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Taylor, Texas

Everything Taylor is known for

5 songs mention this city 2 artists from here

RoadyGoat plays music like this when you drive through Taylor. It's free on iPhone, and full songs play through Apple Music.

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Music in Taylor

Songs About Taylor

Taylor
Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star
81%
"TITLE"
Taylor, Texas
Tim Rogers
79%
"Taylor, Texas"
Hey Wade
Paul Eason
15%
"Brisket that don't take a knife, oh my those beans are very nice"
Lone Star Love
Red Steagall
7%
"There's Austin, Taylor, Galveston"
Texas BBQ
Race Ricketts
7%
"TITLE"

Artists From Taylor

D
Dat Boy Jp
hip-hop
P
Paul Schlesinger
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Taylor

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

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

History of Taylor

The Man Who Prosecuted the Klan RoadyGoat

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 and tarred a traveling salesman named Robert Burleson near Georgetown for ignoring their warning to leave town. Moody did the unthinkable: he took them to court. The case was a sensation. Witnesses were intimidated, and the Klan seemed untouchable. But Moody, a brilliant and determined prosecutor, methodically built his case across trials that ran from September 1923 into February 1924. He came away with five convictions—four Klansmen for assault, plus one for perjury. The Texas Historical Commission calls it the first successful prosecution of the 1920s Klan anywhere in the United States. The victory shattered the Klan's image of invincibility in Texas and propelled Dan Moody to statewide fame. At thirty-three he became the youngest governor in Texas history, all because he had the courage to pursue justice from his office right here in the Taylor area.

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Taylor, TX RoadyGoat

On September 9 and 10, 1921, Taylor experienced a catastrophic flood that resulted in the deaths of eighty-seven people in and around the city. This disaster was caused by 39.7 inches of rain falling in 36 hours on Williamson County, leading to the flooding of the San Gabriel River and Brushy Creek.

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Taylor, TX RoadyGoat

Taylor’s always been a town shaped by big forces, starting with the railroad that birthed it back in '76. For generations, it was cotton that defined us, with that enormous compress humming day and night. More recently, it's manufacturing that's kept the heart of this town beating, the kind of work that builds families and keeps Friday night lights shining down on the Duck’s football field. But the biggest change in a lifetime is undeniably the arrival of Samsung. Suddenly, we're not just a quiet stop on the way to somewhere else. A global tech giant planting its roots just outside of town? It’s brought a buzz, a feeling of opportunity mixed with a healthy dose of anxiety. Will we lose the small-town charm that makes Taylor, Taylor? Will the wildflowers of the Blackland Prairie survive the construction? Only time will tell, but one thing's for sure: Taylor's story is far from over.

Tex Avery

1935

Born in Taylor on February 26, 1908, Frederick Bean “Tex” Avery is one of the most important figures in the history of animation. Directing cartoons at Warner Brothers and MGM from 1935 to 1955, he developed such legendary characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Droopy and Chilly Willy. He also pioneered a style of fast-paced slapstick comedy that introduced many of the basic comedic elements still found in cartoons today. His peers considered him a creative genius and his films continue to enjoy critical and popular acclaim. Avery spent his childhood in Taylor, growing up in homes on Eighth and Hackberry streets. He attended high school in Dallas before moving to California after graduation. In 1935, Avery took a job at Warner Bros. Where he presided over the innovative crew of "Termite Terrace" and introduced the world to Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny. Searching for the perfect expression to capture Bugs Bunny’s carefree attitude in A Wild Hare (1940), Avery recalled a phrase popular among students at North Dallas High School: “What’s up, Doc?” He spent seven years at Warner Brothers and then moved to MGM in 1942, where he perfected his unique style of rapid-fire, logic-defying gags. After a lifetime spent reinventing the American cartoon, Avery died in Los Angeles in 1980. Tex Avery’s influence on his craft is difficult to overstate. He created some of the most enduring characters and compositions in history and directed cartoons that were funnier, faster and wilder than anyone had ever seen. An enormously talented writer, artist and director, Tex Avery left his stamp not just on the world of animation, but on the wider universe of American popular culture. 175 Years of Texas Independence * 1836 - 2011

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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 “

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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.

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Heap, James Arthur [Jimmy]

1948

James Arthur “Jimmy” Heap was a bandleader, songwriter, and guitarist. His group, the Melody Masters, is one of the best exemplars of the post-World War II-era style of honky-tonk music and introduced two of the most iconic country songs, “The Wild Side of Life” and “Release Me,” to a wide audience. Born in Taylor, Texas, in Williamson County on March 3, 1922, Heap first became interested in making music while working at a service station at age eighteen. He recalled that a frequent customer, local business owner and guitar player Herman Bruno "Slim" Gensler, used to bring his guitar in and play, sparking Heap’s interest in learning that instrument. With the outbreak of World War II , he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps and was stationed in Sedalia, Missouri. There he met his future wife. When Heap was discharged after the war, he began pursuing his musical career in earnest and assembled the first iteration of the Melody Masters, which consisted of high school friend Bill Glendening, Arlie Carter, Louie Rincon, Bill Kaspar, and Tommy Swenson. Heap’s band began playing dances at popular halls around Central Texas. Their Saturday night residency at a dance hall just northeast of Austin, Dessau Hall , was an important venue for the Melody Masters early in their career. In 1948 the band began its own radio broadcast on KTAE in Taylor, sponsored in part by Dessau Hall. By this time, Arlie Carter and new member Horace Barnett had adopted an old-time fiddle tune that Barnett dubbed the “Dessau Waltz.” A rough demo of the song was featured on the fifteen-minute radio broadcast daily, and it quickly became a regional hit. Soon, Jimmy Heap and the Melody Masters recorded the song for Lasso Records in Austin. That single’s success led to a second single, “Lonely Waltz”/“Rugged But Right.” Heap and the Melody Masters were offered a recording contract with Imperial Records in 1949. By this time the lineup included steel guitarist Cecil “Butterball” Harris and fiddler Houston “Perk” Williams, whose distinct vocals would later help advance record sales. Their debut single with Imperial, “That’s My Baby”/“Today, Tonight and Tomorrow,” did well. A subsequent recording, “A Million Tears,” won the group a spot on Big D Jamboree . Their release of “The Wild Side of Life,” primarily written by William Warren of Cameron, Texas, sold well throughout Texas and later proved highly successful for Hank Thompson who took it to the top of the charts in 1952. Jimmy Heap and the Melody Masters recorded for Imperial between 1949 and 1951 and enjoyed great success in Texas and the Southwest. When nationally-distributed label Capitol offered them a contract, they quickly accepted. With Capitol, they recorded the biggest hit of their career, “Release Me.” Heap recalled that Perk Williams found a recording of the song done by Eddie Miller on 4 Star Records. The flip side had a song called “Motel Time” which had suggestive lyrics, causing most disc jockeys to discard the entire record. After adding “Release Me” to their live repertoire to great response, they recorded it for Capitol, who released it in 1953. It hit the Top 5 on the national charts in January 1954. Cash Box magazine named the Melody Masters one of the ten most-programmed country dance bands in the United States in 1955. No other of their Capitol recordings made the Billboard Top 10, and Heap and the band left the label in 1956. Perk Williams left the band less than a year later. In the following years, they recorded on the band’s own labels—mainly the Fame, Big Band, and Splash labels. They also leased some of their masters to other interested labels, including Winston and D Records . By the late 1950s the core lineup of Heap, Harris, and Glendening put together a new group that ventured into rockabilly music. Their recordings featured noted vocalists Dale McBride and Bill Taylor. During the 1960s the Melody Masters included Butch Keith and Ken Idaho, who helped transform the group in

Tsha Handbook →

Birthplace of Governor Dan Moody

1925

A crusader for integrity in public office. Born in Taylor, Williamson County; son of Daniel and Nancy Elizabeth Robertson Moody. At 16 entered University of Texas, where he completed law school. After World War I service, won election to the office of county attorney, then an appointment by Governor Pat Neff to District Attorney, Travis and Williamson counties. Won statewide notice for prosecutions of Ku Klux Klansmen in notorious flogging cases, and was urged by friends to run for Attorney General of Texas. He won this office, and served 1925-1927 in an era of alleged corruption. Moving to halt kickbacks on highway contracts, he recovered for Texas hundreds of thousands of dollars. In 1926 ran for governor on his record as Attorney General, and was elected. Inaugurated when he was 33, he was youngest man ever to take oath for that office. During his terms, 1927-1931, Texans' faith in their state government was restored. Great reforms were made in the State Highway Department and state penitentiary system. After retirement from the governor's office, he practiced law, and was appointed by the President of the United States to prosecute tax evader. He married Mildred Paxton; they had two children.

Historical Marker →

Bill Pickett

1870

(ca. December 1870-March 25, 1932) The son of a former slave, Willie M. (Bill) Pickett grew up in Taylor. Working as a cowboy in central Texas, he pioneered the art of "bulldogging," in which a cowboy jumps from his horse to twist a steer's horns to force it to the ground. One of the few black cowboys on the rodeo circuit, Pickett became a sensation, performing in the U.S., Mexico, Canada, and Europe. He retired in Oklahoma in 1930 and died two years later from injuries sustained in a riding accident. In 1971 he became the first African American cowboy inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. (1991)

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Things to Do in Taylor

food 1.9 mi away
Louie Mueller Barbecue

Taylor's legendary BBQ since 1949. The soot-blackened walls tell the story.
quirky 14.6 mi away
Texas Chain Saw Massacre Gas Station

The original 1974 filming location is now a BBQ restaurant. Life imitates art.
nature 15.1 mi away
Inner Space Cavern

Texas Highway Department drillers punched into this cave in 1963 while testing the ground for an Interstate 35 overpass in Georgetown. The drill bit dropped…
food 15.1 mi away
Round Rock Donuts

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.
food 16.3 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…
historical 24.3 mi away
Kitchens & Landers Sinclair Station

A full-service Sinclair gas station at 5517 Cameron Road circa 1955. White-wall tires and credit card signs — Austin before the interstates.
day trip
Day Trip to Taylor 🎣 (FULL EPISODE) S8 E3

Featured on The Daytripper — a full-episode local travel guide.

Everything Near Taylor

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

  • The Man Who Prosecuted the Klan

    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…

  • Taylor, TX

    On September 9 and 10, 1921, Taylor experienced a catastrophic flood that resulted in the deaths of eighty-seven people in and around the city. This disaster was caused by 39.7 inches of rain falling in 36 hours on…

  • The Cathedral of Smoke

    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

    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

    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…

  • Booth House · 0.5 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…

  • The Hot Spot: A Bank Job at Main and Second · 0.8 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] · 0.8 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 · 0.8 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…

  • Heap, James Arthur [Jimmy] · 0.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    James Arthur “Jimmy” Heap was a bandleader, songwriter, and guitarist. His group, the Melody Masters, is one of the best exemplars of the post-World War II-era style of honky-tonk music and introduced two of the most…

  • Moody, Daniel James, Jr. · 0.8 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…

  • Brown, Margarett Root · 0.8 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…

Show all 200 nearby places
  • Brushy Creek, Battle of · 0.8 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 · 0.8 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,…

  • Burns, Hugh · 0.8 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 · 0.8 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,…

  • Doak Pavilion Site · 0.9 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 · 0.9 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…

  • The working facility, not a set · 1.0 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,…

  • The Slaughterhouse in Taylor · 1.0 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…

  • Wedemeyer Hospital Site · 1.3 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…

  • Doak Home · 1.5 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 · 1.5 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…

  • The Town the Railroad Auctioned Into Existence · 1.6 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 · 1.6 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…

  • Eleven Rings Started in Taylor · 1.6 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 Machine That Squeezed a Bale in Half · 1.6 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…

  • Sloan House · 1.6 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…

  • Saint James Church · 1.6 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…

  • Tenth Street United Methodist Church, The · 1.6 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…

  • Taylor Public Schools · 1.7 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…

  • Wilson Spring Cemetery · 1.7 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…

  • The Youngest Governor Texas Ever Elected · 1.8 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 · 1.8 mi · Historical Marker

    A crusader for integrity in public office. Born in Taylor, Williamson County; son of Daniel and Nancy Elizabeth Robertson Moody. At 16 entered University of Texas, where he completed law school. After World War I…

  • A Governor's House Frozen in 1893 · 1.8 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…

  • First Christian Church of Taylor · 1.8 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.…

  • First Presbyterian Church of Taylor · 1.8 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…

  • Tex Avery · 1.9 mi · Historical Marker

    Born in Taylor on February 26, 1908, Frederick Bean “Tex” Avery is one of the most important figures in the history of animation. Directing cartoons at Warner Brothers and MGM from 1935 to 1955, he…

  • The Cathedral of Smoke on Second Street · 1.9 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…

  • Louie Mueller Barbecue · 1.9 mi · Things to Do

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

  • The Largest Inland Cotton Market in the World · 1.9 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 · 1.9 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…

  • City of Taylor · 1.9 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…

  • Taylor Post Office · 1.9 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 · 1.9 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…

  • Bill Pickett Comes Home · 2.0 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…

  • Bill Pickett · 2.0 mi · Historical Marker

    (ca. December 1870-March 25, 1932) The son of a former slave, Willie M. (Bill) Pickett grew up in Taylor. Working as a cowboy in central Texas, he pioneered the art of "bulldogging," in which a cowboy jumps from his…

  • The Barefoot Janitor of the Howard Theatre · 2.0 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 · 2.0 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 National Bank · 2.0 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…

  • Williamson County · 2.1 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…

  • Immanuel Lutheran Church · 2.1 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…

  • First Baptist Church · 2.3 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…

  • Luther Stearns, Sr. · 2.4 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…

  • C.S.A. Cotton Cards Factory · 3.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Circleville, and right near here, back in the middle of the Civil War, a vital factory was humming. From 1862 to 1865, this place used the San Gabriel River's power to make something called cotton…

  • Easley-Sloan Cemetery · 4.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Easley-Sloan Cemetery, established in 1852. It was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2007.

  • McFadin, David H. and Jerusha Dyches, House · 4.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the home of David H. and Jerusha Dyches McFadin, built way back in 1850. David arrived in Texas in 1828, and fought for Texas independence at the Battle of San Jacinto. This house, with its thick,…

  • Bland, Howard, Sr. · 4.3 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…

  • David Hutcheson McFadin · 4.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Circleville, Texas, and the name David Hutcheson McFadin might ring a bell if you're a Texas history buff. McFadin wasn't just any settler; he was a soldier who fought for Texas's independence. He…

  • Battle of Brushy Creek · 5.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Williamson County, near where a fierce battle unfolded in the winter of 1839. This skirmish along Brushy Creek marked the last major clash between Comanche raiders and Anglo settlers in this area.…

  • Turkey Creek School · 5.5 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…

  • Monodale Community · 5.6 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…

  • Jonah Cemetery · 6.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Jonah Cemetery, established in 1902 by community leaders who bought two acres near the San Gabriel River for burials. It was free for area residents. Look for the earliest marked grave of George N.…

  • Hutto's Detective Sergeant · 6.6 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…

  • The Swedish Church a Tornado Couldn't Keep Down · 6.7 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…

  • Hutto Evangelical Lutheran Church · 6.7 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…

  • Kimbro Family Cemetery · 6.7 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…

  • M.B. Norman House · 6.7 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…

  • The 1902 Fire That Cleared East Street · 6.8 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…

  • Fariss, Dolores · 6.8 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 · 6.8 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 · 6.9 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 · 6.9 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 · 6.9 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 · 6.9 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 · 6.9 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…

  • Henrietta, the 14,000-Pound Hippo Downtown · 6.9 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, TX · 6.9 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 · 6.9 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…

  • Norman's Crossing · 6.9 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…

  • Hutto · 6.9 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…

  • Saul Cemetery · 7.0 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…

  • Rice, James O. · 7.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site where James O. Rice, a South Carolina native, made his mark on Texas. He arrived by 1835, fighting for Texas independence and later protecting frontier settlements as a Ranger. In 1839, Rice…

  • Community of Jonah · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Williamson County, heading past the community of Jonah. It started in 1851 as Water Valley, settled by folks arriving on a wagon train from Arkansas. But the real story kicks off in 1884. The…

  • New Bern Church, School, and Cemetery · 7.5 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…

  • Hutto Cemetery · 7.5 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,…

  • Hutto United Methodist Church · 7.6 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…

  • Christ Lutheran Church · 7.6 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 First Hutto Hippo to Make the NFL · 7.7 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…

  • Site of Moravia School · 7.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Williamson County, near Granger, and you're passing the site of the old Moravia School. This one-room schoolhouse, built in 1884, was the heart of a Czech immigrant community. Pavel Machu, who…

  • Gated, private, view from the road · 7.8 mi

    The house sits on a county road in the farmland outside Granger and is visible from the public road. It remains a private residence: the driveway is gated, posted with no-trespassing signs, and monitored by security…

  • The House They Moved by Train · 7.8 mi

    The farmhouse used as the Hewitt family home in the 2003 remake stands on County Road 336 outside Granger, in northeastern Williamson County. The roughly 6,000-square-foot Victorian was built in central Austin in the…

  • Shiloh-McCutcheon Cemetery · 7.8 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…

  • Hutto Lutheran Cemetery · 7.8 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…

  • Macedonia Cemetery · 8.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Williamson County, and right here is the Macedonia Cemetery. Local legend says an all-faiths church stood here as early as 1858. By the 1860s, English and German immigrants were settling in,…

  • The Day the Hippo Came to Town · 8.5 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 Thrall Tanker Who Came Home · 8.5 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…

  • The Gin at the Co-Op · 8.5 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 · 8.5 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…

  • Thrall, TX · 8.5 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…

  • St. John Lutheran Church · 8.5 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…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Thrall (Thrall) · 8.6 mi

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

  • Site of Gano Community · 8.6 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.…

  • Town of Thrall · 8.8 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…

  • One Building, A Dozen Lives · 8.9 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…

  • Cuts himself with a straight razor · 8.9 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 · 8.9 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…

  • United States Senator Morgan C. Hamilton · 8.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the area where Morgan C. Hamilton made his home. Born in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1809</say-as>, Hamilton was a true Texas patriot. He served as Secretary of War and Marine for the…

  • Hutto Baptist Church · 8.9 mi · Historical Marker

    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,…

  • The Flood of 1921 · 9.0 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 · 9.0 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…

  • The Dancehall That Saved a Town · 9.0 mi

    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 · 9.0 mi

    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 · 9.0 mi

    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 · 9.0 mi

    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…

  • Monitors in the Pews · 9.0 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…

  • The Major Who Never Farmed Here · 9.0 mi

    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 · 9.0 mi

    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…

  • Thrall, TX · 9.0 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.

  • The Town That Waited 125 Years · 9.0 mi

    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 · 9.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Williamson County, and the town you're passing, Coupland, is named for a man who lived a pretty interesting life. Theodore Van Buren Coupland was a Unionist who fled Texas during the Civil War,…

  • Stiles Switch renamed for a minister · 9.0 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…

  • Saint Peters United Church of Christ · 9.0 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…

  • Granger City Hall (Farmers State Bank) · 9.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the old Granger City Hall, a building that tells a story of boom and bust. It opened its doors in 1908 as the Farmers State Bank, Granger's second bank, serving the town during its prosperous early…

  • A. A. & Mary Spacek House · 9.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Granger, and just ahead is the home of A. A. and Mary Spacek. Built between 1921 and 1923, this modest bungalow showcases Craftsman and Prairie School styles, with its low-pitched roof and wide…

  • Young House · 9.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Young House, built in 1901 for the A. A. Young family. Look for its grand columns with Corinthian capitals and decorative balustrades – it's a beautiful example of Classical Revival and Beaux…

  • Granger, TX · 9.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Williamson County, and right here is Granger, a town born from the intersection of two railroads back in 1882. Originally called Pollack, it quickly became a vital cotton shipping hub. By 1912,…

  • Neusser · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Neusser, a town that rose and fell with the railroad. It all started back in 1872 when Johann Neusser, a Moravian immigrant, arrived in Texas. By 1881, he and his neighbors moved here,…

  • Brick Streets in Granger · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Granger right now, a town that boomed thanks to the railroad. In 1884, landowners platted this townsite, anticipating growth along the new rail line. By 1910, Granger was a major cotton shipping…

  • Cushing, Edward Benjamin · 9.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Central Texas, and right here near Granger, you're passing through a place that holds a special connection to Texas A&M University. Edward Benjamin Cushing, a proud A&M alumnus from the class of…

  • Granger, Georgetown, Austin and San Antonio Railway · 9.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Williamson County, not far from Granger. This area was once the focus of a railroad dream that went bust, leading to a tragic end. Back in the 1890s, Captain Emzy Taylor of Georgetown was trying…

  • Trlica, John Paul · 9.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Granger, Texas, and right here is where John Paul Trlica set up his photography studio in 1909. He documented life in this Central Texas community for nearly fifty years, capturing everything from…

  • Saints Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Granger, and right here is the site of Saints Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church. Imagine the early 1880s: Czech and Moravian immigrants settling in this area, traveling twelve miles to worship…

  • Machu Cemetery · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Williamson County, not far from Granger. Look for the Machu Cemetery, a place born from a stranger's sudden death. In 1883, Pavel Machu offered a corner of his farm to bury a man who died on the…

  • Saints Cyril and Methodius Catholic School · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker

    Driving through Granger, you're passing the site of Saints Cyril and Methodius School. In 1899, Czech and Moravian parishioners here started a school for their children, just eight years after founding their church. In…

  • Mankins Crossing · 9.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Mankins Crossing, named for Samuel Mankins who settled here along the San Gabriel River in 1849. The river's limestone bed made it an easy crossing for local farmers. A community grew up nearby,…

  • Granger Brethren Church · 9.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Granger Brethren Church, a testament to faith and community for Czech immigrants. These pioneers, settling Williamson County in the early 1880s, held their first services in a humble…

  • Mager Cemetery · 9.6 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…

  • Major Robert McNutt · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker

    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"…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Granger (Granger) · 9.7 mi

    Granger (Granger, TX) placed on the 2A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Tre Castillo (0.514 avg, 3 HR); Seth Good (2 HR).

  • Klattenhoff House · 9.7 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…

  • Granger High School · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Granger High School, a building that's been educating students since 1924. But the school's roots go back even further, to 1887 when the Granger Common School District first opened its doors on this…

  • Zion Lutheran Church Cemetery · 9.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Zion Lutheran Church Cemetery near Thrall. This resting place was established back in 1882 by German, Austrian, Swiss, and French settlers who formed the community of Sandoval. The church itself…

  • The Double File Trail · 10.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the route of the Double File Trail, laid out by Delaware Indians around 1828. They called it that because two horsemen could ride abreast. The Delawares carved this trace migrating from East Texas,…

  • Texan Santa Fe Expedition · 10.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Georgetown, and right here, you're passing the campsite of a failed but ambitious dream. It's June 19th, 1841, and President Mirabeau Lamar's Texan Santa Fe Expedition is just beginning its long…

  • Weir Community Cemetery · 10.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Weir Community Cemetery. Weir Community Cemetery John Breneke (1847-1927) came from Fayette County to purchase 365 acres of farmland here in 1875. Deed records show he set aside two acres for a…

  • Carlson · 10.6 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…

  • The Iron Horse and the Blackland Prairie · 10.7 mi

    The town of Weir is a direct product of 19th-century transportation technology. Before the tracks came, this was farmland worked by families like the Weirs, who settled in during the 1850s. The change came from the…

  • Weir, TX · 10.7 mi

    In the late 19th century, the communities of Weir and Townsville grew around early settlers like Tennessee-native Thomas Calvin Weir, who became a prosperous farmer in the area. The turning point for Weir came in 1893…

  • Site of Stony Point School · 10.7 mi · Historical Marker

    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…

  • Closed on March 30, 2024 · 10.8 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 · 10.8 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 · 10.8 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…

  • Whiteley, Eli Lamar · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Williamson County, Texas, not far from where Eli Lamar Whiteley grew up. He was just a farm boy, working with goats and turkeys, dreaming of college. But World War II called, and this young Texan…

  • The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Central Texas, maybe near Williamson County, where one of the most infamous horror films of all time was brought to life: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Filmed in the sweltering Texas summer of…

  • Hardeman, William Polk · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Williamson County, Texas, and right here is the territory of William Polk Hardeman, a man who lived a life straight out of Texas legend. Born in Tennessee, he came to Texas in 1835 and immediately…

  • Olive, Isom Prentice · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Williamson County, Texas, where one of the most infamous cattlemen in Texas history got his start: Isom Prentice 'Print' Olive. Born in Mississippi in 1840, Olive moved to Texas as a child and…

  • Kenney's Fort · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Williamson County, not far from where Kenney's Fort once stood. Built in 1839 by a San Jacinto veteran, this wasn't some grand military post, but a vital frontier defense for the outermost…

  • McAnulty, Mary Alice McFadin · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Williamson County, not far from Taylor. Right here, in the late 1800s, Alice McFadin was a force to be reckoned with. She wasn't just a farmer and rancher, raising corn and cotton and livestock…

  • McFadin, David Hutchinson · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Williamson County, and right here, in the vicinity of Circleville, is where David Hutchinson McFadin settled after fighting in the Texas Revolution. He arrived in Texas as a teenager and saw…

  • Rice, James O. · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Williamson County, a place that saw intense frontier action. Right here, in what is now Williamson County, James O. Rice discovered the Manuel Flores party in May of 1839. Rice, a veteran of the…

  • Second Texas Cavalry, Arizona Brigade · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Texas, maybe near Williamson County, and thinking about the Civil War. Right here, Confederate troops were forming the Arizona Brigade, tasked with retaking the Southwest. These weren't your…

  • Webster Massacre · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Williamson County, not far from Leander. Right here, between 1838 and 1839, John Webster led thirteen settlers west, hoping to establish a new home. But they were overtaken by Comanche warriors…

  • Willis Creek (Williamson County) · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Williamson County, and right here, a little off the road, is Willis Creek. This waterway has two names that might ring a bell. Spanish explorers likely called it San Ygnacio back in 1721. But…

  • Wilson-Leonard Site · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Williamson County, right near Brushy Creek, and you're passing over 12,000 years of Texas history. The Wilson-Leonard site is one of the most complete records of ancient life ever found in North…

  • City of Weir · 10.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the spot where the town of Weir got its start, but it wasn't always called Weir. Back in 1856, Thomas Weir settled here, and a bit later, James Towns and his brother opened up a mill and blacksmith…

  • Lawrence, Adam · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once central Texas, near Lawrence Chapel. This was the stomping ground of Adam Lawrence, a name you might recognize if you're familiar with the area. Born in Kentucky in 1802, Lawrence…

  • Morgan’s Texas Cavalry Battalion · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Texas, likely not far from where these men once rode. During the Civil War, Morgan's Texas Cavalry Battalion wasn't a typical unit. It was a 'hodgepodge' of independent companies, each with its…

  • Corn Hill, TX · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Corn Hill was on Willis Creek and Interstate Highway 35 two miles south of Jarrell in north central Williamson County. The site was settled in 1855 by Judge John E. King as a stage stop on the road between Georgetown…

  • Hoxie, TX · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Hoxie is on Pecan Creek six miles northeast of Taylor in northeastern Williamson County. In 1878 John R. Hoxie, a railroad magnate, purchased 9,000 acres of ranchland in the area and built an estate called Hoxie House.…

  • Jonah, TX · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Jonah is on State Highway 29 and the San Gabriel River, seven miles east of Georgetown in central Williamson County. In 1857 James P. Warnock and Joseph T. Mileham erected a mill on the San Gabriel River, and a…

  • Neusser, TX · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Neusser, a small community of the early 1890s located almost equal distance between Georgetown and Granger in central Williamson County, was named after one of its early pioneers, Johann Neusser. Johann left his…

  • Post Oak Island, TX · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Post Oak Island was a town on the low ridge dividing the watersheds of Brushy and Yegua creeks in Williamson County. It was named for the large "island" or grove of post oak trees at its site on the prairie. It was one…

  • Rock House, TX (Williamson County) · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Rock House is on Farm Road 3405 and the North San Gabriel River, three miles northeast of Liberty Hill, in western Williamson County. Draco, the Indian name for the village that occupied the site before White…

  • Schwertner, TX · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Schwertner is on Farm Road 487 near the Bell county line forty-six miles north of Austin in north central Williamson County. It was named for Bernard Schwertner and his sons, Frank, Edward, and Adolf, Austrian…

  • Easley, Samuel Allen · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Williamson County, a place that once hosted a Texas state representative named Samuel Allen Easley. He arrived in Texas in 1852, looking to settle in Kaufman County, but found a bargain on land…

  • Williamson County · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Williamson County, a place with a history as varied as its landscape. The Balcones Escarpment splits this region, creating rolling plains to the east and hilly brushland to the west. For…

  • Andice, TX · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Andice, also called Berry's Creek and Stapp, is at the intersection of Farm Roads 2338 and 970, five miles southwest of Florence in northwest Williamson County. The site was first settled by Joshua Stapp, who built a…

  • Hare, TX · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Hare is on Farm Road 1331 forty-five miles northeast of Austin in eastern Williamson County. The origin of the town's name is disputed. Local folklore maintains that early settler William Caesar, who bought land in the…

  • The Young Lawyer Who Took On the Klan · 11.0 mi

    The story of Granger is tied to a pivotal moment in the fight for justice in Texas, thanks to a young lawyer named Dan Moody. In the early 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan held immense power, intimidating citizens and…

  • Granger, TX · 11.0 mi

    Williamson County — the county you're driving through — produced one of the most important figures in twentieth-century Texas politics: Dan Moody. He was born down the road in Taylor, and he made his name as the…

  • The Town Built of Brick · 11.0 mi

    Look at the buildings lining Granger's main street, then look down at the street itself. Granger was born in 1882 where two branches of the Katy railroad crossed, and cotton money built it fast — three churches, a…

  • Polka, Pastries, and a Helping Hand · 11.0 mi

    As you pass through Granger, you're in the heart of Texas Czech country. For the thousands of Czech immigrants who settled this land, life was hard. To survive, they relied on each other, formalizing their cooperation…

  • Taming the San Gabriel River · 11.0 mi

    Just east of town lies a massive piece of engineering that reshaped this whole area: Granger Dam. The San Gabriel River, which runs about seven miles out that way, was prone to destructive flooding that threatened farms…

  • Hollywood on the Blackland Prairie · 11.0 mi

    If downtown Granger looks like a movie set to you, you're right. In 2010 this quiet Texas town got a Hollywood makeover. Joel and Ethan Coen picked Granger to stand in for 1870s Fort Smith, Arkansas in their remake of…

  • Friendship Community · 11.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Williamson County, passing over the waters of Granger Lake. But beneath the surface, this was once the heart of a thriving community called Allison, later Friendship. Brothers Elihu and James…

  • Round Rock - The Express and Dell Diamond · 11.9 mi · Web Research

    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'…

  • Type Cemetery · 11.9 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…

  • The Lake With No River to Fill It · 12.1 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…

  • Confederate Chaplains_Rev. Edward Hudson_Rev. John Hudson · 12.1 mi · Historical Marker

    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…

  • Cabin from Gabriel Mills Area · 12.1 mi · Historical Marker

    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…

  • St. John Church · 12.2 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 · 12.3 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…

  • Lund · 12.3 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…

  • Manda · 12.4 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…

  • New Sweden Evangelical Lutheran Church · 12.4 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…

  • 1/2 Mile to the Site of Kenney's Fort · 12.8 mi · Historical Marker

    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…

  • The Double File Trail · 12.8 mi · Historical Marker

    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…

  • Palm Valley Lutheran Church · 12.9 mi · Historical Marker

    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…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Weiss (Pflugerville) · 13.0 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).

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