McBryde, who moved his family from Georgia in the early 1860s, established this cemetery in 1885. It was for…
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Hopewell Cemetery
· 13.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the last remnant of the Hopewell community. Pioneers settled here in the 1840s, facing down hardships and Indian raids. In 1863, tragedy struck the Johnson family; Wofford, Mary, and their daughter…
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First Baptist Church Georgetown
· 13.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Georgetown's First Baptist Church. Established in 1866 with thirteen members, the congregation initially met in a shared Union building. The church later moved and built new facilities…
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Land Cemetery
· 13.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Land Cemetery, a final resting place with a story that stretches from early settlement to a devastating natural disaster. It started in 1863 when Nicholas and Elizabeth Land buried their son John…
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The Packers' All-Time Scorer Kicked First in Georgetown
· 13.9 mi
Before he became the all-time leading scorer in Green Bay Packers history, Mason Crosby was a do-everything athlete at Georgetown High School. He did not just kick; as a senior he earned all-district honors at three…
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Webster Massacre, Victims of the
· 13.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the resting place of victims of the Webster Massacre. On August 27, 1839, about thirty homeseekers, led by John Webster, were heading to Burnet County when a band of Comanche Indians attacked. They…
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Site of Marshall-Carver High School
· 14.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a landmark school in Georgetown's African American history. It started as 'The Colored School' in the early 1900s, offering the only local education for Black students. Principal S. C.…
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Pickle-Mason House
· 14.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Pickle-Mason House, built in 1871 by master carpenter Andrew Porter Pickle. He built this home for his family, and it stayed in the Pickle family for over forty years. Imagine this place bustling…
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Old Georgetown Cemetery
· 14.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Old Georgetown Cemetery, a burial ground used from 1840 to 1902. This land was part of the original donation for the county seat in 1848. Many early citizens rest here, some with unknown names and…
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Leander, TX
· 14.1 mi
Leander's story is really about the railroad. It wasn’t some grand plan to build a city, but rather a convenient spot along the Austin and Northwestern Railroad in the late 1800s where they decided to put a station.…
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Leander Presbyterian Church
· 14.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Leander Presbyterian Church. This congregation started way back in 1857 as Pleasant Hill Presbyterian Church, meeting in the town of Bagdad. But when the railroad arrived in 1882 and…
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Bagdad Cemetery
· 14.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Bagdad Cemetery, opened in 1857 with the burial of a three-year-old boy named John Babcock. His father later gave the land to the community. Early burials here included Civil War veteran John Haile…
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Wesley Chapel A.M.E. Church
· 14.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Wesley Chapel A.M.E. Church, a testament to Georgetown's African American history. Organized in 1869 by missionary Rev. Richard Robert Haywood, the congregation bought land here in 1881. They…
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Macedonia Baptist Church
· 14.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Macedonia Baptist Church, organized in 1881 by nine families. Their first worship services were held under a backyard arbor. The congregation built its first sanctuary on this site, later…
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Leanderthal Lady
· 14.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Williamson County, not far from where history was literally unearthed. Back on December 29th, 1982, Texas Highway Department archaeologists made an incredible discovery at the Wilson-Leonard…
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Jarrell, TX
· 14.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving north on I-35, just past the Bell County line, and you're rolling through Jarrell. This town might seem quiet now, but on May 27th, <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1997</say-as>, Jarrell made…
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The Church That Mules Hauled In from Bagdad
· 14.2 mi
When Bagdad's people followed the railroad to Leander, they brought their church with them, literally. The congregation that became Leander United Methodist Church was organized around 1860 out in Bagdad, first meeting…
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Webster Massacre
· 14.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Webster Massacre, a brutal frontier encounter that happened August 27th, 1839. John Webster and about thirty others were headed for a land grant in Burnet County when Comanche…
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San Gabriel Park
· 14.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past San Gabriel Park, a place that’s seen it all. Long before settlers arrived, local tribes camped here by the springs. The Spanish tried to settle, but raids and drought drove them out in <say-as…
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Old Dimmitt Home
· 14.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Old Dimmitt Home, built way back in 1866. Imagine hauling native limestone by ox-drawn wagon to construct this place! John Jones Dimmitt, a true Renaissance man – surveyor, lawyer, mathematician,…
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Black's Fort
· 14.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Black's Fort, built in 1851 by William Black. This stockade, made of sturdy cedar logs, was a crucial defense against Native Americans for settlers in Burnet County. Sentries were posted…
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Leander
· 14.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Leander, a town born from a railroad's decision. Just a mile west of here, the town of Bagdad was thriving back in 1854. But when the Austin & Northwestern Railroad came through in 1882, they…
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Corn Hill Community
· 14.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Corn Hill, one of Williamson County's earliest settlements. It all started in 1852 when John E. King, the county judge, built his home and planted a cornfield on this hill, naming it Corn…
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Maxdale Cemetery
· 14.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Maxdale Cemetery, one of Bell County's oldest burial grounds. Established in the 1860s for the Pleasant Grove community, the land was donated by Frank McBryde, Sr. His 1883 post office application…
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Leander United Methodist Church
· 14.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Leander United Methodist Church, a spiritual anchor for this community for over a century and a half. Organized around 1860 in the nearby settlement of Bagdad, early services were held in humble…
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A 1940s Roadside Cafe Reborn by the Square
· 14.3 mi
Just a block off the courthouse square, at 500 South Austin Avenue, the Monument Cafe was built to feel like the kind of Texas roadside diner that lined the highways from the 1920s through the 1940s, all chrome, counter…
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Railroad Produce Warehouse
· 14.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're passing the old Railroad Produce Warehouse, built way back in 1904. This wasn't just any old storage building; it was part of a whole industrial hub that sprung up around the railroad lines here in Georgetown.…
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Williamson County Jail
· 14.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Williamson County Jail in Georgetown. This imposing native limestone structure has been in continuous use since 1888, making it one of the oldest functioning jails in Texas. Built for just…
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San Gabriel Lodge No. 89, A. F. & A. M.
· 14.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Georgetown, where the San Gabriel Lodge No. 89 of Freemasons was organized way back in 1851. Chartered in 1852 with a Methodist minister as its master, this lodge grew with the county and even…
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The Leanderthal Lady, Buried Here Before the Pyramids
· 14.4 mi
On December 29, 1982, highway archeologists digging ahead of road construction near Brushy Creek hit something staggering: the nearly complete skeleton of a young woman who had been deliberately buried roughly 10,000 to…
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The Town That Said No to the Railroad
· 14.4 mi
A mile west of modern Leander once stood Bagdad, named in the 1850s after the Tennessee hometown of an early settler. By the early 1880s it was a real town, with two blacksmith shops, a hotel, two schools, a Masonic…
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How Science Read 13,000 Years Off a Skeleton
· 14.4 mi
What makes the Leanderthal Lady world-class isn't just her age, it's how scientists proved it. To date a skeleton this old you can't guess; you measure. Researchers used radiocarbon dating, which tracks the steady decay…
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The Graveyard from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
· 14.4 mi
The historic Bagdad Cemetery, a mile west of downtown Leander, is the last real piece of the vanished town of Bagdad, established in 1857 with the burial of three-year-old John Babcock. It holds Texas Revolution and…
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The Cemetery on Bagdad Road
· 14.4 mi
Bagdad Cemetery lies on North Bagdad Road about a mile west of downtown Leander, and is the last surviving trace of the vanished town of Bagdad. It was established in 1857 with the burial of three-year-old John Babcock…
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John Berry, Frontiersman
· 14.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Williamson County, passing the spot where John Berry settled in 1846. Born in Kentucky, this frontiersman fought in the War of 1812 before bringing his family to Texas in 1827. His sons, Joseph…
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Named for a Railroad Man, but Which One?
· 14.4 mi
The town you're rolling through got its name from the railroad in 1882, the year the Austin and Northwestern began selling lots at the new townsite on July 17. The trouble is, historians still argue over exactly whose…
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Kyle Park Got His Start in Leander
· 14.4 mi
Before he was filling Texas dance halls, country singer-songwriter Kyle Park was just a kid in Leander learning guitar. Born in Austin and raised here, Park picked up the instrument at 14 and wrote his first song and…
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The Pink Granite for the Capitol Rolled Through Here
· 14.4 mi
If you'd stood beside these tracks in the mid-1880s, you'd have watched the Texas State Capitol roll past one flatcar at a time. When builders needed stone for the grand new Capitol in Austin, they turned to the…
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From Lime Kilns to Limestone Street Signs
· 14.4 mi
Long before Leander was Austin's fastest-growing suburb, it was a quarry town. George Allen opened a small limestone quarry here in 1894, hauling rock to the railroad by tractor to ship out. The real industrial leap…
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Georgetown Light and Water Works
· 14.4 mi · Scraped Hmdb
This unassuming brick building was once the lifeblood of Georgetown, Texas. In 1911, the Georgetown Light and Water Works was constructed to provide electricity and a reliable water source to the growing community. It…
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Maxdale Bridge
· 14.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Maxdale Bridge, and believe it or not, this bridge has a dramatic backstory. Back in July 1913, Bell County Commissioners approved a bridge here to connect the Maxdale Community to…
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Magill, James P.
· 14.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, not far from Leander, where James P. Magill spent his final years. Magill was a farmer, a legislator, and a Texas Ranger who patrolled the frontier. In 1861, he represented…
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Chief Justice John Edward Hickman
· 14.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Williamson County birthplace of John Edward Hickman, a giant of the Texas legal system. He rose from a local lawyer to become Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, serving in that top role…
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Judge Greenleaf Fisk
· 14.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Judge Greenleaf Fisk. (May 19, 1807 - Jan. 26, 1888) Born in Albany, New York, Greenleaf Fisk was the son of a Presbyterian minister. He began preparation for the ministry himself but left his…
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The County's Memory in an Old Bank
· 14.4 mi
On the historic square at 716 South Austin Avenue, the Williamson Museum keeps the county's memory inside an old bank. The building went up around 1910 to 1912 as the Farmers State Bank, a handsome piece of the square's…
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Southside Market: 1882 Barbecue Comes to Leander
· 14.4 mi
There's a nice coincidence baked into the smoke at Southside Market & Barbeque in Leander: the barbecue brand and the town were both founded in 1882. Southside started that year in Elgin, about an hour southeast, where…
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Heinatz Homestead
· 14.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Heinatz Homestead, built in the fall of 1850 by John Frederick Heinatz, a settler who came all the way from Germany. He built this home, along with a store and post office, all from native stone.…
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Faubion, James Henry
· 14.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, near Leander, where James Henry Faubion built his life. He was a Confederate veteran who fought through the Civil War, even captured and held as a POW. After the war, he came to…
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Farmers State Bank Building
· 14.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Georgetown, and right here is the Farmers State Bank Building. This beauty, built in 1912, was the heart of local commerce. The bank itself started way back in 1898, becoming the Farmers State…
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David Love Store
· 14.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Georgetown, and right here is the David Love Store, a building that tells a story of Victorian ambition. Built in the mid-1880s for David M. Love, a South Carolina native who found his fortune in…
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Taylor-Cooper House
· 14.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Taylor-Cooper House, a testament to Georgetown's early success. Josiah Taylor opened one of the town's first stores right on the courthouse square. His son, Emzy, returned from the Civil War and…
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H.C. Craig Building
· 14.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the H.C. Craig Building in Georgetown, a real Victorian gem built in 1903. It started as Hugh Clifford Craig's furniture store. Though Craig sold the business just three years later, he held onto the…
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In Memory of Robert Jones Rivers
· 14.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Georgetown, where Robert Jones Rivers died in 1854. Born in Virginia in 1806, Rivers was a pioneer, a lawyer, and an orator. His eloquence was said to protect the helpless, and his wit charmed…
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M.B. Lockett Building
· 14.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past M.B. Lockett Building. Located on the site of an 1840s store, this structure was built after the Civil War. In the 1880s it housed the mercantile firm of Rucker & Montgomery. Ohio native Melville…
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Leander, TX
· 14.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Leander, a town born from a railroad's arrival. Back in 1882, the Austin and Northwestern Railroad bypassed the older community of Bagdad, just a mile west. Merchants quickly packed up their…
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Leander Schools
· 14.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Leander's first public school, which opened its doors in 1893. But the roots of education here go back even further, to 1855, with a school held in Bagdad, a town that vanished when…
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Smith Cemetery
· 14.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Burnet County, near Oakalla. James Gibson Smith Jr. and his wife Sarah settled here in 1850, raising eight children. They set aside this plot for a family cemetery, with their granddaughter Anita…
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Drilled Into by Accident, Lit Up for the World
· 14.5 mi
In 1963 a Texas Highway Department crew was doing routine core testing along the route of the new Interstate 35, drilling deep holes to check whether the ground could carry a bridge. Eight of their twenty test bores…
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The Fifth Courthouse and the Square It Crowns
· 14.5 mi
The courthouse rising over downtown is the fifth one Williamson County has built on this square. The first were wood and brick frontier buildings; a grand Second Empire courthouse stood here too, until it was torn down…
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The Ice-Age Graveyard Under the Highway
· 14.5 mi
When explorers and scientists pushed into Inner Space Cavern in the 1960s, they found more than rock. Sealed in the cave sediments was one of the richest Ice-Age fossil deposits in Texas, the bones of animals that…
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The Night the San Gabriel Came Up
· 14.5 mi
On September 8, 1921, the remnants of a Gulf hurricane stalled over Williamson County and let go. Rain fell for roughly a day and a half, and a gauge near Thrall, just east of Georgetown, recorded more than 38 inches in…
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In Memory of George Washington Glasscock, Sr.
· 14.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Georgetown, a city named for George Washington Glasscock, Sr. He was born in Kentucky in 1810, fought in the Black Hawk War and then for Texas independence. Glasscock helped organize this county,…
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Emzy Taylor
· 14.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the heart of early Georgetown, a town shaped by men like Emzy Taylor. After fighting as a Confederate captain in the Civil War, Taylor returned to lead the family business. But he did more than just…
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The Town Named for the Man Who Gave It Away
· 14.5 mi
When Williamson County was carved out in 1848, its first commissioners reportedly met under a live oak to decide where to plant the county seat. The man who settled the question was George Washington Glasscock, a…
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Idle Town Was This Town
· 14.5 mi
The singer-songwriter Conan Gray grew up right here in Georgetown, and his hometown is not a footnote to his music, it is the music. As a high-school kid he filmed shaky vlogs about life in small-town Texas, a place he…
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The Castle Jail and Its Last Condemned Man
· 14.5 mi
At 312 S Main Street stands a squat limestone building with crenellated battlements that make it look like a small medieval fortress dropped into downtown Georgetown. This is the Old Williamson County Jail, built in…
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Shafer Saddlery
· 14.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Georgetown, where this building has a frontier past. Back in 1848, the cabin on this site served as the very first county courthouse. Then, in 1870, John H. Shafer built this limestone saddlery,…
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Old Dimmitt Building
· 14.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Old Dimmitt Building, a Georgetown landmark that's worn many hats since 1901. Originally a hotel, it later housed mercantile stores, Georgetown's very first movie house, an auto agency, a drug…
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Williamson County
· 14.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Williamson County. Created March 13, 1848, and organized by a special committee approved by Gov. George T. Wood and the 2nd Legislature of the State of Texas, with Georgetown designated as county…
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First Presbyterian Church
· 14.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Georgetown's First Presbyterian Church, a congregation with a story as divided as the nation once was. Organized in 1854, they first met in a private home, then moved to Georgetown by…
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Steele Store-Makemson Hotel Building
· 14.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Georgetown, and just ahead is one of the oldest commercial buildings still standing here. Built around 1870 by M.E. Steele, this place started life as a log hotel. Steele himself ran a mercantile…
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Youngsport
· 14.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through what used to be Youngsport, a community that started in January of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1846</say-as>. Francis L. Mudd first claimed land here along the Lampasas River. Just a…
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Georgetown Fire House and Old City Hall
· 14.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the old Georgetown Fire House and City Hall, built way back in 1892. This building was the heart of the town, housing everything from the mayor's office and city jail to the fire department and even…
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Lesesne-Stone Building
· 14.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the KGTN Building, a limestone commercial structure built right here in 1884. It first housed the Sanders & Lesesne Drugstore, which stayed in business for an incredible 76 years. For over 50 of…
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Williamson County Courthouse
· 14.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Williamson County Courthouse in Georgetown. Completed in 1911, this is the fifth courthouse for the county. Designed by Charles H. Page & Bro., it's a fine Classical Revival structure, still…
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Williamson County Sun
· 14.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the home of the Williamson County Sun, Georgetown's oldest newspaper. Founded way back in 1877 by Jessie E. Cooper, this weekly paper was a real engine for progress. Over its first century, the Sun…
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C.A.D. Clamp
· 14.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past C.A.D. Clamp. (1827-1915) Christian Augustus Daniel Clamp was born in Thorn, Prussia (now Torun, Poland). He came to Texas in 1846 and moved to Georgetown in 1851, a year after his marriage to…
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Two Bells and a Punchline
· 14.6 mi
Ding Dong, Texas earned its name the best way a town can: with a joke that stuck. Back in the early nineteen thirties, two cousins, Zulis Bell and Isaac Bertram Bell, who everybody called Bert, bought a little country…
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A Tale of Two Different Bells
· 14.6 mi
Here is a fact that trips up almost everyone who hears it. Ding Dong sits in Bell County, and the town is named for a family named Bell, so surely those two Bells are one and the same, right? They are not. It is a…
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What Actually Happens When a Bell Goes Ding
· 14.6 mi
A town named Ding Dong practically dares you to ask how a bell makes that sound in the first place, so let us open it up. When a clapper strikes the thick lower rim of a bell, the spot ringers call the sound bow, it…
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The English Sport of Ringing Bells by the Numbers
· 14.6 mi
Here is a corner of the bell world that sounds made up but is very real. In England there is an art called change ringing, and it is closer to solving a puzzle than to playing a tune. A team of ringers, each one pulling…
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A Town of Twenty-Two on Highway 195
· 14.6 mi
For a place with a name that has traveled the whole world, Ding Dong itself is tiny. It sits along Texas State Highway one ninety-five, on the Lampasas River, about eight miles south of Killeen in the southwest corner…
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The Most Famous Bell Cracked on Its First Ring
· 14.6 mi
Since the name Ding Dong has bells on the brain, let us talk about the most famous bell in the country, and a fact most people get wrong. The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia was ordered from a foundry in London back in…
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How a Soldier's Souvenir Made a Poppy Capital
· 14.6 mi
Every April, Georgetown's Old Town glows red with poppies, and the whole spectacle traces back to one homesick soldier. During World War I, a young Georgetown man named Henry Purl Compton, nicknamed Okra, served…
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Page-Decrow-Weir House
· 14.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Page-Decrow-Weir House in Georgetown, a stunning example of Queen Anne architecture. Built in 1903 for rancher J.M. Page, it quickly changed hands, first to his brother-in-law Thomas Decrow, and…
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Founding of Georgetown
· 14.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Georgetown, a town named for a man who helped found it. Back in May of 1848, county commissioners met under a big oak tree to pick a site for the new county seat. George Washington Glasscock, Sr.…
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Smith, Marsh F., House
· 14.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Marsh F. Smith House in Georgetown, a beautiful example of Foursquare architecture built back in 1908. Marsh Smith himself was a man of local importance, running a cottonseed oil mill and later…
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Oakalla
· 14.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Oakalla, a town that started taking shape in the 1850s with its first settlers. By 1879, the Oakalla Post Office was officially open for business. Imagine this: schools were private affairs until…
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Georgetown, TX
· 14.7 mi
Georgetown is a place shaped by what lies beneath. The limestone bedrock, riddled with caves like Inner Space Cavern just south of town, is the foundation of everything. This porous rock filters the water, providing a…
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St. John's United Methodist Church
· 14.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of St. John's United Methodist Church. Swedish settlers began holding Methodist services in their homes as early as 1871. The congregation formally organized in 1882 and moved to this…
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May 27, 1997: The Day Double Creek Estates Vanished
· 14.8 mi
On the afternoon of May 27, 1997, a massive tornado touched down about three miles north of Jarrell and ground its way south-southwest for roughly five miles over 13 minutes. It was rated F5, the top of the old Fujita…
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Why the Jarrell Tornado Was So Violent
· 14.8 mi
Two things made the 1997 Jarrell tornado extraordinarily destructive: raw wind speed and time. The Fujita scale rates tornadoes F0 through F5 by damage. An F5, the highest rank, implies winds above 261 miles per hour.…
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Southwestern University, Original Site of
· 14.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the original site of Southwestern University, right here in Georgetown. Back in the 1860s, the Methodist church was looking to consolidate its Texas colleges. Reverend Francis Asbury Mood, president…
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C.B. and Lilburn Atkinson House
· 14.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the C.B. and Lilburn Atkinson House in Georgetown, a beautiful example of Craftsman bungalow architecture built in 1915. Look for the inset porch with its gabled roof and cobblestone piers. The home…
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Daniel Harrison
· 14.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Williamson County, passing the site of a man who saw some serious Texas history. Daniel Harrison, born in Tennessee in 1816, came to Texas in 1835. He fought in the Texas Revolution, served in the…
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Georgetown High School Building
· 14.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the old Georgetown High School building, a place that served students for over fifty years. Built between 1923 and 1924, this structure stands on the original site of Southwestern University. Take a…
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Irvine, George, House
· 14.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the former home of George Irvine, a Scottish immigrant who made his mark in Georgetown. Irvine arrived in Texas and founded the Irvine Brothers Lumber Company, a business that would later become the…
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C.C. and Mattie Hughes Cody House
· 14.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Georgetown, and right here is the C.C. and Mattie Hughes Cody House, completed around 1897. Claude Carr Cody, known as the "Grand Old Man of Southwestern," taught math and administered there for…
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First United Methodist Church
· 14.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Georgetown, and right here stands the First United Methodist Church. Its roots go way back to 1849, when it started as Georgetown Mission. For decades, circuit riders served this congregation…
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McDougle, J. A., Home
· 14.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising past the J.A. McDougle Home here in Georgetown. Built in 1895 by the C.S. Belford Lumber Company, this place sports some fancy Victorian styling, complete with ornate stained glass windows. It’s seen a…
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Penn, W. Y., Home
· 14.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the former home of William Y. Penn, a prominent figure in Georgetown's history. Penn, a successful merchant and local official, built this house in 1895. It was constructed by the C. S. Belford…
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Cornhill Cemetery
· 14.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Cornhill Cemetery, established in 1886 on land donated by the Bridges family to the Cornhill Masonic Lodge. It's grown from two to six acres and has been maintained by a cemetery association since…
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Norton Moses Lodge No. 336, A.F. & A.M.
· 14.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Norton Moses Lodge, a Masonic Lodge chartered in 1871. They built their first lodge building in 1870, which also served as a school. In 1899, the lodge moved to the new railroad town…
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The Highway Crew That Drilled into a Lost World
· 14.9 mi
If you're driving on Interstate 35, you're on the site of an incredible scientific discovery. In the spring of 1963, a Texas Highway Department engineering crew was drilling core samples for the construction of this…
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A.S. Mason House
· 14.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the A.S. Mason House, built around 1866 by a Civil War veteran and local farmer named Alpheus Mason. Situated on Bagdad Road, a key route for both military and commerce in early Central Texas, this…
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Burcham House
· 14.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Burcham House, a beautiful example of Dutch Colonial Revival architecture right here in Georgetown. It was designed by Austin architect Charles H. Page and built between 1909 and 1910 for Dr.…
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Riley, G. W., House
· 14.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the G.W. Riley House, built in 1872. It was originally constructed by Reverend S.J. Lane, the founder of Georgetown's First Methodist Church and chaplain at Southwestern University. The house got its…
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Sillure, A. W., House
· 14.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Sillure House in Georgetown, a classic example of early 20th-century Texas architecture. Built in 1912 for Alexander W. Sillure, a big shot at the Belford Lumber Company, this place has some…
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W. C. Vaden House
· 14.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Georgetown, and to your right stands the W. C. Vaden House, built in 1908. This home was designed by local builder Charles S. Belford for Wesley Vaden, a professor who taught Latin and Greek at…
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The Harrell-Stone House
· 14.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising past the Harrell-Stone House in Georgetown, a Victorian gem built around 1895 for lumberman Henry Harrell. Notice its style? It looks a lot like other homes built by the C. S. Belford Lumber Company in…
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Xi Chapter, Kappa Alpha Order
· 14.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Georgetown, home to the Xi Chapter of Kappa Alpha Order. Founded at Southwestern University on November 28, 1883, this fraternity met in secret for years before faculty laws were rescinded. Their…
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Oatmeal Cemetery
· 14.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Oatmeal Cemetery, the final resting place for early Oatmeal community pioneers. The oldest documented burials here are Mary Smith and her daughter, who died on September 16, 1854. The cemetery…
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Jarrell
· 15.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Jarrell, a town born from a railroad deal and a bit of land speculation. In the early 1900s, Orlando D. Jarrell convinced railroad men to route a new line through his leased land, rather than the…
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The Town the Railroad Built (and Corn Hill Moved To)
· 15.0 mi
Jarrell was born from steel rails. In 1909, real estate promoters O. D. Jarrell of Temple and E. C. Haeber of Bartlett laid out a townsite where an old stagecoach road crossed the planned route of the Bartlett and…
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From Farm Stop to Fastest-Growing Town on I-35
· 15.0 mi
For most of the 20th century Jarrell was a small railroad and farming town that had peaked at 500 people back in 1914. Then the Austin metro spread north. Sitting directly on Interstate 35 with access to Ronald Reagan…
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Main Building, Southwestern University
· 15.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Southwestern University in Georgetown, and right here is its oldest building, the Main Building. Planning for this grand structure started way back in 1895, with construction finishing up in 1900. It…
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Oatmeal School
· 15.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Oatmeal School, built way back in 1869. Oatmeal itself is the second oldest community in Burnet County, founded way back in 1849. This limestone building wasn't just a school; it also served as a…
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Iota Chapter, Kappa Sigma Fraternity
· 15.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Southwestern University in Georgetown. Here, the Iota Chapter of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity was chartered on October 12, 1886, becoming the 27th chapter in the U.S. and the second in Texas. It took a…
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The Matterhorn
· 15.1 mi
The 1986 sequel The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 was filmed around Austin, Bastrop and Prairie Dell between May and July 1986. Its climax was shot in an abandoned Bavarian-themed amusement park off the Interstate 35…
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Dalrymple, William Cornelius
· 15.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Williamson County area where William Cornelius Dalrymple made his mark. Born in North Carolina, he fought in the Texas Revolution and served as a Texas Ranger in the 1830s. He settled here in…
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Taylor, John McQueen
· 15.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Williamson County, passing the final resting place of John McQueen Taylor. Born in Tennessee in 1812, Taylor arrived in Texas in 1829, part of Lorenzo de Zavala's empresario grant. He saw action…
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Hall Named for Laura L. Kuykendall
· 15.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Georgetown, home of Southwestern University. Look for the building named for Laura L. Kuykendall, the dean of women here from 1918 to 1935. She was also a descendant of early Texas settlers, an…
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Jarrell, TX
· 15.1 mi
Jarrell sits nestled in the rolling hills where the Blackland Prairie kisses the edge of the Texas Hill Country. The land here is an old seabed, layers of limestone and clay that give the soil its rich character. You…
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Easley Home
· 15.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Easley Home in Georgetown, a bungalow built in 1913 by Samuel Allen Easley and his wife, Roberta. Samuel came to Texas as a baby in 1852 and grew up on a large farm along the San Gabriel River.…
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The Woman's Club of Georgetown
· 15.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Georgetown, where a literary club for women started right here back in 1893. It began with a reading hosted by Lula Holland Leavell and her daughters. By 1917, this group merged with others to…
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The Oldest University in Texas Lives Here
· 15.2 mi
Southwestern University, on the north side of Georgetown, holds a title no other school in the state can take: the oldest university in Texas. Its lineage runs back to Rutersville College, chartered on February 5, 1840,…
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Site of Town of Strickling
· 15.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Burnet County, passing the site of Strickling. This was once a bustling rural community, named for Martha Strickling, who settled here in 1853. Martha had a harrowing childhood, surviving the…
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Southwestern University
· 15.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Georgetown, home to the mother of all Texas colleges and universities: Southwestern University. It didn't start from scratch, though. Southwestern absorbed the charters of four earlier Methodist…
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Pennington Family Cemetery
· 15.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Pennington Family Cemetery, a final resting place for folks who saw a lot of history. John Parker Pennington was born way back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1840</say-as>, in Fannin…
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Theon, Community of
· 15.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through the heart of Central Texas, a place that drew immigrants from across Europe in the late 1800s. Look around – this land was so rich, people came from Austria, Bohemia, Germany, Moravia, and Silesia…
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Courthouses of Brown County
· 15.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Brownwood, and you're passing through nearly 70 years of county history! Brown County was created way back in 1856, and its first courthouse was just a simple log cabin, donated by pioneer settler…
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Amos-Godbey House
· 15.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising through Georgetown, and right here is the Amos-Godbey House, built in 1909 by the C.S. Belford Lumber Company. It was first home to Martin C. Amos, a German professor at Southwestern University. After…
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Zion Lutheran Church
· 15.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Walburg, where a community of German-Wendish immigrants found a new home. Back in 1882, they established Zion Lutheran Church, bringing their unique Slavic heritage from Lusatia to Texas. Reverend…
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Evangelical Free Church
· 15.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Evangelical Free Church in Georgetown. Swedish immigrants here in Williamson County started meeting for worship in their homes as early as 1884. The congregation officially organized…
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Inner Space Cavern
· 15.4 mi · Things to Do
Texas Highway Department drillers punched into this cave in 1963 while testing the ground for an Interstate 35 overpass in Georgetown. The drill bit dropped…
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How Oatmeal Got Its Name (Nobody's Totally Sure)
· 15.5 mi
Here's the honest truth about the little community of Oatmeal, Texas, up in Burnet County: nobody can say for certain how it got that breakfast-table name, and that's half the fun. Two stories compete, and the history…
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The Town That Threw a Party to Get Back on the Map
· 15.5 mi
Picture this. It's nineteen seventy-eight, and the folks in Oatmeal, Texas, open up the fresh official state highway map and discover their town has vanished from it. The reason given was that Oatmeal did not have an…
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How Oatmeal Got Its Name
· 15.5 mi
The name Oatmeal has nothing to do with breakfast, and historians offer two theories for it. German families settled along a stream here in the late 1840s, and that stream became Oatmeal Creek. One story says the…
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A Water Tower Dressed as a Box of Oats
· 15.5 mi
If you ever roll through Oatmeal, Texas, look up. The community's water tank is not painted plain silver like most. It is styled to resemble a giant box of oatmeal, a proud and slightly absurd nod to the town's…
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Why Oatmeal Is Good for Your Heart
· 15.5 mi
The name Oatmeal invites a quick bit of food science, because there is a real reason your doctor keeps nudging you toward a bowl of it. Oats are rich in a soluble fiber called beta-glucan. When it hits your digestive…
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The Grain That Started Out as a Weed
· 15.5 mi
Since the name of this town points us at oats, here is a genuinely surprising fact about the plant itself. The oat, known to botanists as Avena sativa, did not get invited to farming the way wheat and barley did. When…
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Inner Space Cavern
· 15.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Georgetown, and right beneath your tires lies a prehistoric world! In 1963, a Texas Highway Department drilling team accidentally discovered the Inner Space Cavern, a massive cave system carved by…
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One of Burnet County's Oldest Towns
· 15.5 mi
It is easy to drive past Oatmeal and see only a scattering of houses and that famous water tower. But this little spot is one of the oldest settled places in all of Burnet County, second only to the county seat itself.…
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From Field Grain to the Cereal Box
· 15.5 mi
First, a caveat this town would want you to keep straight: nobody named Oatmeal, Texas after a breakfast brand. The real story is contested and much older, either an English mangling of a German family's mill name,…
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Jesse Cooper House
· 15.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the home of Jesse Cooper, a true Texas entrepreneur. Cooper arrived in Texas in 1876 and by the next year, he was already helping launch the Williamson County Sun newspaper. But he didn't stop there.…
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Mount Zion Cemetery
· 15.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Mount Zion Cemetery, originally the Jennings Family Cemetery. <break time="400ms"/> John and Sarah Jennings settled here in 1851, and their farm became the Jennings Creek community. <break…
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Live Oak Cemetery
· 16.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Live Oak Cemetery, a place with a bit of a mystery at its heart. Official records say Michael Young was the first person buried here in 1875. But local legend tells a different story – that it was…
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The Old Mill on 1105
· 16.2 mi
The Old Crawford Mill stands on Farm to Market Road 1105 near Walburg and Weir, roughly ten miles northeast of Georgetown. The 2003 remake used it as the derelict mill where the group is told to wait and meet the…
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Trooper Billy Dan Howry Memorial Highway
· 16.4 mi · Historical Marker
This stretch of Interstate 35 in Williamson County, near Round Rock and Georgetown, is named for Patrolman Billy Dan Howry of the Texas Department of Public Safety. In 1968, Howry was making a traffic stop on I-35 when…
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Block House
· 16.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a crucial frontier defense, built by Texas Rangers in 1836. This was Captain John J. Tumlinson's Block House, the very first white settlement in Williamson County. Imagine the constant…
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Cedar Park - H-E-B Center, Stars Hockey and Spurs Basketball
· 16.8 mi · Web Research
On the corner of Highway 183-A and New Hope Road sits the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park. Eight thousand seven hundred seats, opened in September of two thousand nine, built for fifty five million dollars. The very first…
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The Arena George Strait Opened
· 16.8 mi
For a city its size, Cedar Park punches well above its weight in pro sports, and it traces to one building near 183A and New Hope Road. The arena opened in September 2009 as the Cedar Park Center, built for about 55…
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Shady Grove Community
· 17.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising through Burnet County, passing through what used to be the bustling crossroads of Shady Grove. Back in the 1850s, families started settling along the Middle Gabriel river, right where the Old…
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Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Cedar Park (Cedar Park)
· 17.2 mi
Cedar Park (Cedar Park, TX) placed on the 5A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Hudson Cuevas (0.588 avg, 3 HR).
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New Hope First Baptist Church and Cemetery
· 17.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of New Hope First Baptist Church, a community cornerstone for over a century. While Baptists may have gathered here as early as 1848, the church was formally chartered in 1868 by six members…
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Whiteley, Eli Lamar
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, Texas, not far from where Eli Lamar Whiteley grew up. He was just a farm boy, working with goats and turkeys, dreaming of college. But World War II called, and this young Texan…
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The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Central Texas, maybe near Williamson County, where one of the most infamous horror films of all time was brought to life: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Filmed in the sweltering Texas summer of…
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Hardeman, William Polk
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, Texas, and right here is the territory of William Polk Hardeman, a man who lived a life straight out of Texas legend. Born in Tennessee, he came to Texas in 1835 and immediately…
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Olive, Isom Prentice
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, Texas, where one of the most infamous cattlemen in Texas history got his start: Isom Prentice 'Print' Olive. Born in Mississippi in 1840, Olive moved to Texas as a child and…
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Wilson-Leonard Brushy Creek Burial Site
· 17.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past what's known as the Wilson-Leonard Brushy Creek Burial Site. Back in 1973, Texas Highway Department archaeologists found this place was a major camping ground for ancient peoples, especially during…
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Kenney's Fort
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, not far from where Kenney's Fort once stood. Built in 1839 by a San Jacinto veteran, this wasn't some grand military post, but a vital frontier defense for the outermost…
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McAnulty, Mary Alice McFadin
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, not far from Taylor. Right here, in the late 1800s, Alice McFadin was a force to be reckoned with. She wasn't just a farmer and rancher, raising corn and cotton and livestock…
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McFadin, David Hutchinson
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, and right here, in the vicinity of Circleville, is where David Hutchinson McFadin settled after fighting in the Texas Revolution. He arrived in Texas as a teenager and saw…
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Rice, James O.
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, a place that saw intense frontier action. Right here, in what is now Williamson County, James O. Rice discovered the Manuel Flores party in May of 1839. Rice, a veteran of the…
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Second Texas Cavalry, Arizona Brigade
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Texas, maybe near Williamson County, and thinking about the Civil War. Right here, Confederate troops were forming the Arizona Brigade, tasked with retaking the Southwest. These weren't your…
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Webster Massacre
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, not far from Leander. Right here, between 1838 and 1839, John Webster led thirteen settlers west, hoping to establish a new home. But they were overtaken by Comanche warriors…
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Willis Creek (Williamson County)
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, and right here, a little off the road, is Willis Creek. This waterway has two names that might ring a bell. Spanish explorers likely called it San Ygnacio back in 1721. But…
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Wilson-Leonard Site
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, right near Brushy Creek, and you're passing over 12,000 years of Texas history. The Wilson-Leonard site is one of the most complete records of ancient life ever found in North…
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Lawrence, Adam
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what was once central Texas, near Lawrence Chapel. This was the stomping ground of Adam Lawrence, a name you might recognize if you're familiar with the area. Born in Kentucky in 1802, Lawrence…
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Morgan’s Texas Cavalry Battalion
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Texas, likely not far from where these men once rode. During the Civil War, Morgan's Texas Cavalry Battalion wasn't a typical unit. It was a 'hodgepodge' of independent companies, each with its…
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Corn Hill, TX
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Corn Hill was on Willis Creek and Interstate Highway 35 two miles south of Jarrell in north central Williamson County. The site was settled in 1855 by Judge John E. King as a stage stop on the road between Georgetown…
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Hoxie, TX
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Hoxie is on Pecan Creek six miles northeast of Taylor in northeastern Williamson County. In 1878 John R. Hoxie, a railroad magnate, purchased 9,000 acres of ranchland in the area and built an estate called Hoxie House.…
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Jonah, TX
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Jonah is on State Highway 29 and the San Gabriel River, seven miles east of Georgetown in central Williamson County. In 1857 James P. Warnock and Joseph T. Mileham erected a mill on the San Gabriel River, and a…
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Neusser, TX
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Neusser, a small community of the early 1890s located almost equal distance between Georgetown and Granger in central Williamson County, was named after one of its early pioneers, Johann Neusser. Johann left his…
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Post Oak Island, TX
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Post Oak Island was a town on the low ridge dividing the watersheds of Brushy and Yegua creeks in Williamson County. It was named for the large "island" or grove of post oak trees at its site on the prairie. It was one…
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Rock House, TX (Williamson County)
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Rock House is on Farm Road 3405 and the North San Gabriel River, three miles northeast of Liberty Hill, in western Williamson County. Draco, the Indian name for the village that occupied the site before White…
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Schwertner, TX
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Schwertner is on Farm Road 487 near the Bell county line forty-six miles north of Austin in north central Williamson County. It was named for Bernard Schwertner and his sons, Frank, Edward, and Adolf, Austrian…
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Easley, Samuel Allen
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, a place that once hosted a Texas state representative named Samuel Allen Easley. He arrived in Texas in 1852, looking to settle in Kaufman County, but found a bargain on land…
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Williamson County
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Williamson County, a place with a history as varied as its landscape. The Balcones Escarpment splits this region, creating rolling plains to the east and hilly brushland to the west. For…
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Andice, TX
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Andice, also called Berry's Creek and Stapp, is at the intersection of Farm Roads 2338 and 970, five miles southwest of Florence in northwest Williamson County. The site was first settled by Joshua Stapp, who built a…
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Hare, TX
· 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Hare is on Farm Road 1331 forty-five miles northeast of Austin in eastern Williamson County. The origin of the town's name is disputed. Local folklore maintains that early settler William Caesar, who bought land in the…
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City of Weir
· 17.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the spot where the town of Weir got its start, but it wasn't always called Weir. Back in 1856, Thomas Weir settled here, and a bit later, James Towns and his brother opened up a mill and blacksmith…
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St. John's Cemetery
· 17.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past St. John's Cemetery, a final resting place for some of the earliest Swedish immigrants in the Brushy Creek area. These pioneers settled here in the early 1870s, and by the early 1880s, they'd…
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Mayberry Park Cemetery
· 17.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Mayberry Park Cemetery. The only legible headstone here belongs to James Moses Cowan, who died in 1888. Local tradition says members of the O.M. Hood family are also buried here, though most graves…
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Where the Hill Country Flyer Pulls Out
· 18.0 mi
The rail line slicing through Cedar Park is the same one the Austin and Northwestern laid in 1882, the railroad that renamed the town and carried its cedar and limestone to market. More than a century later, that…
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Cedar Park - Austin Steam Train and the 1887 Depot
· 18.0 mi · Web Research
The old wooden building on Whitestone Boulevard is the Cedar Park Depot. It was built in eighteen eighty seven by the Missouri Kansas and Texas Railroad, the line that ran north out of Austin to Burnet and Lampasas, and…
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The Woman Who Rode the Chisholm Trail Pregnant
· 18.1 mi
Before Hattie Cluck helped found the town that became Cedar Park, she did something almost no woman of her era did: she rode the Chisholm Trail. In the spring of 1871, Harriet Louise Standefer Cluck went up the trail to…
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The Cream-Colored Stone Under Your Wheels
· 18.1 mi
Cedar Park sits on a seam of building stone good enough to ship across the country. In April 1929, W.H. Johnson founded Texas Quarries here and began cutting a pale, even-grained limestone from a geologic layer…
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Three Names in Fourteen Years
· 18.1 mi
The city you're passing through wore three different names before it settled on this one. It started as Running Brushy, after a hard-flowing spring that fed the headwaters of Brushy Creek. In 1873 George and Harriet…
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The Town That Sold the Hill Country's Cedar
· 18.1 mi
The name Cedar Park is not decoration. The hills around here were thick with Ashe juniper, the scrubby tree everyone calls mountain cedar, and from the 1870s into the mid-1900s cutting it was real money. As barbed wire…
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Cedar Park's Purple Heart Helicopter Pilot
· 18.1 mi
The combat aviator Mary Jennings Hegar grew up in Cedar Park, moving here at age seven, long before her name reached the national press. She trained as an Air Force rescue pilot and flew the HH-60 Pave Hawk on combat…
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The Vanished Town That Seeded This One
· 18.1 mi
A few miles from modern Cedar Park stood Bagdad, a farming and ranching settlement that thrived before either town you know existed. White settlers reached this prairie in the late 1840s, and a post office opened in the…
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The Double File Trail
· 18.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the route of the Double File Trail, laid out by Delaware Indians around 1828. They called it that because two horsemen could ride abreast. The Delawares carved this trace migrating from East Texas,…
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Texan Santa Fe Expedition
· 18.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Georgetown, and right here, you're passing the campsite of a failed but ambitious dream. It's June 19th, 1841, and President Mirabeau Lamar's Texan Santa Fe Expedition is just beginning its long…
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When People Rode the Train Here to Stroll
· 18.1 mi
Cedar Park earned the second half of its name from an actual park, one that drew day-trippers out of Austin on the train. In 1892, when George Cluck sold the railroad a lot beside the tracks, the deed itself called for…
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Caldwell-Palm House
· 18.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Caldwell-Palm House, a solid limestone structure built back in 1860 by T. J. Caldwell. He and his wife Letitia quarried the limestone right here on their land for the walls, and used local cedars…
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Willingham Cemetery
· 18.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Willingham Cemetery. Willingham family members were original settlers at Salado Springs (Salado) in the early 1850s. They eventually moved a few miles west and established a successful stock farm…
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Weir Community Cemetery
· 18.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Weir Community Cemetery. Weir Community Cemetery John Breneke (1847-1927) came from Fayette County to purchase 365 acres of farmland here in 1875. Deed records show he set aside two acres for a…
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Cedar Park - Hattie Cluck, First Woman on the Chisholm Trail
· 18.2 mi · Web Research
Cedar Park exists because of one cattle drive. In the spring of eighteen seventy one, a Williamson County rancher named George Cluck set out to drive a herd north to the railhead at Abilene, Kansas. His wife Harriet,…
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Cedar park
· 18.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Cedar Park, a town that owes its start to cedar trees and limestone. Back in 1873, George and Harriet Cluck bought this land, and their ranch became the heart of the community. It was first called…
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Nameless And Be Damned
· 18.3 mi
Here's a name with a temper behind it. Back in the eighteen seventies, folks settled along Sandy Creek northwest of where Austin sits today, and by around eighteen eighty they wanted a post office of their own. So they…
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Why The Post Office Kept Saying No
· 18.3 mi
It is tempting to think the Post Office Department was just being stubborn with the folks out here on Sandy Creek. But there was a real reason behind all those rejections, and it is a nice little piece of how the mail…
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The Little School That Would Not Die
· 18.3 mi
If almost everything else here faded away, one building refused to. The community first put up a school back in eighteen seventy-seven, on land the Gray family gave. Then, in nineteen oh nine, they built a new one on…
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Texas's Club Of Cranky Names
· 18.3 mi
Nameless is not alone. Texas has a whole quiet fraternity of towns that got their strange names the same rough way, tangling with the Post Office over what to call themselves. Out in Ector County there is a town called…
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Fifty Souls, Cotton, And Cedar
· 18.3 mi
For a place called Nameless, this spot on Sandy Creek was very much a real, breathing community once. By eighteen eighty-four, just a few years after it got its stubborn name, Nameless had a church, a district school, a…
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A Ghost Town With A Pulse
· 18.3 mi
People love to call Nameless a ghost town, and it is easy to see why. The post office is long gone. The general store is gone. Most of the houses melted back into the brush decades ago. But let's be careful with that…
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How Do You Put Nameless On A Map
· 18.3 mi
Here is a fun little knot to chew on as you drive. The name of this place is Nameless. Which means the moment anybody says it out loud, they have contradicted it. You cannot ask directions to Nameless without naming it.…
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Community of Nameless
· 18.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Nameless, a community that got its unusual name from a frustrated reply to the post office. After six names were rejected, locals famously told the authorities to 'let the post office be…
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Central Texas Brisket Down the Street from the Steam Train
· 18.3 mi
If you want a meal that fits the place you're standing in, Stiles Switch BBQ Brews sits at 800 West Whitestone Boulevard, just down the road from the old depot where the Austin Steam Train still pulls out. It's a…
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Cedar Knob Cemetery (HTC)
· 18.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Cedar Knob Cemetery, a final resting place with a story that stretches back to the earliest days of settlement along the Lampasas River. It all started with Parker Milton Levy, who came here in 1842…
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Mankins Crossing
· 18.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Mankins Crossing, named for Samuel Mankins who settled here along the San Gabriel River in 1849. The river's limestone bed made it an easy crossing for local farmers. A community grew up nearby,…
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Cedar Park, TX
· 18.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Cedar Park, but did you know this town was once called Running Brushy? That's right, named after a spring that fed Cluck Creek. In 1871, George and Harriet Cluck, the first woman to drive cattle…
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Cedar Park Cemetery
· 19.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Cedar Park Cemetery, a place that started as a family burial ground. George and Harriett Cluck, who settled here in the early 1870s after a cattle drive, set aside land on their farm in 1901 for…
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Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Chaparral (Killeen)
· 19.2 mi
Chaparral (Killeen, TX) placed on the 5A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Geno Ybarra (3 HR).
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Ding Dong - The Two Bells of Bell County
· 19.2 mi · Historical Marker
Ding Dong is a real place in Bell County, and yes, that means it is in Bell County. In the 1930s, two cousins named Zulis Bell and Bert Bell ran a country store at the crossroads. They hired a sign painter named C. C.…
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Bethel Cemetery
· 19.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Burnet County, heading towards the Bethel community. In 1855, Reverend Richard Howard arrived on the Texas frontier, joining a new settlement that would eventually bear the name Bethel. He donated…
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Brown (Okay Community) Cemetery
· 19.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Brown (Okay Community) Cemetery. Elisha Ivy, for whom Ivy Mountain Road was named, established a home and store in this vicinity in the 1860s. In the 1870s, a community known as Liberty Hill…
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Neusser
· 19.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Neusser, a town that rose and fell with the railroad. It all started back in 1872 when Johann Neusser, a Moravian immigrant, arrived in Texas. By 1881, he and his neighbors moved here,…
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Champion Cemetery
· 19.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Champion Cemetery, the final resting place for a Texas pioneer. John 'Jack' Champion arrived in Texas by 1850, the same year he married Naomi Jane Standefer here in Williamson County. By 1854, he'd…
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Hairy Man Road
· 19.6 mi
Hairy Man Road is a real, signed county road in Round Rock, running dark and narrow along the wooded south bank of Brushy Creek, the low oak branches arching right over the pavement. The legend says a boy was lost from…
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Cedar Park - The Hidden Salamander Under the Suburb
· 19.6 mi · Web Research
There's a federally threatened species of salamander living under Cedar Park, and almost no one in town knows about it. It's called the Jollyville Plateau salamander, scientific name Eurycea tonkawae, and it exists only…
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Granite for the State Capitol
· 19.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Cedar Park, a town that played a key role in building the Texas State Capitol! Back in the 1880s, contractors found the limestone wasn't strong enough for the new capitol building. So, they turned…
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Brushy Creek, TX
· 19.7 mi
Brushy Creek, a census-designated place in Williamson County, Texas, first appeared in the 1990 U.S. census. Over the years, it has seen significant changes in its area and population. Prior to the 2010 census, parts of…
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First Protestant Church
· 19.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through New Braunfels, the heart of German Texas. Look around, because you're passing the site of the very first Protestant church chartered by the Republic of Texas. It was organized right here in 1845,…
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Brushy Creek, TX (Anderson County)
· 19.8 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Anderson County, near Brushy Creek. Settled around 1840, this community got its start when a wagon train from South Carolina arrived in 1873. They named the town for the nearby creek, though some…
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Odle Log Cabin
· 19.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Odle Log Cabin near Valley Mills. This sturdy oak structure was built around 1860 by John Odle, a Tennessee native who arrived in Texas in 1843. He and his wife Lucinda raised thirteen children…
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Round Rock Volunteer Fire Department
· 19.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Round Rock's very first organized fire department! Back in 1884, folks here formed the Hose and Hand Pump Company. They scraped together cash for gear through picnics, dances, and box…