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Coupland, Texas

Everything Coupland is known for

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Music in Coupland

Songs About Coupland

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Artists From Coupland

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Rivers & Roads in Song near Coupland

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Coupland.

Interstate 35 45 songs Texas Colorado River 6 songs Texas State Highway 71 2 songs Pedernales River 6 songs Blanco River 4 songs

Musical Heritage

From Elgin's Classroom to Ray Charles's Band RoadyGoat

After finishing his music degree at Huston-Tillotson in Austin in nineteen sixty two, a young pianist named James Polk took a job teaching at Washington High School, Elgin's all-Black school. He also started a band, James Polk and the Brothers, which was hailed as one of the first integrated bands in Austin and could play rooms that were otherwise closed to Black musicians. By the late nineteen seventies, Ray Charles called and offered him a job as pianist for the Ray Charles Orchestra, and over the next ten years Polk's role kept growing, to organist, arranger and conductor.

RoadyGoat → · 7.6 mi away

History of Coupland

The Dancehall That Saved a Town RoadyGoat

The heart of modern Coupland is beating inside some of its oldest buildings. As you pass through downtown, look for the impressive brick structures. That's the Coupland Dancehall and Inn. In the early 1990s a local couple, Barbara and Tim Worthy, took on the derelict downtown core: the 1910 building that had been a hardware store and once housed a paper called the Coupland World Globe News, and the 1904 building that held the Coupland Drug Company and later Albers Drugstore. They turned them into a restaurant, hotel, and legendary music venue. That single act of preservation arguably saved the town's historic core. The dancehall's rustic authenticity has made it a star in its own right, attracting Texas music legends and serving as a filming location for movies like Clint Eastwood's 'A Perfect World' and the TV series 'Lonesome Dove.' It's more than just a bar; it's an economic engine and a cultural landmark that put Coupland back on the map.

RoadyGoat →

Coupland on Screen RoadyGoat

Coupland is a small town with a long screen resume. In the football movie Varsity Blues, released in nineteen ninety nine, two of the players' houses are here on North Broad Street: the Moxon house, home of Mox, James Van Der Beek's character, and quarterback Lance Harbor's, played by Paul Walker. Out on County Road Four Fifty Six, a nineteen twelve metal truss bridge over Brushy Creek shows up in Varsity Blues and in Secondhand Lions, and after a restoration, the county reopened it in October of twenty nineteen. The Coupland Dancehall has its own credits. Stevie Ray Vaughan shot his nineteen eighty five video for Change It here. In twenty twenty two, Brennen Leigh filmed In Texas With A Band here with Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel, and the video's credits thank the Coupland Dance Hall. And Spotify filmed a promotional video here for George Strait's Every Little Honky Tonk Bar, with Johnny Bush making cameos.

RoadyGoat →

A raised berm through Blackland muck RoadyGoat

The railroad tracks you see cutting through Coupland are the town's literal reason for being - a 19th-century engineering project that put a town where there wasn't one. In 1887 the Bastrop and Taylor Railway was pushing its line across the Blackland Prairie, and engineers faced a peculiar problem. The land was flat, which was good, but that black clay soil turns to bottomless muck when it rains. They had to build up a raised roadbed, a long earthen berm, to keep the track stable and dry. They also had to place a depot - somewhere to take on water for the steam locomotives and to collect the cotton coming off the surrounding farms. They picked this spot, and the town that grew up around the stop took the name of Maj. Theodore van Buren Coupland, who had settled here at the time. The tracks dictated the town's orientation, the grid of its streets, and its whole economic purpose as a cotton collection point. Coupland is a living monument to the power of transportation engineering.

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Coupland, Theodore Van Buren

1883

T. V. Coupland, military officer, lawman, and government official, was born on October 16, 1836, in Jefferson County, Alabama, the son of Hugh and Kerenhappuch (Hamilton) Coupland and a grand nephew of Texas governor Andrew Jackson Hamilton and Texas senator Morgan C. Hamilton . He settled in Austin, Texas, before the Civil War and served as deputy sheriff in Travis County until secession , when, along with other Unionists and Masons in Central Texas, he moved to Mexico and later New Orleans. In that federally occupied city, Coupland joined a socially and politically prominent group, accepted a commission as a major in the First Texas Cavalry, U.S.A. He was mustered out in 1865. On December 21 of that year he married Frances Flanders, daughter of a New Orleans ship owner and niece of a Louisiana governor. Until 1883 Coupland held appointments as collector of customs for the port of New Orleans and as deputy clerk of the United States circuit court. In 1883, Coupland, his wife, and their son Frank Hamilton Coupland returned to Texas to land the elder Coupland inherited from his uncle, Senator Hamilton, on Brushy Creek in Williamson County. There Coupland farmed and ranched until his death, on January 3, 1890. Ostensibly because of his and his wife's family's extensive connections with developing rail lines in Louisiana, Texas, and Mexico, the community of Coupland, in southern Williamson County on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, was named for him in 1887.

Tsha Handbook →

United States Senator Morgan C. Hamilton

1809

(1809-93) An outstanding patriot who acted as Secretary of War and Marine in Republic of Texas and later served the state in many roles, Morgan Hamilton in 1837 obtained a 1009-acre land grant in this area. While his brother A.J. Hamilton was governor (1865-66), he retrieved for Texas some bonds sent to Europe during the Civil War. In 1870-77 he served as a United States Senator from Texas. His nephew Theodore Van Buren Coupland (1836-90) settled here and in 1887 founded town of Coupland on land that formerly belonged to Senator Hamilton. (1975)

Historical Marker →

Battle of Brushy Creek

1839

A skirmish between Comanche raiders and a local militia near here in mid-winter (1839) led to the last major battle between Anglo settlers and Indians in Williamson County. The Comanche retaliated on February 18, 1839, by attacking several area homes, including those of Mrs. Robert Coleman and Dr. J. W. Robertson. Mrs. Coleman and her son, Albert, were killed. Another son, Tommy, and seven of Robertson's slaves were taken captive. The ensuing battle along nearby Brushy Creek claimed the lives of Jacob Burleson, Edward Blakely, the Rev. James Gilleland, and John B. Walters. (1993)

Historical Marker → · 4.1 mi away

Rice, James O.

1835

(1815 - about 1875) South Carolina-born James O. Rice migrated to Texas by 1835 and served in the Texas Army during the War for Independence. In early days of the Republic of Texas, he protected frontier settlements as part of a Texas Ranger company. On May 17, 1839, in command of a volunteer force clashing with Mexican troops led by Manuel Flores on the North San Gabriel River, Rice captured vitally important documents related to the Cordova Rebellion against the Republic of Texas. He joined the Somervell and Mier Expeditions of 1842 and the Snively Expedition of 1843. He also served in the Mexican War (1846-48). For military services, he received several bounties of land. When Williamson County was created in 1848, Rice was one of the commissioners named to select a site for the county seat. One of the county's largest landowners, Rice built his home on Brushy Creek about one mile west of here at a site then known as Blue Hill and later called Rice's Crossing. He ran a store and was postmaster of Blue Hill post office, 1849-57. For a short time, he had a tanyard in Georgetown. Rice married Nancy D. Gilliland (d. 1860), of an early Texas family. The couple had four daughters. Rice is buried in the Sneed Family Cemetery near Austin. (1977)

Historical Marker → · 4.3 mi away

Avery, Frederick Bean [Tex]

1908

Frederick Bean “Tex” Avery, cartoonist, animator, and director, was born in Taylor, Texas, on February 26, 1908, to George Walton Avery and Mary Augusta “Jessie” (Bean) Avery. He grew up in Dallas and attended North Dallas High School, where he drew cartoons for the school newspaper and yearbook. He graduated from high school in 1926 and then studied at the Chicago Art Institute, where he received instruction from newspaper cartoonists as well as fine artists. After these studies, he returned to Dallas for a brief period and worked odd jobs. Thinking his ambition to be a newspaper cartoonist would be easier to realize in California, Avery moved to Los Angeles by 1929. Unfortunately, breaking into this already crowded field had become more difficult in the 1920s. The increasing popularity of radio had given Americans an alternate source of news and entertainment, and the number of daily newspapers was on the decline. The animation industry, however, was in its infancy and was receptive to the likes of Avery. Avery’s first job was with Walter Lantz, best-known as the creator of Woody Woodpecker, at Universal Studios. While employed at Universal, where he was given the nickname “Tex,” Avery worked on the popular Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series. A jack of all trades, he painted backgrounds, wrote gags and stories, drew storyboards (a pre-production task similar to drawing a comic strip) and worked as an “in-betweener.” The latter was a term for an artist responsible for the drawings in between the main, or “key,” drawings, which were handled by the animator. Today in-betweening is largely handled by computers. While at Universal, Avery lost sight in his left eye due to some office horseplay. Also, he met his future wife, Patricia Agnes Johnson, who also worked for the studio. They married in 1935 and later had two children. After a salary dispute in 1934, Avery applied for work at Warner Brothers. Pretending he had worked as a supervisor (in other words, as a director) while at Universal, he talked his way into a job with producer Leon Schlesinger and auditioned by supervising the 1935 cartoon Gold Diggers of ’49 with Porky Pig. The cartoon was well-received so Avery became a full-time supervisor. At Warner Brothers, Avery worked at “Termite Terrace,” a ramshackle, termite-infested five-room cottage at 5800 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood (in the 2010s the space was occupied by KTLA-TV). While employed there, he worked with a clutch of talented artists, including Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, and Frank Tashlin, all of whom made their mark in the animation industry. While at Warner Brothers, Avery introduced and/or developed a number of characters who have remained popular into the twenty-first century. In 1937 he introduced Daffy Duck in Porky’s Duck Hunt . According to Avery, he first conceived of the character while hunting ducks on White Rock Lake in Dallas. This early version of Daffy lived up to his name, but subsequent directors toned him down. Also in 1937 Avery created an Elmer Fudd predecessor named Egghead in Egghead Rides Again . The character was modified over the next few years until the Elmer Fudd familiar to viewers today was introduced in A Wild Hare , a 1940 opus retrospectively credited as the first true Bugs Bunny cartoon. Although Warner Brothers had employed a rabbit character in earlier cartoons, it had little in common with Avery’s rabbit. Nevertheless, the rabbit became known as Bugs because the supervisor of the previous cartoons ( Porky’s Hare Hunt in 1938 and Hare-Um Scare-Um in 1939) was Ben “Bugs” Hardaway. Avery’s rabbit was thus known as “Bugs’ bunny.” Eventually the apostrophe went away, and the character became known as Bugs Bunny, even though Hardaway had moved on to Universal. In contrast to Avery’s zany Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny exhibited self-confident cool composure in a character that animation historian Steve Schneider described as the “brainiest wiseass on the block.” The iconic line “

Tsha Handbook → · 8.3 mi away

Dickey, James Lee

1921

James Lee Dickey, Black physician, the son of John S. and Linnie A. (Sears) Dickey, was born in 1893 in Central Texas, probably near Waco. He attended Waco public schools from 1900 to 1912 and graduated from Tillotson College (now Huston-Tillotson College) in Austin in 1916. For a brief time he worked as an industrial-arts teacher in Marlin. Then he entered Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tennessee, and graduated in 1921. He planned to go north or east to a large city to practice. But just before graduation his father died in an accident, leaving his mother with eight other children. Dickey traveled to Taylor, Texas, to talk to Dr. J. Richard Moore, the Black doctor there, but upon arrival found that Moore had moved to San Antonio. Dickey later said, "The hand of destiny guided me to Taylor, I came to stay a few years; I remained to do my life's work." He married Magnolia Fowler of Nashville, Tennessee, on November 29, 1922, and brought her to Taylor, where they worked together on many projects, including support of the African Methodist Episcopal Church . At the time, Dickey was the only Black practitioner in Williamson County and one of only 130 Black doctors in Texas. In Central Texas he established a medical facility that began with a three-bedroom clinic and expanded to a fifteen-bed hospital with modern surgical and obstetrical facilities. There were no other provisions for Blacks in any hospital in Williamson County except two beds in a building set apart from one hospital. Dickey discovered that there were no facilities for Blacks in Bell, Lee, Milam, or Bastrop counties. He investigated health problems among the Black population and discovered that the principle causes of death were typhoid fever, diarrhea among infants, convulsions and complications of childbirth, tuberculosis, pellagra, venereal diseases, and violence. He conducted health campaigns and established a prenatal clinic where all expectant mothers who were unable to pay could have free examinations and advice, and established a venereal-disease clinic to treat those unable to pay. Early in his career he also curbed a typhoid fever epidemic through a vigorous vaccination program. His concerns extended to problems of segregation and emotional suppression of Blacks. Because violence was the cause of numerous deaths, Dickey, along with others, developed recreational facilities for youth. He sought assistance from White physicians and got it. In 1940 the school board bought land for a park for African Americans , and with the help of Black women in the community and donations from leading White citizens erected a building used as a community center. A major gain came when the Taylor Amusement Company opened a balcony where Blacks could attend movies. Dickey observed that "it's hard to realize how much that meant. In earlier years, for example, one man had been whipped with a pistol for simply inquiring if seats were available for Negroes." There was no direct means of reaching the Black school except by a "foot log" over Bull Branch, or over a railroad trestle. During high water children would fall off the log into the sewage-filled water and have to be rescued. Finally, through Dickey's intervention, a bridge was erected across the branch. Dickey received many honors for his community service. He was named the year's most outstanding citizen of Taylor in 1953 by the chamber of commerce, the first time a Black man had been so honored in the community. He was also named general practitioner of the year by the Lone Star State Medical, Dental, and Pharmaceutical Association in 1953. Honors were bestowed upon Dickey as he lent time and expertise to service at his alma mater, Tillotson College, where the Science Building is named for him and Theodore K. Lawless, a dermatologist, and where he served on the board of trustees from 1951 to his death. Dickey died in Williamson County on May 18, 1959.

Tsha Handbook → · 8.3 mi away

Things to Do in Coupland

food 24.0 mi away
Franklin Barbecue

Legendary Austin BBQ with 2-3 hour waits. Obama waited in line here.
food 22.9 mi away
Snow's BBQ

Texas Monthly's #1 BBQ. Only open Saturday mornings in tiny Lexington.
historical 24.3 mi away
Texas State Capitol

The Texas Capitol in Austin is taller than the US Capitol in Washington -- three hundred and eight feet to two hundred and eighty-eight -- because Texas wanted…
quirky 24.3 mi away
The Con Man Who Named a Town

Bastrop's namesake Baron de Bastrop was no baron at all. He was a Dutch commoner named Philip Hendrik Nering Bogel wanted for embezzlement in the Netherlands.…
historical 24.4 mi away
The Man Who Survived His Own Scalping

In 1833 Josiah Wilbarger was scouting near Bastrop when Comanches attacked his party with arrows and bullets. They left him for dead after taking his scalp.…
historical 24.6 mi away
Antone's Nightclub

Clifford Antone was a kid from Port Arthur who loved the blues so much he opened a club on East Sixth Street in 1975 and spent the next thirty years flying…
quirky 25.0 mi away
Congress Avenue Bridge Bats

When Austin rebuilt the Congress Avenue Bridge in 1980 the new design accidentally created perfect crevices for Mexican free-tailed bats. By the mid-1990s one…
food 7.4 mi away
Southside Market & Barbeque

Elgin's BBQ originator, established 1882 by William Moon, who slaughtered animals on FM 1704 and sold meat door-to-door by wagon. Now on US 290 — sausage…

Everything Near Coupland

449 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

  • The Dancehall That Saved a Town

    The heart of modern Coupland is beating inside some of its oldest buildings. As you pass through downtown, look for the impressive brick structures. That's the Coupland Dancehall and Inn. In the early 1990s a local…

  • Coupland on Screen

    Coupland is a small town with a long screen resume. In the football movie Varsity Blues, released in nineteen ninety nine, two of the players' houses are here on North Broad Street: the Moxon house, home of Mox, James…

  • A raised berm through Blackland muck

    The railroad tracks you see cutting through Coupland are the town's literal reason for being - a 19th-century engineering project that put a town where there wasn't one. In 1887 the Bastrop and Taylor Railway was…

  • Coupland, TX

    In 1859, Morgan C. Hamilton purchased significant land along Brushy Creek, which he later bequeathed to his nephew, Theodore Van Buren Coupland, upon his death in 1883. Coupland played a pivotal role in the town's…

  • The Major Who Never Farmed Here

    Coupland was named for a man who barely lived here. Major Theodore Van Buren Coupland was born in Alabama in 1836 and made his career far away, serving as collector of customs at the port of New Orleans. The land came…

  • The Ground That Breathes

    The dark cropland around Coupland sits on one of the strangest soils on Earth. This is the Blackland Prairie, and its signature dirt, Houston Black clay, is a vertisol: 40 to 60 percent clay made largely of smectite, a…

  • The Town That Waited 125 Years

    Coupland existed as a community for over a century, with a post office, a school, and a strong identity, but it wasn't officially a 'city.' It was an unincorporated village. That all changed in 2012. As the Austin…

  • Coupland, Theodore Van Buren · Tsha Handbook

    T. V. Coupland, military officer, lawman, and government official, was born on October 16, 1836, in Jefferson County, Alabama, the son of Hugh and Kerenhappuch (Hamilton) Coupland and a grand nephew of Texas governor…

  • Monitors in the Pews · 0.1 mi

    In nineteen eighteen, Sunday worship at Saint Peter's church in Coupland had listeners nobody invited. This congregation was founded in eighteen ninety four by German and Swiss farm families, under the name Saint Petri…

  • Saint Peters United Church of Christ · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Saint Peters United Church of Christ in Coupland. This congregation started in 1894, formed by German and Swiss immigrants. They built this beautiful Gothic Revival sanctuary back in 1905, adding a…

  • One Building, A Dozen Lives · 0.2 mi

    The dance hall at 101 Hoxie Street has worn more hats than most whole towns. The building went up in 1904 on Coupland's railroad main street. By 1911 it housed the Coupland Drug Company. In 1948 it became Albers…

  • United States Senator Morgan C. Hamilton · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    (1809-93) An outstanding patriot who acted as Secretary of War and Marine in Republic of Texas and later served the state in many roles, Morgan Hamilton in 1837 obtained a 1009-acre land grant in this area. While his…

Show all 200 nearby places
  • Lund · 3.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through what used to be Lund, originally Pleasant Hill, settled by Swedish immigrants in the late 1800s. They named it Lund after a city in Sweden. The community had homes, farms, businesses, and a…

  • Type Cemetery · 3.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Type Cemetery, a quiet testament to Swedish immigration in Central Texas. By the 1890s, Swedish and Danish settlers were arriving, finding a home in communities like this one. August Smith even…

  • Battle of Brushy Creek · 4.1 mi · Historical Marker

    A skirmish between Comanche raiders and a local militia near here in mid-winter (1839) led to the last major battle between Anglo settlers and Indians in Williamson County. The Comanche retaliated on February 18, 1839,…

  • Carlson · 4.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Carlson, a community that owes its start to two Swedish immigrant brothers. Pete and John Carlson arrived in America in 1869 and settled here in 1881. Pete opened Carlson Store, the very…

  • Rice, James O. · 4.3 mi · Historical Marker

    (1815 - about 1875) South Carolina-born James O. Rice migrated to Texas by 1835 and served in the Texas Army during the War for Independence. In early days of the Republic of Texas, he protected frontier settlements as…

  • Mager Cemetery · 4.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Mager Cemetery, a quiet testament to German heritage in Williamson County. Reinhold Mager, who came from Brandenburg, Germany, and his wife Franziska donated this land in 1900. It was for both a…

  • Manda · 5.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the area once known as Manda, a community founded by Swedish immigrants in the 1880s. It was named for Amanda Bengtson Gustafson, sister of the town's first postmaster. By the 1890s, Manda was a…

  • Kimbro Family Cemetery · 6.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Kimbro Family Cemetery, a quiet resting place for a family that helped shape Williamson County. Daniel Kimbro arrived in the Republic of Texas way back in 1836, the same year Texas declared…

  • New Sweden Evangelical Lutheran Church · 6.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the New Sweden Evangelical Lutheran Church. This congregation was organized in 1876 by Swedish immigrants and the Reverend J.O. Cavallin. Their first sanctuary went up in 1879, two miles…

  • Norman's Crossing · 6.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Norman's Crossing, a place that started life as Avery in the mid-1800s. It was founded by Daniel Kimbro, a Mexican War veteran and early Williamson County settler. Later, this small farming community…

  • Pleasant Grove Cemetery · 6.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Pleasant Grove Cemetery, a place that's been a cornerstone of this community for over 150 years. The earliest marked grave here dates back to 1871, but some unmarked burials might be even older. This…

  • Burleson, Mary R. B. Christian · 7.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Elgin, Texas, a town that owes its very existence to the resilience of Mary Burleson. Arriving in Texas in 1832, she faced hardship, including the murder of her first husband in the Wilbarger…

  • Elgin, TX · 7.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Elgin, a town that owes its existence to the railroad. It started as a simple flag stop called Glasscock in 1871, but was renamed Elgin in 1872 to honor a railroad official. What really put Elgin…

  • City of Elgin Centennial, 1872-1972 · 7.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Elgin, a town born from the railroad. Back in 1871, the Houston & Texas Central Railroad pushed through this area, and by 1872, this town was officially platted and named for Robert M. Elgin, the…

  • M.B. Norman House · 7.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Hutto, Texas, and right here is the M.B. Norman House, a place that's been in the same family for over a century! Mart B. Norman arrived in this area back in 1873, eventually farming, running a…

  • Southside Market & Barbeque · 7.4 mi · Things to Do

    Elgin's BBQ originator, established 1882 by William Moon, who slaughtered animals on FM 1704 and sold meat door-to-door by wagon. Now on US 290 — sausage…

  • Bland, Howard, Sr. · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker

    Driving through Taylor, you're passing the former domain of Howard Bland, Sr. He arrived in Texas in 1878, starting out with sheep on his homestead right near here. That annual sheep shearing contest he sponsored? It…

  • A Flood Helped Build Elgin · 7.5 mi

    Elgin exists partly because a flood convinced a railroad not to follow a river. The Houston and Texas Central Railroad had planned to run its line down to the Colorado River and then follow the water toward Austin. But…

  • The Town That Moved Here Was Called Hogeye · 7.5 mi

    Before there was an Elgin, a lot of folks around here lived a couple of miles south in a settlement that went by three names: Young's Settlement, Perryville, and best of all, Hogeye. The story behind that last name is…

  • The 'Homeless Eagles' Who Won State · 7.5 mi

    Here is a Elgin story the city tells about its own past. The way Elgin tells it, back in 1946 the Booker T. Washington Eagles, the team from Elgin's segregated Black high school, won a state basketball championship in…

  • The Ancient Rivers That Made Elgin a Brick Town · 7.5 mi

    Elgin became famous for brick because of something that happened more than fifty million years ago. The clay under Elgin and the nearby community of Butler belongs to a rock layer called the Calvert Bluff Formation,…

  • Elgin, the Brick Capital of the Southwest · 7.5 mi

    Look at the old brick storefronts downtown and you are looking at the industry that defined this town. Near Elgin, in a community called Butler, an Irish immigrant bricklayer named Michael Butler is said to have…

  • A Biplane Landed on Main Street, for Hollywood · 7.5 mi

    These quiet brick storefronts have done a lot of acting over the years. In the 1975 Robert Redford movie The Great Waldo Pepper, downtown Elgin played a small town of the 1920s, and for one sequence the production got a…

  • Elgin - Sausage Capital of Texas · 7.5 mi · Historical Marker

    Elgin's hot sausage is one of the oldest and most distinctive foods in Texas, and the recipe hasn't changed much since German and Czech butchers started making it in the 1880s. Elgin hot gut, as locals call it, is a…

  • William B. Standifer · 7.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the resting place of William B. Standifer. He was just a teenager, born in Illinois in 1819, when he fought in the decisive Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. That battle won Texas its independence.…

  • Elgin · 7.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Elgin, Texas, a town born from the railroad in 1871. Pioneer folks from a place called Hogeye packed up and moved here when the Houston & Texas Central Railroad came through. It wasn't long…

  • Nofsinger, Dr. I. B., House · 7.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the home of Dr. I. B. Nofsinger, built in 1906. Nofsinger, a Kentucky native, came to Texas at 20, taught school, and studied medicine. He practiced in McDade before moving here. He and his wife…

  • Elgin Methodist Church · 7.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Elgin, and right here is the site of the town's very first church congregation. Organized in 1874 as the Elgin Methodist Episcopal Church, South, this community eventually built this beautiful…

  • First Presbyterian Church of Elgin · 7.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Elgin's first Presbyterian Church. It all started back in 1881 with Reverend A. J. Adkisson and just ten members of the Cumberland Presbyterian faith. For five years, they met wherever…

  • Immanuel Lutheran Church · 7.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Taylor, a town built by German immigrants and the railroad. Look around, and you might see the legacy of those early settlers. Lutheran services started here in 1885, and fourteen families…

  • Why Elgin Became the Sausage Capital · 7.6 mi

    Elgin is the official Sausage Capital of Texas, a title the state legislature actually granted it in 1995, and the reason traces back to a problem with no refrigerator. In 1882 a man named William Moon began raising and…

  • Welcomed at Elgin on Alamo Day · 7.6 mi

    On the sixth of March, eighteen eighty three, a delegation from the Texas Legislature rode the train out of Austin to Elgin and waited for a very important guest: Porfirio Díaz, the former president of Mexico, traveling…

  • The Deputy and the Man Behind the Boxes · 7.6 mi

    In November of eighteen eighty three, two men were murdered at Fedor, and another man was beaten, robbed and left for dead. Deputy Sheriff Isaac Heffington went looking for the killers, and in McDade, as he searched, a…

  • Ski Troops in the Texas Flats · 7.6 mi

    In nineteen forty four, the Army's ski troops came to the flat, hot sand hills south of Elgin. The Tenth Mountain Division had trained high in the Colorado Rockies at Camp Hale, learning to ski and climb, and then the…

  • Good-by, Big Country · 7.6 mi

    Starting in July of nineteen forty three, trains brought German prisoners of war to Camp Swift, south of Elgin, many of them captured in North Africa with the Afrika Korps. The Handbook of Texas says they repaired Army…

  • A Week Before Dallas · 7.6 mi

    On the fifteenth of November, nineteen sixty three, Elgin's police chief, James Mumford, was helping a highway patrolman stop a stolen car on Highway two ninety. When the car was forced to stop, the driver got out and…

  • From Elgin's Classroom to Ray Charles's Band · 7.6 mi

    After finishing his music degree at Huston-Tillotson in Austin in nineteen sixty two, a young pianist named James Polk took a job teaching at Washington High School, Elgin's all-Black school. He also started a band,…

  • Elgin Played West Canaan · 7.6 mi

    If you've seen the football movie Varsity Blues, you've seen Elgin. According to the studio's production notes, filming started in Coupland in April of nineteen ninety eight, and after two weeks the crew moved to Elgin,…

  • The Ship That Sank With the Parthenon · 7.6 mi

    Elgin, Texas, is named for Robert Morris Elgin, a railroad land commissioner, and not for the British Lord Elgin. But Lord Elgin comes with a shipwreck worth hearing about. Around the year eighteen hundred, Thomas…

  • The Wolf Who Burned the Lantern of the North · 7.6 mi

    Elgin, Texas, isn't named for anything in Scotland, but there is an Elgin there, in Moray, and it once had a cathedral so fine people called it the Lantern of the North. In thirteen ninety, it was burned by a man…

  • Nobody Coined Hot Dog at a Ballgame · 7.6 mi

    Elgin is the Sausage Capital of Texas, so here's a sausage story. You may have heard that the words hot dog were coined at a New York baseball game at the Polo Grounds in nineteen oh one, when a cartoonist named Tad…

  • One Day on the Job · 7.6 mi

    In September of eighteen eighty five, a tenant farmer near McDade was accused of threatening to kill his landlord, and when the constable came with a warrant, the man met him with a Winchester rifle. The constable rode…

  • Miller - Gillum House · 7.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Miller-Gillum House in Elgin. Built in 1910 by contractor James Clinton Miller, this home shows off some serious architectural flair. Look for the octagonal corner turret topped with metal…

  • Williamson County · 7.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Williamson County right now, formed back in 1848 from Milam County. It's named for Robert McAlpin Williamson, a real Texas pioneer. He was an editor, a lawyer, a patriot, and a statesman who even…

  • Kimbro · 7.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through what used to be Kimbro, a community settled in the late 1870s by Swedish, Danish, and German immigrants. At its peak, it had homes, farms, a church, a school, a cotton gin, and two general stores.…

  • The Sign Hollywood Left in McDade · 7.6 mi

    Over in McDade, a block-long strip of old storefronts looks like the set of a western, and filmmakers have noticed. The nineteen ninety seven TV movie True Women, with Dana Delany and Angelina Jolie, shot scenes there.…

  • Twenty Minutes in March · 7.6 mi

    Just before six thirty on the evening of Monday, the twenty first of March, twenty twenty two, a tornado came down just south and east of Elgin. It lasted about twenty minutes. The National Weather Service found pockets…

  • Sinatra at Camp Swift · 7.6 mi

    Camp Swift, south of Elgin, had some famous visitors during the Second World War. The Bastrop County Historical Commission lists Frank Sinatra, the burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee, Medal of Honor recipient General…

  • Elgin's All-Star · 7.6 mi

    Ray Culp was born in Elgin on the sixth of August, nineteen forty one, and grew up in Austin, where he won six postseason games, including a no-hitter, to lead Stephen Austin High School to the state title in nineteen…

  • Elgin Christian Church · 7.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Elgin, and right here is the site of the Elgin Christian Church. The congregation got its start way back in 1888, with folks gathering in other churches until their own sanctuary was built in…

  • Elgin Lodge No. 328, A. F. & A. M. · 7.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Elgin Lodge No. 328, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. This lodge started life in 1870, chartered as Perryville Lodge, about two and a half miles south of here. It moved to Elgin in 1877…

  • The Bishop Born in Elgin · 7.6 mi

    A. Frank Smith, born in Elgin in eighteen eighty nine, became one of the most important Methodist leaders of his time. He was elected a bishop in nineteen thirty, became the first president of the Council of Bishops of…

  • Trudy · 7.6 mi

    Here's one for the folklore file. A woman told the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization that something visited her family's rural property near Elgin: rocks thrown from the trees, whoops in the night, and one night,…

  • Walls Held Together With Rice · 7.6 mi

    Elgin was the Brick Capital of the Southwest, so here's a story about what holds bricks together. Starting around the year five hundred, builders in China began stirring soup made from sticky rice into their lime…

  • Saul Cemetery · 7.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Saul Cemetery, a quiet resting place established way back in 1870. Charles Saul, who bought this land in 1862, died that year and was the first to be buried here. His wife, Louisa, joined him…

  • Bill Pickett Comes Home · 7.8 mi

    That bronze cowboy at the corner of Main and Second, lasso in hand and wearing chaps, is Bill Pickett, and he took the long way home. Pickett, the son of former slaves, came to Taylor with his family in the late…

  • The Cathedral of Smoke on Second Street · 7.8 mi

    If one building tells Taylor's story in soot, it's Louie Mueller Barbecue at 206 West 2nd Street. The brick building dates to 1900 and lived earlier lives as a grocery market and a gymnasium for golden-glove boxing and…

  • The Chief Who Answered the Call on Two Ninety · 7.8 mi

    On US Highway Two Ninety, a bridge carries the name of Police Chief James M. Mumford. It is a local designation. Mumford had been police chief in Granger for four years before he joined the Elgin Police Department. He…

  • Taylor National Bank · 7.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the old Taylor National Bank building, designed by A. O. Watson and completed in 1894. This striking red sandstone structure, a blend of Romanesque and Renaissance Revival styles, was home to the…

  • Closed on March 30, 2024 · 7.9 mi

    In the 2003 film the Cele Store is the country store where the group stops to report a death and is directed onward — the proprietor is a member of the family. In real life the store was bought by the Weiss family in…

  • The Store at Cele · 7.9 mi

    When The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was remade in 2003, the production returned to the same Central Texas farm country as the 1974 original, shooting around Manor, Granger, Taylor and Walburg. Unlike the original — whose…

  • Named for Lucille Custer · 7.9 mi

    The Cele Store stands at 18726 Cameron Road at Cele Road, in the farming community of Cele east of Pflugerville in Travis County. It opened in 1891 as the Richland Saloon. Cele was settled in the 1890s and reportedly…

  • Bill Pickett · 7.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Taylor, home of a true rodeo legend: Bill Pickett. Born around 1870, Pickett wasn't just any cowboy; he was the son of a former slave who became one of the few Black cowboys on the national…

  • The Largest Inland Cotton Market in the World · 7.9 mi

    For decades Taylor billed itself, without much modesty, as the largest inland cotton market in the world. The boast had teeth. The town's first cotton gin opened in 1877, just a year after the tracks arrived, and from…

  • The Fire That Rebuilt Downtown in Brick · 7.9 mi

    Taylor's downtown owes its handsome brick face to a disaster. In February 1879, only three years after the town was founded, fire tore through the young settlement's wood-frame business district. Of the 32 businesses…

  • The Barefoot Janitor of the Howard Theatre · 7.9 mi

    Stand outside the Howard Theatre at 308 North Main Street after dark and locals will tell you the building is not entirely empty. The ghost story centers on a man named James, said to have been an elderly janitor who…

  • Eikel-Prewitt Building · 7.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising past the Eikel-Prewitt Building in Taylor, a place that's seen some serious business. <break time="400ms"/> It started life in 1893, built by Albert Eikel to house his hardware company. <break…

  • Taylor Post Office · 7.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Taylor, and right here is a building that served this community for decades. The first post office in this town opened way back in 1876, called Taylorsville back then. When the city officially…

  • Preslar-Hewitt Building · 7.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Taylor, a town that boomed thanks to cotton and railroads. See that building up ahead? That's the Preslar-Hewitt Building, constructed in 1914 by Hugo Hunke. It was designed to be a commercial…

  • First Baptist Church · 7.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Taylor, and right here is the site of the First Baptist Church, but its roots go back to 1883. That's when a young Black evangelist, Dr. L. Benjamin Toliver, held a tent revival in this very…

  • Tex Avery · 8.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Taylor, the birthplace of Tex Avery, a true giant of animation! Born here in 1908, Avery went on to direct legendary characters like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck at Warner Brothers and MGM. He…

  • Louie Mueller Barbecue · 8.0 mi · Things to Do

    Taylor's legendary BBQ since 1949. The soot-blackened walls tell the story.

  • City of Taylor · 8.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Taylor, a town born from the railroad. Back in 1876, the International & Great Northern Railroad laid tracks through Williamson County and platted this very spot as 'Taylorsville.' Lots went on…

  • The Town the Railroad Auctioned Into Existence · 8.1 mi

    You're rolling into a town that was sold before it was built. In 1876 the Texas Land Company auctioned off lots here in anticipation of the International-Great Northern Railroad pushing through southeastern Williamson…

  • The Taylor Boy Who Gave Bugs Bunny His Attitude · 8.1 mi

    One of the most influential comedians in American history never said a word on screen, because he drew everyone else's lines instead. Frederick Bean Avery, known to the world as Tex Avery, was born in Taylor on February…

  • The working facility, not a set · 8.1 mi

    In the 2003 film the plant is where the surviving character flees and is pursued through the cutting floor and hanging rails in the closing act. The production used the working facility rather than a built set,…

  • Eleven Rings Started in Taylor · 8.1 mi

    Few athletes in any sport have won the way K.C. Jones won, and the story starts in Taylor, where he was born on May 25, 1932, the oldest of six children. Jones became one of the great defensive guards in basketball…

  • The Slaughterhouse in Taylor · 8.1 mi

    The slaughterhouse sequence in the 2003 remake was filmed at the Taylor Meat Company plant at 2211 West 2nd Street in Taylor, Williamson County. The company was founded in 1947. The 1974 original had used a real feedlot…

  • The Machine That Squeezed a Bale in Half · 8.1 mi

    The cotton compress that gave Taylor its swagger was a serious piece of industrial machinery, and it sat right against the railroad tracks for a reason. A cotton gin separates fiber from seed, but the bale it spits out…

  • First Christian Church of Taylor · 8.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Taylor, Williamson County, where a significant piece of local history stands. Look around you for the First Christian Church. It was founded way back on December 9th, 1877, with just 22 members.…

  • Sloan House · 8.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Sloan House, built in 1854 by David McCurdy Sloan and his wife. They brought lumber all the way from Houston, while the rest of the house was hand-hewn using slave labor. David lived here until…

  • First Presbyterian Church of Taylor · 8.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Taylor, and right here is the site of the First Presbyterian Church. Its story starts way back in 1876, linked to a church in Georgetown. By 1878, trustees bought this land, and a sanctuary was up…

  • Saint James Church · 8.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Saint James Church in Taylor. Episcopal services first began here way back in 1878, led by a traveling missionary. The first Bishop of Texas even visited! Services were held in whatever…

  • Pioneer Publisher and Printer David Ervin Lawhon · 8.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the resting place of David Ervin Lawhon, a printer who answered Texas's call to arms. Born in Tennessee in 1811, he learned his trade young and worked in major U.S. cities before heading to…

  • Doak Home · 8.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Doak Home, a ranch-style house built way back in the 1860s. But its real story starts in 1878, when Taylor's first doctor, A.V. Doak, moved in. He wasn't just a physician; he also organized the…

  • Tucker-Smith House · 8.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Tucker-Smith House in Taylor, a home that's seen quite the architectural makeover. Built in 1892 by lumberman J. E. Tucker, it first rocked the popular Queen Anne style. Then, in 1905, Decker…

  • Wedemeyer Hospital Site · 8.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Wedemeyer Hospital in Taylor. This place opened its doors in 1915, founded by Dr. G. A. Wedemeyer, a prominent physician who'd been serving the community since 1905. It wasn't just a…

  • Taylor Public Schools · 8.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the heart of Taylor's educational history. Back in 1877, this area had a handful of private schools. But by 1880, citizens banded together to build the Stock Company School, a public institution. A…

  • Christ Lutheran Church · 8.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Christ Lutheran Church, originally founded by Wendish Lutheran families in the mid-1880s near Hochkirk. Pastor Gotthilf Birkmann officiated early services, and Peter Zieschang donated…

  • The Hot Spot: A Bank Job at Main and Second · 8.3 mi

    At the corner of Main and Second, in the late summer of nineteen eighty nine, a drifter robbed a bank. On film, anyway. Dennis Hopper shot much of his film The Hot Spot in downtown Taylor. It was a steamy small town…

  • Avery, Frederick Bean [Tex] · 8.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Frederick Bean “Tex” Avery, cartoonist, animator, and director, was born in Taylor, Texas, on February 26, 1908, to George Walton Avery and Mary Augusta “Jessie” (Bean) Avery. He grew up in Dallas and attended North…

  • Dickey, James Lee · 8.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    James Lee Dickey, Black physician, the son of John S. and Linnie A. (Sears) Dickey, was born in 1893 in Central Texas, probably near Waco. He attended Waco public schools from 1900 to 1912 and graduated from Tillotson…

  • The Youngest Governor Texas Ever Elected · 8.3 mi

    Taylor's most powerful native son grew up in a Victorian house here on West Ninth Street. Dan Moody was born in Taylor on June 1, 1893, and rose through Williamson County's courthouse the hard way, serving as county…

  • Birthplace of Governor Dan Moody · 8.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Taylor, the hometown of a Texas governor who became a symbol of honesty in government. Dan Moody was born right here. He was a young man, just 16, when he entered the University of Texas,…

  • Heap, James Arthur [Jimmy] · 8.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Williamson County, heading past Taylor, the hometown of Jimmy Heap. In the late 1940s, Heap and his band, the Melody Masters, were playing dances all over Central Texas, including a regular gig at…

  • Moody, Daniel James, Jr. · 8.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Williamson County, and right here in Taylor, a young lawyer named Dan Moody was forging a path that would shake up Texas politics. It was the 1920s, a time of rising tensions, and as District…

  • A Governor's House Frozen in 1893 · 8.3 mi

    At 114 West Ninth Street stands the Moody Museum, the boyhood home of Governor Dan Moody and one of the most intact governor's birthplaces in Texas. The two-story Victorian was built in 1887 by Moody's mother, Nannie…

  • Brown, Margarett Root · 8.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Taylor, Texas, and the name Brown & Root might ring a bell. It started back in 1917 when Margarett Root and Herman Brown eloped! They married in Travis County, and their honeymoon was spent in one of…

  • Brushy Creek, Battle of · 8.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Taylor, in Williamson County, and right here is where a fierce frontier battle unfolded in February of 1839. It was a running fight between Texas Rangers and Comanche warriors that stretched for…

  • Taylor's Track Record on Screen · 8.3 mi

    Taylor has a long track record in the movies. The city keeps its own list of productions filmed in and around town, and it starts in nineteen eighty eight with Heartbreak Hotel. Then come The Hot Spot, Michael,…

  • Doak Pavilion Site · 8.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Taylor, and right here is the site of the Doak Pavilion. Built in 1891 by Dr. A. V. Doak, this place was the heart of entertainment for the town. Imagine it: Dr. Doak’s streetcar line, powered by…

  • Taylor Brethren Church · 8.3 mi · Historical Marker

    Imagine driving through Taylor, Williamson County, back in the late 1800s. Many Czech immigrants, seeking religious freedom, settled here. They were members of the Unity of the Brethren, a church with roots stretching…

  • Burns, Hugh · 8.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Williamson County, and right here, Hugh Burns built his fortune. Born in Ireland in 1846, Burns came to Texas in the 1870s and became a major player in railroad construction. He partnered on lines…

  • Taylor, TX · 8.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Taylor, a town that owes its existence to the railroad. In 1876, lots were auctioned off by the Texas Land Company, anticipating the arrival of the International-Great Northern Railroad. The town,…

  • Luther Stearns, Sr. · 8.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Williamson County, near where Luther Stearns, Sr. made his home. Born way back in 1784 in Massachusetts, Stearns lived on the frontier in four different states before finally settling here in…

  • Tenth Street United Methodist Church, The · 8.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Taylor, and right here is the Tenth Street United Methodist Church. Services for Swedish settlers began in homes way back in 1896, led by Reverend C. Charnquist. They officially founded the…

  • Site of Willow Ranch School · 8.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the old Willow Ranch School, a place that served the children of Swedish immigrant farmers near Manor. In 1894, landowner Peter Carr Wells donated the land, and by 1898, a schoolhouse…

  • Booth House · 8.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Crawford Henry Booth House in Taylor, built around 1880. This place is a real standout, an unusual local example of the L-plan vernacular style. Look for the Queen Anne details: an octagonal…

  • St. John Church · 8.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Pflugerville, where German settlers in the Richland community started worshiping in their homes back in the 1860s. In 1878, nineteen charter members officially organized the St. John German…

  • Richland School · 8.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through what used to be the Richland community, north of Pflugerville. Back in the 1860s, German settlers here wanted schools for their kids. Franz Schmidt offered his home, then donated land for a…

  • Post Oak Island Lodge #181, A.F. & A.M. · 8.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the Elgin area, near where Post Oak Island Lodge #181 was established by local men on September 15, 1855. The lodge was officially chartered in 1856 and managed to pay off their lodge hall's…

  • The Man Who Prosecuted the Klan · 9.0 mi

    In the early 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan operated with impunity across Texas. But in Williamson County, they met their match in a young district attorney from Taylor named Dan Moody. On Easter Sunday 1923, Klansmen flogged…

  • The Cathedral of Smoke · 9.0 mi

    You're near a place some call a cathedral. Not of stained glass, but of smoke. Louie Mueller started selling barbecue in Taylor in 1949, and in 1959 the operation moved into the building it still occupies at 206 West…

  • The Cowboy Who Invented Bulldogging · 9.0 mi

    In downtown Taylor, at the corner of Main and Second, stands a statue of a man who changed rodeo forever. Bill Pickett, an African-American cowboy, was born in 1870 in the Jenks Branch community near Liberty Hill, and…

  • Rip Torn Learned to Act Watching Taylor Walk · 9.0 mi

    Long before he won an Emmy on The Larry Sanders Show and played the boss in Men in Black, Rip Torn was a kid in Taylor, watching how people walked. Elmore Rual Torn Junior was born in Temple in nineteen thirty one and…

  • Taylor, TX · 9.0 mi

    Taylor sprang up along the tracks of the International-Great Northern Railroad, and that arrival shaped everything that came after. The land here, part of the Blackland Prairie, had already drawn people—farmers hoping…

  • Shiloh-McCutcheon Cemetery · 9.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Shiloh-McCutcheon Cemetery, a place with roots stretching back to the very beginnings of this community. The area, known as Shiloh, was established around 1848 with stores and homes along Brushy…

  • The Sausage Capital of Texas · 9.3 mi

    You're driving through the official 'Sausage Capital of Texas,' and that title was earned one link at a time. The story begins with German immigrants and a butcher shop called Southside Market, founded way back in 1882.…

  • The Science of an Elgin Brick · 9.3 mi

    The reason Elgin became the 'Brick Capital' starts underground. Shortly after 1871 an Irish immigrant bricklayer named Michael Butler found excellent clay pits just west of here, off what's now Farm Road 696, and built…

  • Elgin, TX · 9.3 mi

    Elgin feels like a classic Texas story, one built on the promise of the railroad and the hard work of folks drawn to new opportunities. The Houston and Texas Central’s arrival in 1872 really set things in motion,…

  • The Town the Railroad Moved · 9.3 mi

    Elgin owes its existence, and its name, to the railroad - though not the way you'd think. Before 1872 this spot was called Glasscock. When the Houston and Texas Central built its line through here in 1871, it put in a…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Manor New Tech (Manor) · 9.4 mi

    Manor New Tech (Manor, TX) placed on the 4A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Zane Thomas (0.500 avg, 2 HR).

  • Lawrence Chapel Cemetery · 9.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Lawrence Chapel Cemetery, the final resting place of Adam Lawrence, a man who truly earned his peace. Born in Kentucky, Lawrence arrived in Texas early, receiving a land grant in 1822 and fighting in…

  • Pfluger Cemetery · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Pfluger Cemetery, the final resting place for a pioneering German immigrant family. Henry Pfluger, who arrived from Germany in 1850, was buried here in 1867. His wife Christina later set aside…

  • Washington Bower · 10.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Washington Bower, built in 1853. This was the very first frame house in the Taylor area. The land itself was granted by the Republic of Texas way back in 1838. The builder, Henry Inlo…

  • Hutto Cemetery · 10.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Hutto Cemetery, which started as Elmwood Cemetery in the late 1800s. The earliest marked grave here is from 1887. Over the years, it was sold and renamed, and today it holds the stories of settlers,…

  • The Lake With No River to Fill It · 10.3 mi

    Lake Pflugerville looks like a natural lake, but it is really a clever piece of water engineering, and the trick is that no river runs into it. The city built this off-channel reservoir in 2005 northeast of town, near…

  • Littig Cemetery · 10.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Littig Cemetery, a reminder of a freedmen's town that once thrived here. Littig itself was laid out in 1883, right along the railroad tracks. The land for this very cemetery was donated by…

  • Wilson Spring Cemetery · 10.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Wilson Spring Cemetery. John S. Wilson was the first to be buried on this family farm in 1874, after his family purchased the land in 1854. The community around a nearby spring became…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Weiss (Pflugerville) · 10.6 mi

    Weiss (Pflugerville, TX) placed on the 5A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Amari Maxwell (0.516 avg, 1 HR); Patrick Brock (0.463 avg, 1 HR).

  • St. John Lutheran Church · 10.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of St. John Lutheran Church in Thrall. Area Lutherans organized this congregation in 1917, meeting in homes and schools before building here in 1921. They even sent clothing to the needy in…

  • The Thrall Tanker Who Came Home · 10.7 mi

    Eighty years after he vanished in France, a tank sergeant from Thrall finally came home. Leroy Cloud was a Thrall native. In World War Two he served as a staff sergeant in Company A of the seven hundred forty fourth…

  • Hutto's Detective Sergeant · 10.7 mi

    Through Hutto, U.S. Highway Seventy Nine is the Sergeant Chris Kelley Memorial Highway. Chris Kelley was an Air Force veteran who served eleven years with the Hutto Police Department, where he supervised criminal…

  • Hutto Lutheran Cemetery · 10.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Hutto Lutheran Cemetery, a final resting place for some of the area's earliest Swedish immigrants. They first organized their church back in 1892. Tragically, just two years later, a tornado…

  • Thrall, TX · 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Williamson County, near the town of Thrall. This community started in 1876 as Stiles Switch, named after a ranching family. It grew slowly as a farming and cattle center, even getting a post…

  • Site of Gano Community · 10.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the quiet countryside near Thrall, but back in the 1870s, this was a bustling little place. The Wilder family kicked things off with a cotton gin, grist mill, general store, and blacksmith shop.…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Thrall (Thrall) · 10.8 mi

    Thrall (Thrall, TX) placed on the 3A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Gus Navejas (5 HR).

  • Fariss, Dolores · 10.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Central Texas, maybe near Austin, and chances are you’ve heard of Dolores Fariss. Back in the 1940s and 50s, she led Dolores and the Bluebonnet Boys, a popular country western band. Born in Hutto…

  • Hutto, TX · 10.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Hutto, a community born from the railroad. In 1876, the International-Great Northern Railroad reached this spot and bought land from local rancher James Emory Hutto. By the next year, 1877, the…

  • Stop Trains, Hippo Loose in Hutto · 10.9 mi

    Hutto calls itself the Hippo Capital of Texas, and the reason is one of the best tall tales in Williamson County, so let's tell it honestly: it's a legend, not a documented event. As the story goes, in 1915 a circus…

  • Reinforcing a 1937 Riveted-Steel Gin Without Killing Its Bones · 10.9 mi

    The open-air pavilion at the Hutto Co-Op District is a genuine engineering puzzle solved in steel. The Co-Op was built starting in 1937 to gin and store the area's cotton and grain, two adjacent sheet-metal gin…

  • The Rancher Who Sold the Railroad Its Stop · 10.9 mi

    The town you're rolling into is named for a man who sold the railroad a place to stop. James Emory Hutto was an Alabama-born rancher who reached Williamson County around 1855 and ran cattle on the open Blackland prairie…

  • When Cotton and Black Dirt Built the Town · 10.9 mi

    The flat dark fields all around you are why Hutto exists past being a whistle-stop. This is Blackland Prairie, a band of deep, sticky black clay that turned out to be superb cotton ground, and once the railroad could…

  • The Old Gin Is Now the Town's Front Porch · 10.9 mi

    If you want to actually stand in old Hutto's economy, pull into the Hutto Co-Op District at 420 US-79. This was the farmers' cooperative gin and grainery, built starting in 1937, where local growers brought their cotton…

  • Hutto, TX · 10.9 mi

    Hutto. It's a name that rolls off the tongue easily, a simple, solid sound that reflects the town itself. It comes directly from James Emory Hutto, a farmer who settled here back in the late 19th century. The story goes…

  • Hutto Hippos · 10.9 mi · Historical Marker

    Hutto's high school mascot is a hippopotamus, and the story of how that happened is one of the strangest in small-town Texas. Around 1915, a circus was passing through central Texas when a hippo reportedly escaped and…

  • The Swedish Church a Tornado Couldn't Keep Down · 11.0 mi

    Near here stands a congregation that a tornado tried to erase in its first year. As Swedish immigrants flooded Hutto's cotton farms, Lutheran services began around 1890, led at first by ministers riding over from Palm…

  • Henrietta, the 14,000-Pound Hippo Downtown · 11.0 mi

    Hutto leans so hard into its hippo legend that it bought a 14,000-pound one. In September 1992 the Hutto Chamber of Commerce hauled a giant concrete hippo named Henrietta in on a trailer from Double D Statuary down in…

  • Hutto Evangelical Lutheran Church · 11.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Hutto, a town with roots stretching back to the 1890s and the Swedish immigrants who settled here. Look to your right – you're passing the site of the Hutto Evangelical Lutheran Church. Services…

  • Hutto · 11.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Hutto, a town that owes its start to J.E. Hutto and Adam Orgain, who settled here back in 1855. Hutto sold land to the railroad in 1876, and the town grew fast, especially after Swedish immigrants…

  • Town of Thrall · 11.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Thrall, Texas, a town that started as a railroad siding called Stiles Switch back in 1876. It quickly became a shipping point for Swiss and German immigrants who settled this fertile land. By 1901, a…

  • Turkey Creek School · 11.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Turkey Creek School, which operated from 1893 to 1949. An 8-grade school was held in a frame building on this site, with terms lasting three to four months until 1910. One teacher…

  • The Flood of 1921 · 11.2 mi

    In September 1921, the remnant of a Gulf hurricane stalled over Williamson County and unleashed a torrent unlike anything seen before or since. The center of the storm parked right over Thrall, a small farming town on…

  • Anatomy of a Record-Breaking Storm · 11.2 mi

    The catastrophic Thrall flood of 1921 wasn't just a tragedy; it was a meteorological event of historic proportions. The science behind it is fascinating. A weak tropical depression, the remnant of a hurricane, drifted…

  • Thrall, TX · 11.2 mi

    The city's name, Thrall, was chosen to honor Rev. Homer S. Thrall, a Methodist minister and historian who was highly respected by the local settlers and residents.

  • Stiles Switch renamed for a minister · 11.2 mi

    This town has had two names and never moved an inch. In 1876 the International-Great Northern built west from Rockdale and dropped a siding on the prairie for two local landowners, J. E. and F. N. Stiles. They called it…

  • The 1902 Fire That Cleared East Street · 11.3 mi

    Stand at the giant hippo statue off East Street and you're standing at a scar from one of old Hutto's worst days. In 1902, fire tore through the wooden storefronts on the east side of East Street and destroyed a chunk…

  • The Day the Hippo Came to Town · 11.4 mi

    You're probably wondering about all the hippos. You'll see thousands of concrete ones in yards and businesses. It all goes back to a bizarre incident in 1915. A circus train was stopped at the depot here in Hutto,…

  • The First Hutto Hippo to Make the NFL · 11.4 mi

    On Friday nights this town turns out for the Hutto Hippos, and the player who put that mascot on the national map grew up right here. Jeremy Kerley was born in Hutto and lettered in four sports at Hutto High, but…

  • The Gin at the Co-Op · 11.4 mi

    As you pass through Hutto's old downtown you cannot miss the corrugated metal and the row of silos at the Hutto Co-Op. Organized and built starting in 1937, it was a farmer-owned cooperative - a model that gave local…

  • The Engineering of the Cotton Gin · 11.4 mi

    The Hutto Co-Op Gin isn't just an old building; it was a sophisticated piece of agricultural technology. Let's break down the engineering. When a truck full of raw cotton arrived, the process began with a powerful fan…

  • Cuts himself with a straight razor · 11.5 mi

    In the film the hitchhiker, a member of the family, is picked up on a rural road, describes his relatives' work at the local slaughterhouse, cuts himself with a straight razor, photographs one of the group and burns the…

  • The Hitchhiker Road · 11.5 mi

    The hitchhiker sequence was shot on the flat farmland around Hutto in eastern Williamson County. The pickup was filmed near the site where Hutto High School was later built in 1999, and the point where the character is…

  • Smith, Jourdan · 11.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Bastrop County, passing the land once owned by Jourdan Smith. Born in Georgia way back in 1811, Smith came to Texas in 1836, answering the call to fight in the revolution. For his service, he was…

  • Shiloh Baptist Church · 11.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Shiloh Baptist Church, a congregation founded way back on November 2nd, 1854. Imagine, 18 charter members gathered under brush arbors for services and revivals. They moved between two…

  • When Hollywood Came to Town · 11.7 mi

    If downtown Manor looks strangely familiar, you might be a movie fan. In 1993, this town became the backdrop for the film 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape,' starring Johnny Depp and a young Leonardo DiCaprio. Though the…

  • From War Machine to Science City · 11.7 mi

    About a dozen miles west of Manor, out in northwest Austin, sits a sprawling campus with a strange origin story. You might know it as the J. J. Pickle Research Campus, part of the University of Texas. It was born from…

  • Klattenhoff House · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising past the Klattenhoff House, a testament to German immigration in Texas. William Klattenhoff arrived from Germany in 1872, just a teenager at 17. He found work on the railroad and eventually settled near…

  • Manor, TX · 11.7 mi

    Manor, Texas, a place where you can still feel the pulse of small-town life, even as Austin's sprawl creeps ever closer. The name itself tells a story, a simple marker of ownership in a land of opportunity. It wasn't…

  • Hutto United Methodist Church · 11.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Hutto United Methodist Church, a story of two congregations coming together. Back in the late 1870s, American Methodists were meeting in a schoolhouse just southeast of here. Meanwhile, Swedish…

  • The Road Between Two Presidents · 12.0 mi

    U S Highway Two Ninety from Interstate Thirty Five, and then State Highway Twenty One on to State Highway Six, together make up the Presidential Corridor. The Legislature drew it in nineteen ninety seven, in recognition…

  • Barrow, Leonidas Theodore · 12.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Central Texas, perhaps near Manor, where Leonidas "Slim" Barrow was born in 1895. This isn't just any town; it's the starting point for a man who would help shape the Texas oil industry. After…

  • Guerrero, Longino [Lonnie] · 12.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Manor, Texas, the birthplace of Longino "Lonnie" Guerrero. Born in 1917, Guerrero became a renowned singer, songwriter, and guitarist, earning the nickname "Composer of Corridos." Corridos are…

  • Hill, Alexander Campbell · 12.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Travis County, near Manor, where Alexander Campbell Hill settled in the 1850s. Though an ardent Unionist, Hill enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1862, serving in cavalry regiments across…

  • Townes, Eggleston Dick · 12.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Travis County, not far from Manor. Right here, in the mid-1800s, lived Eggleston Dick Townes. He was a successful lawyer and planter, one of the wealthiest men in the county by 1860, owning a…

  • Manor, TX · 12.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving past Manor, a community that owes its name to a postmaster who only held the job for a single year. A post office called Grassdale opened here in 1859 with James Manor as postmaster, but it closed just a…

  • Manor Cemetery · 12.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Manor Cemetery, a final resting place for many of this area's earliest settlers. It began with James Manor, who came to Texas in the 1830s and helped found the town that bears his name. The cemetery…

  • Monodale Community · 12.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Monodale, a community born from a land donation by a famous statesman. Back in 1870, this area was owned by just a few families, including that of Edward Mandell House, a big political…

  • Bloor House · 12.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Bloor House, a real landmark in the Manor community. Local rancher Alfred Bloor and his wife Martha built this home back in 1897. It's a beautiful example of Queen Anne and Colonial Revival…

  • Pflugerville Colored Addition · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    The Pflugerville Colored Addition is located in Travis County on Farm Road 1825 in west Pflugerville. In 1910 black workers in Travis County who worked in the Pflugerville cotton industry and ice factory were not…

  • Bohls, Sidney William · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Travis County, not far from Pflugerville, the birthplace of Dr. Sidney William Bohls. Born in 1898, Bohls became a crucial figure in Texas public health. In 1928, he was appointed director of…

  • Pflugerville, TX · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving north of Austin, and right here is Pflugerville. It all started back in 1849 when Henry Pfluger brought his family here from Germany. For a while, it was just a quiet community, but things really picked…

  • Flachmeier, William August · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Pflugerville, the birthplace of William August Flachmeier, a Lutheran minister who lived a remarkable life. Born in 1900, he was ordained by his own father and served parishes in Colorado and…

  • New Bern Church, School, and Cemetery · 12.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the area where Swiss and German immigrants settled in the early 1890s, naming their new home New Bern. In 1892, they built a sanctuary for St. John Lutheran Church, which also served as their…

  • The Town Named Manor, Pronounced MAY-ner · 12.6 mi

    The town rolling up around you carries a name that trips up almost everyone who is not from here. It is spelled Manor, but locals say it MAY-ner, rhyming with the start of mayonnaise, and they will gently correct any…

  • When Manor Played the Town of Endora · 12.6 mi

    The water tower you can spot over the rooftops here had a brief movie career. In the winter of 1992 and 1993, the film What's Eating Gilbert Grape, starring Johnny Depp and a teenage Leonardo DiCaprio in his breakout…

  • The Oldest Racetrack in Texas Was Also a Rock-and-Roll Stage · 12.6 mi

    Just west of town, where a giant warehouse park now stands, was Manor Downs, the oldest pari-mutuel horse track in Texas. Frances Carr and Sam Cutler, a former road manager for the Rolling Stones, began building it in…

  • Eighteen Thousand Bales a Year · 12.6 mi

    When the Houston and Texas Central tracks reached Manor in 1871, they turned a scattering of blackland prairie farms into one of the busiest cotton points in Central Texas. The deep, dark, fertile clay around here grew…

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