This overview was originally written for the Bull Creek Foundation's website, hence the similarity!
On Loop 360 near Bluffstone Drive is a history marker. Here’s a bit from that marker:
On Loop 360 near Bluffstone Drive is a history marker. Here’s a bit from that marker:
Balcones Fault Aids Colonization of Texas. Curving through the center of Texas from Hill County south and west to Uvalde County is the rugged escarpment-fault called Balcones. The abundance of natural resources associated with this geologic formation affected the pattern of colonization in Texas. The numerous springs and wooded hills of the escarpment and adjacent fertile prairies attracted Indian tribes and Spanish colonists before the area was permanently settled by Anglo-American pioneers.
Balcones Fault is a defining geologic feature of Austin,
indeed one of the reasons it was selected as the capital of Texas. And arguably
one of the most beautiful and unique features of the Balcones Fault in the
Austin area is Bull Creek and the valley it has cut flowing to its mouth on the
Colorado River. Many advertisements and postcards from the late 1800s touting
Austin’s beauty feature photos of Bull Creek.
Native Americans in Prehistoric Times
Archeological investigations of the Bull Creek area show
utilization by humans stretching back 9,000
years, maybe longer. The Wilson-Leonard site where “Leanderthal Lady” was
found, only 8 miles northwest of the headwaters of Bull Creek, shows a
succession of use from Paleoindian cultures 13,000 years ago to Late
Prehistoric Toyah cultures. Some artifacts found in digs on Bull Creek are
similar to those associated with the Wilson-Leonard site. The canyons of Bull
Creek offered the criteria of favored campsites on the Edwards Plateau in
prehistoric times: shelter in or near pecan groves (pecan fat content is
comparable to bison) along perennial water sources, with proximity to quality
flint.
Native Americans in Historic Times
At Austin’s founding, historically recorded tribes included Apache,
Comanche, Tonkawa, and Waco (a branch of the Wichita). The Tonkawa were probably
the oldest residents of the area at its founding. Earlier yet the Jumanos,
perhaps linked to the archeology of the protohistoric Toyah culture, may have
travelled the area as part of their extensive trade route.
The dominant tribe at Austin's founding were the Comanche. Janet
Long Fish, daughter of Walter E. Long, in 1952 pioneered work on a walking
trail (today’s Shoal Creek Greenbelt Hike and Bike Trail) along what she called
the “old Comanche Trail” that ran
from the shoals in the Colorado River up along Shoal Creek to 34th Street where
it crossed the creek and continued west and north into the hills. 34th Street
at Shoal Creek Greenbelt is historically significant in that it is the location
of Seiders Spring, a spot known to have been visited by Indians in early
Austin. West of Seiders Springs 34th turns into 35th street and is the old road
west to Mount Bonnell where another Indian trail into and out of Austin was
located. In 2000 Janet Long Fish was interviewed about the general history of
Bull Creek in which she elaborated on the connection between the Shoal Creek
"Comanche Trail", Mount Bonnell, and Bull Creek: “The Shoal Creek Trail tied into the Bull
Creek setup. And the Shoal Creek Trail—it’s hard to look at the river now
because the lake is covering a lot of what was bottom land, and we forget that
you could come right below Mount Bonnell. And this is what the Indians did,
they came up Shoal Creek, and they turned left at Thirty-fifth Street. They
went below Mount Bonnell, and then they went below Mount Bonnell and on up.
Now, how far up Bull Creek they went, I don’t know. I know the Comanche Trail
out by Lake Travis is a continuation of the Shoal Creek Trail.”[1]
That Bull Creek was on a Comanche trail from Mount Bonnell
to Comanche Peak jives with oral traditions of some early settlers. Will
Preece, wife Elizabeth Gideon, and sons Richard Lincoln Preece (also known as
Dick Preece) and Will Jr., were early settlers to the Bull Creek area during
the days of the Republic of Texas. Both Dick Preece and Will Jr. served as
Texas Rangers before the Civil War. Preece family history records their
cemetery along West Bull Creek was the "site of a Comanche hunting
ground". In his article, “My Grandfather, Dick Preece”, Harold Preece,
grandson of Dick Preece, says “A few miles from the Preece ranch lay the
southern terminus of the bloody Comanche Trail” and describes his grandfather's
days with the Republic era Texas Rangers combating the Comanche in Texas.
Early Families to Bull Creek
Geographic and cultural similarities between the valley of Bull Creek and Appalachia have been made, and the early families that settled the valley -- like Boatright, Champion, Preece, Thurm, Venable, Waechter and Walden to name a few -- formed a clan-like, close knit community. Early settlers to Bull Creek chose the area for the abundance of springs and rich farm land and perhaps in some cases because it reminded them of the mountains, hills and hollows from which they came. The isolation of Bull Creek from Austin bred a self-reliant, independent people. The isolation meant that old traditions persisted longer than in fast growing Austin. Marriages were often between families in the valley of Bull Creek further preserving the culture. These people often identified themselves as mountain people, a unique culture to the otherwise prairie like culture of Austin. Outsiders often derisively labeled them “hillbillies”.
Ruins from some of
these early settlers are still visible along Bull Creek. William Thurm came
from Germany in 1850 with his wife, Caroline, and two young daughters; a third
soon born in Texas. Arriving in Galveston they were among the first settlers
along Bull Creek in 1855 on land purchased from Josiah Fisk, namesake of
Fiskville. The family lived in a log cabin at the base of “Thurm Hill”, the
steep hill down which today’s Spicewood Springs Road descends east of 360.
Additional land purchases from Fisk in 1873 and 1874 expanded holdings to 340
acres along Bull Creek.
The original Thurm
homestead was probably located along today’s Old Spicewood Springs Road, east
of Loop 360, in what is now Lower Bull Creek Greenbelt. Unfortunately, during
construction of Loop 360 the historical significance of what was probably the Thurm
homestead was not recognized and the property was razed. But remnants of his
daughter and son in law’s homestead – Isaac and Tena Thurm Venable -- are still
visible on the hike and bike trails of Bull Creek Greenbelt Upper, with entry
just off Old Spicewood Springs Road. These ruins date to the 1870s.
Civil War
During the Civil
War, Travis County was one of several counties in Central Texas to vote against
secession from the Union, and the caves and hollows of Bull Creek were a base
for what one might call Travis County’s own “Free State of Jones”, i.e. a base
for Union loyalists resisting the Confederacy. Among Union loyalist fighting
the Confederacy were the Preece family, members of what became known as the
Mountain Eagles, a Unionist guerilla outfit fighting the Confederacy which
culminated in the “Bull Creek Battle” with 40 of the Mountain Eagles holed up
in a makeshift fort atop what came to be called “Dead Man’s Peak”.
Cemeteries
The historic Preece
cemetery off RM 2222 is the resting place for many of the Preece family,
including Republic era Texas Rangers, Dick Preece and Will Jr. Other
cemeteries that served Bull Creek were Oak Grove Cemetery on the upper end of
Bull Creek East, on what is now Spicewood Springs Road (originally part of Bull
Creek Road). Oak Grove Cemetery was said to have been started when five small
children who died from an epidemic of some sort were buried in the Oak Grove
churchyard.
Before Oak Grove Cemetery some residents of Bull Creek were
buried in the nearby Pond Springs Cemetery near Jollyville. Inside the Pond
Springs Cemetery there is a section for the Waldens, early pioneer settlers in
Bull Creek. This section is often called the Walden Cemetery; a cemetery within
a cemetery.
But there was yet another Walden Cemetery, this referred to
as the Pleasant Valley / Walden / Bull Creek Cemetery. Pleasant Valley (not to
be confused with the Pleasant Valley in South Austin) was a name often used for
the Bull Creek area. This small cemetery is now located in a front yard of a
house in the Lakewood housing development, on the west bank of Bull Creek,
about 1/3 mile from what was the site of the Walden mill on Bull Creek.
Schools
Two schools served the valley of Bull Creek, one was Oak Grove School, originally
located on what is today Old Lampasas Trail, then relocated near today’s Oak
Grove cemetery. The original school at Oak Grove is said to have been started
about 1864, a one room school house about 20’x20’, with one teacher. Another
school was located near the intersection of today’s 2222 and Loop 360. That
school began as a one room log cabin called Bull Creek School, then later
replaced (probably in the 1940s) by a larger building and renamed Pleasant Valley
School.
Industry: from Mills to Moonshine
Industry of the Bull Creek valley included farming, but the
water power of Bull Creek also fueled lumber and grist mills. Barkley’s The
History of Travis County and Austin states "The Mormons are credited
with construction, in 1846, of one of Travis County's oldest roads to the
northwest, the one that today is a scenic drive along Bull Creek to the
Spicewood Springs Road, and which then led to a mill on Bull Creek used after
the Mormon Mill washed away". The Mormons were not the only ones to build
lumber mills along Bull Creek. Another, the Walden Mill, may well have supplied
the lumber for historic homes such as the Zimmerman Home near Fiskville (now
part The Settlement Home for Children) and indeed Josiah Fisk of Fiskville
bought large quantities of land along Bull Creek which he later sold to
settlers, like the Thurms, moving to Bull Creek.
Cedar, abundant in the valley of Bull Creek, proved an
important livelihood for many, leading to the derisive label used by outsiders:
“cedar choppers”. From 1870 to 1940, cedar logs were in high demand in Austin
and Travis County for railroad ties, foundation piers, stove wood, charcoal,
and fence posts. And during prohibition the valley of Bull Creek provided the
necessary ingredients to produce moonshine: an abundance of spring water,
charcoal made from cedar to fuel stills, and the solitude of the hills, valleys
and caves to hide production. Headlines from an article that ran in the
American Statesman, 1923, proclaimed “Caves In Bull Creek Hills Furnish Safe
Retreats For Moonshine Gangs; Officers Get Clue To Nest Of Stills”.
The Transition to Today
By the 1940s, and certainly by the 1960s, as access to the
area improved, Bull Creek had begun its transition from from Austin’s version
of Appalachia, to a place of recreation, and a highly sought place to live. In
interviews on file at the Austin History Center, Janet Fish Long, daughter of
Walter E. Long, recalls horseback rides, picnics, and camping in the Bull Creek
area as a youth, and even relates its use for recreation for service men,
including R.A.F. pilots, during World War II.
In the 1960s the Moore family opened Lakewood Park on land
that had been in the Walden family since the 1850s. The pool on Walden land in
Bull Creek that had been used by settlers for baptisms was now used as a
swimming pool by Austinites escaping to the country. A newspaper article from
1966 about Clementine Walden Jackson, one of the last of the generations of
Walden family to reside in the valley of Bull Creek, recalls that where Tom
Wooten Boy Scout Camp was located, the community of settlers of Bull Creek
would gather for picnics, dancing and folk singing. Now Camp Tom Wooten itself
is history, giving way to a housing development with street names that reflect
its scouting past. And too the Moore’s Lakewood Park; in 1971 the City of
Austin negotiated the purchase of that land to become the "Zilker
Park" of the northwest; today's Bull Creek District Park and Bull Creek
Greenbelts. Families were now buying land for recreational use; land that had
once been the homesteads of pioneer settlers.
References, Notes
Archeological Survey of the Stenis Tract Hike and Bike
Trail, Bull Creek Watershed, Travis County, Texas, by Gemma Mehalchick, Douglas
Kevin Boyd, Prewitt and Associates, and the Texas Antiquities Committee,
published by Prewitt and Associates, 2004. The report which says the “historic farmstead that makes up [this
site] is recommended as potentially eligible for listing in the National
Register [of Historic Places]”. The report unfortunately did not push the
history back to the farmstead back to the original settlers, Isaac and Tena
Thurm Venable.
Austin Statesman, January, 14, 1923, p10. “Caves in Bull
Creek Hills Furnish Safe Retreats for Moonshine Gangs; Officers Get Clue to
Nest of Stills” (author unknown).
Barkley, Mary Starr (1963). History of Travis County and
Austin, 1839-1899. Waco, TX: Texian Press. p. 266 discusses early
construction of mills by Mormons on Bull Creek.
Cantell, Floyd (2017). Interview with Mr. Floyd Cantwell.
Mr. Cantwell grew up in the Bull Creek area; his mother attended school there;
he owned the salvage yard that used to be located at what is now Mesa and
Spicewood Springs Road, and he lived on Spicewood Springs Road. The salvage
yard was later located to Spicewood Spring Road north of what is now Loop 360.
He currently owns Floyd Cantwell Used Cars and Parts, 9800
Ranch Rd 2243, Leander, TX 78641 where I interviewed him April 29th,
2017. Mr. Cantwell confirmed the location of the Venable home; also that
Dorothy Duvall later bought the property.
Cash, Elizabeth A.
and Suzanne B. Deaderick, Austin's
Pemberton Heights (Images of America), 2012. Discusses Janet Long Fish’s
work in preserving the “Comanche Trail”, today’s Shoal Creek Greenbelt Trail.
Camp Tom Wooten on Bull Creek, 1934 - 1983. From an archival
website, retrieved 03/01/2017: “Camp Tom
Wooten, overlooking Bull Creek and Lake Austin, will be remembered by thousands
of Scouts as their ‘summer camp.’ The
land was purchased by Dr. Goodall H. Wooten, an Austin physician, for $5,000,
and presented to the Capitol Area Council in 1934 for a Boy Scout Camp. The original purchase was for 125 acres but
he later gave more land. The council
constructed cabins, buildings and a water system. The camp was named Camp Tom Wooten after Dr.
Wooten's only son who had died at the age of 21. The camp was south of FM 2222
just across Bull Creek from the Bull Creek Lodge, a favorite watering hole for
hamburgers, drinks, and renting canoes. Bull Creek Lodge is now known as ‘The
County Line on the Lake.’
Collins, Karen Sikes, (2011), Rosedale Rambles 1993 through
1999, retrieved 03-16-2017 from http://rosedaleaustin.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Rosedale-Ramble-1999.pdf.
Discusses Janet Long Fish’s work in preserving the “Comanche Trail”, today’s
Shoal Creek Greenbelt Trail.
Cox, Mike. Bull Creek Battle (2005). Cox notes “Now covered with spacious, expensive houses, the cedar-studded canyons
on the western edge of Austin used to be Central Texas’ version of Appalachia.
Remote and hard to reach in the days of horse and wagon travel, the hills west
of the Capital City were peopled by scattered families who came from the
mountains of Tennessee and Kentucky and settled there because the terrain
reminded them of home.” Cox reviews what has been called the Bull Creek
Battle, Austin’s version of a “Free State of Jones” (my description) type
resistance with Union supporters from Bull Creek fighting against the
Confederacy. See also Harold Preece.
Cox, Mike. Rock Fences (2008). Retrieved 5/5/2017 from http://www.texasescapes.com/MikeCoxTexasTales/Rock-Fences.htm
Cullick, Robert, “Archeologists open Bull Creek 'history
book'”. Austin American Statesman, February 2, 1986, Section A, Page 1. Article
about archeological surveys in and around Bull Creek sponsored by Nash Phillips
and Clyde Copus in the mid-1980s ahead of planned development which included
Schlumberger Oil Well Services research campus, now Concordia University.
Jackson, Clementine (Walden). The Walden home in the valley (book). 1966, Austin, Texas. Copy
available in Austin History Center. A history of Bull Creek and the Walden
family, early settlers there. See also related newspaper article: “Good Days on
Bull Creek”, The American-Statesman,
Sunday, April 28, 1963. Memories of Mrs. Clementine Walden Jackson marking the
close of an era in the Bull Creek Valley. Also: “She Recalls Bull Creek, Oak
Grove of Long Ago!”. The
American-Statesman, Sunday, August 14, 1966.
Kerber, Lisa. Fiskville application to the Texas Historical
Commission for a historical marker.
https://austin.bibliocommons.com/item/show/810414067
Morris, A. R. (1873, Aug 10). REGISTRATION NOTICE. Daily
Democratic Statesman (1873-1880) Retrieved from https://www.austinlibrary.com:8443/login?url=http://www.austinlibrary.com:2400/docview/1619645240?accountid=7451
Preece, Harold (1964). "My Grandfather, Dick
Preece". Real West. VII (38): 22. Story of Richard Lincoln Preece, AKA Dick
Preece, as a Republic era Texas Ranger fighting Comanches. Later a member of
the Mountain Eagles, a Unionist guerilla outfit fighting the Confederacy from
Bull Creek. “Time and time again ..
Confederate irregulars invaded the hills looking for boys to conscript .. and
stock to be requisitioned for [the Confederacy]. Time and time again, Grandfather,
the southern-born chieftain of Unionist irregulars, blocked him .. [the
Confederates] never conquered that detached, un-surrendering patch of the
United States which was Bull Creek”.
Richards, Cathryn. Valley
of Cascade Creek. Written in 1961 but unpublished. Copy at Austin History
Center. History of Bull Creek, AKA Cascade Creek, with emphasis on early
families.
Sitton, Thad (a) Oral history transcript of interview with
children of Matthew Irving Smith and Hazeline Ingram Smith. July 10, 2000.
Austin History Center.
Sitton, Thad (b) Oral history transcript of interview with
Janet Long Fish. July 20, 2000. Austin History Center.
Travis County Clerk Records: Road Book Precinct 2, book,
1898/1902. Tena Venable home is used as reference in defining Travis County
roads. See "Bull Cr & Spicewood Spr Road", p355; "Bull Creek
Road", p357.
Upton, Elsie. The Austin Hill Folk. Dobie, J. Frank (James
Frank), 1888-1964. Texian Stomping Grounds, book, 1941; Dallas, Texas.
(texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc67663/: accessed February 23, 2017),
University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History,
texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Press. Upton uses the term “Hill Folks” and
“Mountaineers” to describe the early settlers of locals such as Bull Creek:
(p.1) In the past hundred years Austin
has grown from a village of three or four hundred people into a modem city of
100,000; out in the Hills .. the people depend for their water supply on the
natural springs or creeks, speak a mountain dialect, and depend for their
education on a short term in a one-room school. Although there has been much
interest in recent years in the folk-lore of the mountain folk of the South ..
[e.g. Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas] .. these Americans of the
oldest stock with their special culture and customs, are to be found also, an
intact community, in the Texas hills near Austin. On moonshine, Upton
(p.47) says During prohibition days
moonshining became a profitable business in the Hills.
Vance, Linda. Eanes: Portrait of a Community, book, 1986;
[Dallas,] Texas. (texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth769391/: accessed
February 23, 2017), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas
History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Westbank Community Library District.
On moonshine, Vance notes (p.77) In 1923
one Austin newspaper printed the following news item which confirmed what went
on in the hills west of Austin. “The capture of an alleged bootlegger and
gallons of white lightning and the discovery of clues are expected to lead to
the location of a veritable nest of illicit stills in the Bull Creek hills. It
was the achievement of the sheriff's department after an all day search through
cedar-studded territory... The hill canyons and the caves honeycombing the
limestone cliffs form ideal hiding places as favorable as the wild mountain
fastnesses of Kentucky and Tennessee
Views in Austin, Texas. The Daily Graphic on Wednesday, June
30, 1880. Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at
Austin. The page features 10 printed sketches of various scenes touting Austin.
Of the 10, two are from Bull Creek, illustrating the romance associated with
Bull Creek from Austin’s founding.
http://texasartisans.mfah.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15939coll6/id/1295
West Travis County. Article on Austin History Center
website. Discusses Union sympathizers known as "mountain eagles" who
escaped from Confederate conscription by hiding out in the isolated hills; role
of cedar as a means of livelihood; similarities to Appalachia. “Many of these settlers came from Appalachia
and brought their mountain culture with them. They scraped a living from the
rugged hill country by cutting cedar, building stone walls and fences, and
making charcoal and moonshine. Derisively called "cedar choppers" or "charcoal
burners," they were a proud, independent, reclusive people who moved from
place to place wherever there was work. From 1870 to 1940, the cedar brakes
provided work because cedar logs were in high demand for railroad ties,
foundation piers, stove wood, charcoal, and fence posts. In 1875 alone, over
30,000 cedar logs were shipped from Austin. Competition for the wood became so
intense that between 1870 and 1890 several confrontations called the ‘Cedar
Wars’ occurred in the hill country over conflicting territorial claims of cedar
brakes.”
Zelade, Richard (2006). Lone Star Travel Guide to the Texas
Hill Country, Sixth Edition. Taylor Trade Publishing. p. 163. Discusses
Mormon construction of mills on Bull Creek.
Zimmerman Home, Historic Marker Application. Texas
Historical Commission. September 21, 1967;
(texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth491775/: accessed February 24, 2017),
University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History,
texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Commission. Edward E.
Zimmerman came to Texas, 1844, from Germany. Zimmerman an Texas farmhouse,
1861, of “hand-hewn cream colored rock
from nearby hills; lumber from Bull Creek mills.” The mill could well have
been the Walden mill.
[1] “Comanche Trail” by Lake
Travis runs by Comanche Peak, the only natural geographic place in Travis
County named after a Native American tribe. It sits on the norther edge of the
Bull Creek watershed.
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