Pflugerville, Texas

The tall wooden building near 136 East Pecan Street is the last machine that explains why this town exists. Otto Pfluger built the Pflugerville Gin Company here in 1904, a three-story cotton gin that turned the…

Somewhere along the way, this town decided that the awkward German Pf at the front of its name was not a burden but a brand. Outsiders stumble over Pflugerville, but locals lean all the way in, slapping that silent Pf…

One of the most consequential people ever born in this German farm town never gets a marker on the highway, but his work touched nearly everyone in Texas. Sidney William Bohls was born here on April 12, 1898, into the…

For a young farm town, a railroad meant survival, and Pflugerville got one in 1904 when the Missouri-Kansas-Texas line, the storied Katy, finished its track between Georgetown and Austin. But the rails did not run…

If you want a building that has lived through nearly all of Pflugerville's history, pull up at Hanovers Draught Haus at 108 East Main Street in the old downtown. The structure dates back to the early 1900s, right around…

Deutschen Pfest: annual October festival at Pfluger Park celebrating Pflugerville's German heritage, founded 1976, ~50 years running. Lake Pflugerville: 180-acre man-made reservoir, construction began 2005 + completed…

The big water park out near the intersection of State Highway 130 and FM 685 marks how completely Pflugerville flipped from cotton town to suburb. The city cut a development deal in 2013 to bring in a Hawaiian Falls…

Henry Pfluger Sr. (1803-1867), Hessian farmer who lost his wealth in the 1848 European revolutions, sent sons Conrad and George to Texas in 1849. Henry himself arrived 1852 with $1,600, bought 160 acres east of Austin…

Pflugerville leans into its silent-P name as a town-wide branding motif. Verified examples: city tourism brand 'Pfun TX' (pfuntx.com), official 'Pflugerville Pfarmers Market' (city-run, pflugervilletx.gov/717),…

You're driving past Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church. Circuit riders began in 1852 to hold religious services in this area. In 1869, the Texas Synod of the Lutheran church sent Pastor F. Ernst to preach to the local…

At 901 Old Austin-Hutto Road sits the Heritage House Museum, better known to old-timers as the Bohls House, and it is the closest thing Pflugerville has to a window into its farming heyday. Gottlieb William Bohls, a…

Gottlieb William Bohls (1878-1961), the oldest of Heinrich and Julie Schroder Bohls' ten children, was born on his family's farm near this site. In 1906, G.W. married Bertha Timmerman (1883-1967), and five years later…

Farm to Market Road Six Eighty Five, from State Highway One Thirty south to East Pecan Street, is the Deputy Jessica Hollis Memorial Highway. Jessica Hollis began her career with the Austin Police Department and went on…

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…

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…

You're driving past the home of William Pfluger, a German immigrant and Confederate veteran who settled here in 1871. He built this limestone house in 1875, later adding a frame section. Pfluger was a rancher who also…

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…

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…

Once a bustling census-designated place, Windemere has seen significant changes over the years. Located just 14 miles northeast of downtown Austin, it was home to 6,868 people in 2000, a number that dropped to 1,037 by…

This highway is part of the Purple Heart Trail, a symbolic trail that runs through all fifty states to honor those killed or wounded in combat while serving in the armed forces. In Texas it started with one road. In two…

This road carries a Blue Star Memorial Highway designation, one of a string of them across Texas. The name comes from a family tradition. When someone in a household was serving in the armed forces, the family displayed…

You're driving past the site of what was once known as Fortress Home. Built in the early 1850s by Martin Wieland, a German immigrant, this home also served as a neighborhood fort. It was later enlarged in 1873 and again…

You're driving through Dessau, a community founded in 1854 by German immigrants. Many of the founding families, like the Wielands and Nauerts, are still remembered here. Their sanctuary, built around 1876, and the…

The Wells Branch community has its roots dating back to the early 19th century. The area was first settled by Wayman F. and Mary Emily Wells around 1827. It wasn't until much later, in 1990, that Wells Branch was…

You're driving through what used to be the Merrilltown community, just outside Austin. Look around – this area was once part of a 320-acre land grant to a Republic of Texas Army veteran. In the 1850s, John M. Gault…

You're driving past the site of what was once the Oertli Dairy, Travis County's last operating dairy farm. For 78 years, from 1923 to 2001, this family kept the milk flowing. It all started with Fridolin 'Fritz' Oertli,…

The sprawling corporate campus on the east side of Round Rock belongs to one of the largest computer companies on earth, and it started with a teenager and a thousand dollars. In 1984, 19-year-old pre-med student…

The big idea that made Round Rock a tech capital was not a chip or a gadget. It was a manufacturing method. When Michael Dell started building PCs in 1984, the entire industry built machines first, shipped them to…

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).

Cedar Ridge (Round Rock, TX) placed on the 6A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Jake Shoemaker (3 HR); Matthew Mabry (3 HR); Luke Irwin (3 HR).

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…

Parmer Lane, between Metric Boulevard and Lamar Boulevard in Austin, is also the Master Sergeant Jonathan J. Dunbar Memorial Parkway. Jonathan Dunbar grew up in North Austin and attended Conley High School, then joined…

The original farmhouse site and the location of the film's closing highway sequence are at Quick Hill, near Hester's Crossing Road and old County Road 172 in Round Rock. The house was dismantled in 1998 and moved about…

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was shot on 16mm between July 15 and August 14, 1973, by a largely amateur crew drawn from the University of Texas at Austin, on a budget generally reported at under $140,000. Director Tobe…

The farmhouse used for the Sawyer family home stood on Quick Hill Road in Round Rock, Williamson County, just off Interstate 35 about ten miles north of Austin. Interiors were shot inside the actual house with the…

You're driving past Merrilltown Cemetery, a final resting place for folks who settled this land over 170 years ago. Captain Nelson Merrell established the Merrilltown community back in 1837, running the post office and…

You're driving past the Bratton Cemetery, a pioneer graveyard that started in 1847. John Bratton, who came to Texas in 1837, purchased land here and set aside an acre for family and friends. It's a reminder of the…

You're driving through Manor, a town Aaron Boyce helped settle back in the days of the Republic of Texas. His family's small cemetery here holds five graves, including his son James, who was only fifteen when he was…

You're driving past the site of Walnut Creek Baptist Church. Organized in 1856 with just ten members at the Burdett Schoolhouse, its first pastor was the Rev. R.B. Burleson. The original stone was quarried locally, and…

You're driving past what was once Waters Park, a vibrant, multi-ethnic community north of Austin. Back in the 19th century, the Austin & Northwestern Railroad saw potential here. They built a recreational park right in…

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…

You're driving past the site of Trinity Lutheran College, a school that opened its doors in Round Rock way back in 1906. The Augustana Lutheran Synod chose this spot because the town offered them a well, 14 city lots,…

You're driving past the Olson House in Round Rock, a beautiful example of Queen Anne architecture. Built in 1908 by A.S. Robertson, this home has a unique story. It was purchased in 1907 by Johanna Olson, a Swedish…

Round Rock got its name from a literal round rock in Brushy Creek, but it earned its place in Texas legend in July of 1878. That's when Sam Bass — train robber, Indiana orphan, and the most wanted outlaw in the state —…

You're in Round Rock, Texas, so here's the rounded-rock tangent behind the name: Round Rock takes its name from an actual rounded rock in Brushy Creek. Before modern signs, it marked a dependable low-water crossing used…

You're in Round Rock, Texas, so here's the rounded-rock tangent behind the name: rocks in streams collide, scrape against sediment, and lose sharp corners through abrasion. Weathering weakens surfaces, while transport…

You're in Round Rock, Texas, so here's the rounded-rock tangent behind the name: igneous rocks crystallize from molten material, sedimentary rocks form from accumulated particles or chemical and biological deposits, and…

You're in Round Rock, Texas, so here's the rounded-rock tangent behind the name: a good skipping stone is thin and flat, not merely round. Thrown with spin at a shallow angle, it repeatedly deflects from the water while…

On July 19, 1878, train robber Sam Bass and two of his gang rode into Round Rock's new railroad town to scout a bank they planned to rob the next day. They had not counted on a betrayal: gang member Jim Murphy had…

Sam Bass robbed his first train near Dallas in 1877 and became the most wanted man in Texas almost overnight. He was twenty-six, good-looking, and generous with stolen money, which made him popular with people who…

You are standing near one of the few towns in Texas named for an actual rock you can still walk up to. Down in Brushy Creek, on the east side of Chisholm Trail Road, sits a rounded, anvil-shaped slab of limestone rising…

Out at 3400 East Palm Valley Boulevard, on former farmland on the east side of town, sits Dell Diamond, one of the most attended ballparks in all of Minor League Baseball. The Round Rock Express take their name from…

You're in Round Rock, Texas, so here's the rounded-rock tangent behind the name: Stonehenge was built and rearranged in stages over centuries; it is not simply one ring raised in a day, and its uses remain debated.…

You're driving past Round Rock, a town that started as a simple settlement in the 1830s. By 1876, the railroad arrived, creating a 'New Town' that quickly challenged Austin for economic control of Central Texas. This…

A few miles east of downtown, the area still called Palm Valley owes its name and its character to one determined Swedish widow. In 1853, Anna Palm arrived from Sweden with her six sons after her husband died, and the…

The historic limestone storefronts along Main Street are not where Round Rock started; they are where the railroad dragged it. The original settlement grew up around the creek crossing, but in 1876 the…

After dark, downtown Round Rock carries a reputation that goes back to the most violent day in its history. In July 1878, the failed Sam Bass robbery turned the streets of New Town into a gunfight that left Deputy A. W.…

The quiet residential street named Chisholm Trail in Old Round Rock marks a route that once shook with the hooves of cattle herds. After the Civil War, ranchers pushed enormous herds of longhorns north out of South…

Our Round Rock is named for a rounded limestone stone in a creek, a low, wet, worn-smooth thing you could sit on and fish. But there's another Round Rock out west, and it could not be more different. Round Rock,…

The town is named for a round rock, so of course its most famous export is round and world-famous, but it's a lot sweeter than limestone. Round Rock Donuts started back in nineteen twenty-six as the Lone Star Bakery.…

As you roll through Round Rock, here's the thing worth holding onto. Most towns are named for a founder, a saint, or a faraway city somebody missed. This one is named for a rock in a creek, and that rock is still down…

You're driving past the old Broom Factory Building, a Victorian-style structure erected way back in 1876. For a time, this was home to the Round Rock Broom Company, an important local business that even won a gold medal…

Round Rock has always been a place of change, but the explosive growth it's seen in the last decade has really shifted the landscape. You can still see the echoes of its past, walking along the preserved Chisholm Trail…

You're driving past the Nelson-Crier House in Round Rock, a home that tells a story of Swedish immigration and changing architectural styles. Andrew J. and Hedwig Nelson arrived from Sweden in 1854 and worked hard to…

You're driving past the A.J. and Carolina Anderson House, a beautiful Folk Victorian built in 1908 and 1909. Anders Johan Anderson, a Swedish immigrant, built this home just after his first wife passed away. He moved in…

You're driving past the home of A. J. Nelson, a rancher and banker who came all the way from Sweden. Built in 1860, this house has a unique story. Swedish masons, working to pay off their passage to America, actually…

You're driving past the Otto Reinke Building, a survivor from 1879, just three years after the railroad brought expansion to Round Rock. Over the decades, this structure housed everything from general stores to…

You're driving past the site of a home built by Andrew J. Palm, a Swedish immigrant who came to Texas in 1853. He built this house around 1873, hauling lumber all the way from Austin. Palm and his wife raised eight…

You're driving past the site of an early commercial building in Round Rock, constructed with native limestone. It first housed the private bank and the hardware and lumber business of John A. Nelson and Associates. The…

You're driving through Austin, past the site of St. Stephen's Missionary Baptist Church. Organized way back in 1887, this congregation was a vital hub for the black communities of Waters Park, Round Rock, and…

In the mid-1990s, Round Rock was a pleasant but unremarkable suburb of Austin. That all changed when a young man named Michael Dell decided it was the perfect place to grow his company, Dell Computers. He had started…

The rise of Dell Computers wasn't just about making good PCs; it was a revolution in manufacturing and logistics, and it was run out of headquarters right here in Round Rock. While other companies built computers and…

The most important landmark in Round Rock isn't a building—it's a rock. If you visit Chisholm Trail Crossing Park, you can stand on the banks of Brushy Creek and see it: a large, rounded limestone formation in the…

Pull over for Round Rock Donuts. They have been making donuts in this town for a hundred years. Reinhold Moehring opened a place called the Lone Star Bakery on Main Street in nineteen twenty six. Through the nineteen…

You're driving past Round Rock, the final stop for the infamous outlaw Sam Bass. An Indiana orphan who drifted to Texas, Bass became known for racing horses, gambling, and robbing trains. After a big score in Nebraska,…

Texas-sized golden donuts from a bakery dating to the 1920s — the giant 'Round Rock Donut' has drawn dawn lines and a Man v. Food cameo.

At 106 West Liberty Avenue, in the heart of Round Rock, sits a bakery that has been frying doughnuts since long before Dell or Dell Diamond existed. The shop traces back to 1926, when it operated as the Lone Star…

The Round Rock you see today isn't the original - but the reason it moved isn't the one you usually hear. The first settlement grew up around Jacob Harrell's blacksmith shop in 1848 and was simply called Brushy Creek.…

You're driving past the site of Kenney's Fort, the very first settlement in Williamson County. In the spring of 1839, Dr. Thomas Kenney and Joseph Barnhart built this home, which quickly became a refuge from Indian…

You're driving past the site of the Double File Trail, named because two horsemen could ride side-by-side. Delaware Indians laid out this route in 1828 as they moved from East Texas to Mexico. By 1838, Kenney Fort, the…

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…

You're driving past Palm Valley, a place named by Swedish settlers back in 1853. Just imagine, the very first Lutheran church in this area, called 'Brushy,' was built right here in 1861. It was made of logs, constructed…

You're driving past the resting place of two brothers who served the Confederacy in a unique way. Rev. Edward and Rev. John Hudson, Presbyterian ministers from Arkansas, came to Texas in 1856. When the Civil War broke…

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…

Round Rock Express minor league baseball team, founded 2000 when ownership group led by Nolan Ryan + Don Sanders moved the Jackson Generals to the new Dell Diamond stadium. 'Express' = homage to Ryan's 'Ryan Express'…

You're driving past a piece of Williamson County history! This cabin, built in the early 1850s near the old village of Gabriel Mills, wasn't just a home. It served as the community hub, hosting church services, school…

You're driving past the Anti-Slaveholding Union Baptist Cemetery, also known as Smalley Cemetery. It's named for pioneer Baptist preacher Freeman Smalley and his family, who were early settlers here. While the oldest…

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…

McNeil (Austin, TX) placed on the 6A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Justin Sandusky (0.412 avg, 1 HR).

You're driving past the site of early educational efforts in Round Rock. Back in the late 1800s, this community poured its heart into building schools. First came the Greenwood Masonic Institute, founded in 1867. Then,…

You're driving through Round Rock, Texas, right where a terrible tragedy unfolded on January 22, 1927. The Baylor University basketball team, the 'Immortal Ten,' was headed south for a game. As their bus crossed these…

One of the most notorious con men of the Old West got his start right here in Round Rock. Jefferson Randolph Smith, born in Georgia in 1860 to a once-wealthy family ruined by the Civil War, moved with his family to…

You are standing at the actual round rock. It sits right out there in Brushy Creek, table shaped, the landmark that gave this whole city its name. But what the rock really was, was a crossing. In the years after the…

You're driving through Williamson County, not far from Round Rock, where a man named Washington Anderson made his mark. He fought at the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution, and was…

You're driving through Central Texas, perhaps near Round Rock, where the legend of Sam Bass met its end. Bass, an outlaw who started his Texas journey as a simple cowboy and horse racer right here in Denton, eventually…

You're driving through Lampasas County, a place that saw some serious outlaw trouble back in the day. Right here is where Nelson Orcelus Reynolds, a Texas Ranger known as 'The Intrepid,' made his mark. In 1877, with…

You're driving through Central Texas, maybe not far from Round Rock, where one of the most famous Texas outlaw stories played out. It's July 1878, and Texas Ranger Richard Clayton Ware is getting a shave. Suddenly, Sam…

You're driving through Round Rock, a town that got its name from a distinctive anvil-shaped rock in Brushy Creek. But this peaceful spot also has a wild past. In 1878, the infamous outlaw Sam Bass was drawn to the area.…

You're driving through Williamson County, and right here in Round Rock, you're passing through a place with a legendary frontier lawman. Henry Albert Highsmith was a Texas Ranger, a Confederate soldier, and a man who…

You're driving through Central Texas, and right here is the home of a music festival that started with a simple jam session. Back in 1987, musicians in Round Rock, members of the Old Settlers Fiddlers Association, were…

You're driving past Round Rock, a place named for a unique geological feature right here in Brushy Creek. For years, this large, table-shaped stone served as a vital low-water crossing for both Native Americans and…

You're driving through Williamson County, maybe near Round Rock. Right here, Dr. William Mitchell Owens served in the Eighth Texas Legislature from 1859 to 1861, representing both Burnet and Williamson counties. But…

You're driving past the Mount Salem Cemetery, established in 1882 by the Methodist Episcopal Church of Mount Salem. This land was purchased for both a sanctuary and burial plots for the Walnut Creek community. Though…

Hey road trippers! As you cruise through Round Rock, imagine a time when this whole area was just dusty plains. Back in 1848, a blacksmith named Jacob Harrell built what's believed to be the very first school in…

Hey road-trippers! You're cruising past the site of Round Rock's very first permanent post office. Built around 1853, this stone building was also a mercantile store, serving the pioneer road connecting Austin and…

You're driving past the Barker House in Round Rock. In May of 1873, E. B. and Mary Harvey Barker purchased this home, built from local limestone. They owned a farm about twenty miles east, but they wintered here so…

You're driving past the Barr Mansion, a beautiful reminder of a booming cotton town. Built in 1898 for cotton merchant William Braxton Barr, this home was designed by Austin architect Charles Page. Barr himself named…

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…

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…

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 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…

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…

You're cruising past Round Rock Cemetery, a resting place for pioneers, citizens, and a notorious outlaw. The oldest stone here marks the grave of Angeline Scott, who died in 1851 at just 11 years old. But this ground…

You're driving past Old Round Rock Cemetery, and right near the famous outlaw Sam Bass, there's a whole different story. Look for a section enclosed by cedar posts and barbed wire. This is a slave burial ground, set…

You're driving through Hutto, and right here is the resting place of Major Robert McNutt. He was a veteran of the War of 1812, but his most significant Texas role came in <say-as interpret-as="date"…

You're driving past the Harrell Cemetery, a final resting place for some of Williamson County's earliest settlers. Jacob and Mary Harrell arrived in Texas way back in 1833 with Robertson's Colony. Their family soon…

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,…

Interstate Thirty Five in Williamson County, from State Highway Forty Five to Westinghouse Road, is the Officer Charles Whites Memorial Highway. Charles Whites Junior served the Round Rock Police Department for nineteen…

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 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…

Here is a puzzle. How do you carve a circuit far too small to ever see? You print it with light. The process is called photolithography. A pattern on a stencil-like mask gets projected and shrunk down through lenses…

For years, packaging a chip meant something boring. You sealed one chip in a little protective case, and that was that. Today, packaging has become one of the hottest frontiers in the entire industry. Here is why.…

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…

When people picture where America makes its computer chips, they rarely say Austin. But this city has been a quiet capital of the chip for decades. Back in 1987, a big industry-and-government research consortium called…

Chip features are measured in nanometers, and a nanometer is almost impossibly small. It is one billionth of a meter, just a handful of atoms laid side by side. A modern chip is built up in dozens of these patterned…

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…

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…

You're driving past the site of Fiskville, a farming community that thrived just outside Austin. Josiah Fisk arrived here way back in 1846, and Edward Zimmerman followed in 1854, bringing their families to these fertile…

You're driving through Williamson County, and you're passing the site of the old Stony Point School. Established around 1891, this little schoolhouse was more than just a place for kids to learn their ABCs. For many of…

You're driving through Hutto, Williamson County, where the Hutto Baptist Church has been a cornerstone for over a century. Organized in 1882, the congregation first met in the local schoolhouse. Their first sanctuary,…

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…

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…

You're driving past the Old Zimmerman Home, a piece of Austin's early frontier history. Edward Zimmerman, a German immigrant, settled here in 1854 with his wife Regina. He built this farmhouse in 1861, using local…

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…

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…

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,…

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 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).

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…

You're driving through Decker, just outside Austin, where Swedish immigrants found a new home and a new church in the 1880s. Many were seeking freedom from the Swedish state church, and they started meeting in homes and…

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…

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…

You're driving through Round Rock, near where folks used to call this place Pond Springs. Back in the 1850s, James O. Rice settled here by a spring-fed pond. By 1854, a log schoolhouse went up, and it wasn't just for…

On the night of December sixth, nineteen ninety-one, four teenage girls were working a closing shift at an I Can't Believe It's Yogurt shop on Anderson Lane in Austin, Texas. Jennifer Harbison was seventeen. Her sister…

You're driving past Manor, where in 1903, Reverend Joseph E. Clayton arrived to lead the area's first black school. Under his guidance, the curriculum expanded beyond traditional studies to include vital vocational and…

You're driving through Manor, a town with roots stretching back to the early 1830s. James Manor himself arrived from Tennessee with Sam Houston, eventually returning to bring his family and siblings to this area. For…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Among the people who spent their childhood on the roads around Manor is the actress Amber Heard. She was born April 22, 1986, in Austin, just down the highway, and grew up out here on the eastern edge of Travis County,…

For most of its life, Manor was a sleepy cotton-and-rail town that barely cracked a thousand people. In 2000 the census counted just 1,204 residents here. Then Austin's growth came roaring east. By 2010 the population…

On the Manor school district campus stands a high school that drew educators from across the country to a small Texas town. Manor New Technology High School opened on August 27, 2007, built entirely around project-based…

If you want to eat somewhere with deep Manor roots, pull into Cafe 290 at 11011 Highway 290 East. The building itself has an origin story most diners cannot match: around 1947, a man named Red Ferguson hauled a surplus…

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…

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…

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…

You're driving through Williamson County, near the site of what was once Jollyville. Settled in the 1840s, this area saw pioneers like Elisha Prewitt, who fought at San Jacinto. Later, Civil War veteran William H.…

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…

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…

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 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…

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…

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. 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'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…

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…

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…

Jollyville's history began with Henry Rhodes, who received a land grant of about 1,000 acres from the Republic of Texas in 1841. However, the area's name comes from Confederate general John G. Jolly, who purchased 160…

You're driving past the site of a brutal Indian attack in August of 1833. Five people were in the party, and two were killed outright: Thomas Christian and William Strother. Josiah Wilbarger was scalped, and though he…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

You're driving past the Jolly Cemetery, a pioneer burial ground named for John Grey Jolly and his wife Nancy. The earliest marked grave here is Margaret Evergreen Robinson, who died in 1872. Also buried here are five…

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…

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…

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…

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…

You're driving through Austin, passing the site of the First Presbyterian Church. This congregation started back in 1850 with just five charter members, including Abner Cook, the builder of the Governor's Mansion. Their…

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…

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…

You're driving past the Balcones Fault line, a rugged escarpment that shaped the very settlement of Texas. Back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1756</say-as>, Spanish explorer Bernardo de Miranda named this…