Proposed rezoning of Austin Oaks to a PUD, My Letter to the City's Case Manager

I’m writing in reference to the Austin Oaks PUD rezoning request. I have lived in the area, about a mile from Spicewood Springs, for about 25 years, my kids all growing up in this neighborhood. Over the years I became interested in the history of this area, and in particular Spicewood Springs. My understanding was that the initial rezoning request was a bit sparse on the history of Spicewood Springs. I wrote several e-mails to your predecessor, Lee Heckman. Upon hearing you had taken over his previous position I decided to write you as well and recap the historic significance of Spicewood Springs. 

Here’s a recap of what I know of the prehistory and history of the Spicewood Springs area, a good chunk of which is included in the Austin Oaks PUD rezoning request.

Spicewood Springs has been a destination for travelers and homesteaders since prehistory. Native Americans, early Texas pioneers and homesteaders, even a Texas Governor have called this area home. As with so many old communities – Jollyville, Fiskville, Duval, McNeil, Merrilltown, Montopolis, Saint Elmo, Sprinkle, Anderson Mill, all which we largely only recognize now as street names -- before Spicewood Springs was absorbed into Austin it was a community peoples called home, with a separate and individual identity. I see the neighborhood organizations that are in discussion with Austin Oaks about the proposed rezoning as today’s homesteaders in that continuum of history and prehistory of this place, simply wanting to preserve the character of what has drawn people here since prehistory.

Springs of Texas

Gunnar Brune is an author and has in the past served as an advisor to the TX Water Development Board.

Spicewood Springs is listed in Gunnar Brune’s Springs of Texas (Brune, Gunnar, Volume 1, Texas A&M University Press, 2002). About Spicewood Springs Gunnar says they were “a stop on an old Indian trail [and] Later they provided water for one of the first schools in Travis County”. The prehistoric utilization of the springs by Indians is both archaeologically and historically confirmed. And more on the school shortly.

Brune provides discharge rates for years between 1940-1980, and says “large fish and crawfish live in the pools, amid water cress, ferns and elephant ears .. Deer came here for water in dry periods until about 1975, when the surrounding area was covered with apartment and office buildings and superhighways”. It would be interesting to see how much more that habitat has degraded since Brune’s report.

Austin Prehistory

As you may be aware, archeological sites are identified given a unique ID and  recorded in the Texas Archeological Sites Atlas. Travis County sites are tagged "TV". In the the redacted report I've seen (Intensive Archaeological Survey of the MoPac Improvement Project, 2013) there are at least two sites that appear to be in the Austin Oaks rezoning area, these are:

·        41TV61 "was recorded [initially in 1959] as a prehistoric site located on the southwest corner of Spicewood Springs Road and MOPAC .. .. the site was impacted by commercial development in 1973 .. most of the site has since been destroyed by commercial development.."

·        The other is 41TV61.2. The 2013 report quotes earlier reports from 1973 for this second site which say "..construction plans call for the intersection of two streets, Executive Center and Wood Hollow to be in about the center of the site ..".

My understanding from talking with one of the archaeologists who wrote the report is that the 2013 survey was done as "catch-up" because of the poor job done in preserving archeological sites when MoPac was developed in the first place, but also reevaluated the state of some previously known sites that were a bit out of the MOPAC ROW (e.g. these sites).

The two sites mentioned are from my understanding “archaic” (6000 BC - 750 AD) and both in the proposed Austin Oaks rezoning area. The commercial development mentioned is I presume the original Austin Oaks development. Hopefully we can prevent further degradation of these and most likely other sites that have not yet been surveyed.

1839 The “Trail Going North” at the birth of Austin

As Brune notes Spicewood Springs was on a stop on an old Indian trail. There were probably several, but one was what Frank Brown called “The Trail Going North”. One of the first histories of early Austin is Frank Brown’s Annals of Travis County and of the City of Austin from the Earliest Times to the Close of 1875. Brown came to Austin in 1846 and served as county clerk of Travis County from about 1856-62. His book provides firsthand observation and stories collected from “old timers” in Austin. Brown described a trail that ran by Spicewood Springs:

·        “This trail was found here by the first white explorers that visited the site now occupied by the capital city … The old trail went up the valley of Shoal Creek, passing out above and near the residence of the late Gov. Pease; thence on the nearly level plateau between the creek [Shoal] and the mountains, near the foot of the hills, almost one north to the Indian village at Waco and beyond..”

About 1839 the wagon train of John Webster, comprised of some 30 some men, women and children would have utilized Spicewood Springs as a resting spot while travelling from Austin to Burnet County. After encountering Comanches in Burnet County, they turned around hoping to make it back to Austin, but were caught in open ground near Leander. Everyone was massacred except for a few who were taken hostage.

1844 Spicewood Springs and the Abduction of the Simpson Children

In 1844 (1842 has been reported by some authors, but probably happened in 1844 given the Congress of the Republic of Texas passed a resolution to appropriate a ransom that same year) early Austin suffered what one might call the “Yogurt Shop Murders” of its day. A Mrs. Simpson living West Pecan (6th), about three blocks west of Congress, had two children – a daughter 14, a son 12—abducted by Indians while the children were in the adjacent “valley” (the valley was Shoal Creek; names of the children vary by source, the daughter sometimes referred to as Emma, the son Tommie or Thomas. The names used in association with Congress’ approval of the ransom were Jane and William).

The Indians “seized the children, mounted their horses and made off for the mountains .. going in the direction of Mt. Bonnell” (Indian Depredations in Texas, 1889). A posse of citizens from Austin was raised and gave pursuit, but lost the trail at Mt. Bonnell. After alluding capture, the Indians rested at Spicewood Springs where the girl was killed and scalped. The boy was later ransomed and returned to his mother and recounted the story at Spicewood Springs. Local citizens were led by the boy to the spot at Spicewood Springs where his sister had been killed and identified her remains. No mention I’m aware of documents what happened to her remains, and they may well have been buried at Spicewood Springs (just as the Webster massacre victims were interred in a common grave at the sight of their death in present day Leander).

This incident was understandably one of the defining moments in the relationships between the citizens of the young city of Austin and the Native Americans that still claimed the area as their own. To illustrate the impact of this incident on Austin at the time, this story was told and retold in Texas history classics such as Wilbarger’s Indian Depredations of Texas, Jenkin’s Recollections of Early Texas, John Brown’s Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas, Winfrey and Day’s Texas Indians Papers. The story still captures the imagination of modern Texas historians, evidenced by republications such as Gregory and Susan Michno’s A Fate Worse than Death, and Jeff Kerr’s The Republic of Austin.

Jeff Kerr is a doctor living here in NW Hills and has written three books on Austin history. Jeff and I approached Austin Oaks several years back asking if they would be interested in having a historical marker. Austin Oaks said they would not permit any history markers on their property. At the time I thought this very strange. This was prior to the rezoning request. It’s pretty obvious in retrospect they viewed a historical marker as detrimental to rezoning.

Spicewood Springs as Landmark: Roads in 1853, Rails in 1871

As Austin grew, old Indian trails became roads. The section of Brown’s old Indian trail from about Windsor north we now call MOPAC. Spicewood Springs was important enough to use as a navigation point in early Austin.

In 1853 Travis County courts were designating certain roads as “public highways” for purposes of assigning ownership for maintenance. One road designated as a public highway was the road from Austin to “Hamilton Valley” which is today Burnet, TX. The Travis County court used Seider Springs and Spicewood Springs as part of the specification for that road, referring to the route as part of an “Indian trail”, indeed the same trail the Webster part had taken (History of Travis County and Austin, p 268).

And not just roads, but railroads. The Weekly Democratic Statesman, Thursday, September 21, 1871 reported "The surveying party who are locating the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, camped at Spicewood creek (sic), five miles from Austin, last night. They have already completed the survey to within three miles from that point."

Spicewood Springs as the camp for the rail crew bringing the railroad to Austin. Pretty historic.

1866 Esperanza School and Spicewood Springs

As noted in the History of Travis County and Austin (Barkley, 1963), schools and churches were the centers of communities during the regime of the Texas Republic and early statehood, and the Esperanza School, “A log cabin served as the first school for this part of northwestern Travis County near Spicewood Springs from about 1866 to about 1873”. That log cabin still exists, and is located in Zilker Park, but it’s original location was near what is now Spicewood Springs Road and MOPAC. The Texas Historical Commission historical marker reads:

·        Esperanza School Building. One of earliest one-room rural schoolhouse in Travis County, this cabin was built on property of Richard McKenzie in 1866. It was known as Esperanza School and served children from Neighboring farms in the period before public education. In 1893 when a larger Esperanza School was built at another site this original log structure was put to other uses.. (Original site of this cabin was in the NW quadrant of the intersection of Spicewood Springs Rd. and Mopac Blvd.)

Spicewood Springs As a Community In the News

As evidenced by the need for a school (Esperanza School), there was apparently a community that began to emerge around the springs with news of everyday events appearing in newspapers

·        Texas State Gazette, on Saturday, April 27, 1850 reported "At the Spice-wood Springs (sic) .. there have occurred, within the last few days, several sudden deaths, from the effects of a disease which has baffled medical skill .."

·        The Weekly Democratic Statesman, Thursday, September 21, 1871 reported "A large number of immigrants have been encamped about five miles north of the city, on Spicewood creek (sic), for several days". Wouldn't you love to know more about what that was all about?!

·        The Thursday, December 31, 1874 edition of the Weekly Democratic Statesman reported “Big Potato. - Mr. George W. Walling, living near Spicewood Springs in this county, has brought us a specimen of what kind of potatoes can be grown in our soil. The one shown us weighs six and a half pounds .."

·        Among prominent residences of the community around Spicewood Springs was O.M. Roberts, Governor of Texas from 1878-83. The Austin Weekly Statesman newspaper from Thursday, August 9, 1883, reported an update on a "young bandit" that had been reported in the area. The newspaper stated "Ex-Gov. Roberts owns a large farm in the neighborhood of Spicewood Springs" which had apparently been a target of the bandit.

·        Austin Weekly Statesman Thursday, November 10, 1887 edition reported a "corrected list of public teachers of [Travis] county". Miss Bettie Peel being the teacher for Spicewood Springs

·        Austin Weekly Statesman Thursday, July 26, 1888 edition of the paper reported status on various county schools: “District No. 7 - Spicewood Springs" was up to a whopping 48 children.

·        Austin Weekly Statesman Thursday, September 6, 1888, the paper reported a horse stolen: "Mr. John Miles, living at Luling, had a horse stolen from his camp near Spicewood Springs, early Saturday morning."

A historical take-away from stories like this is that Spicewood Springs was a separate, unique community, with its own identity, with residents and news distinct from Austin, and historically important to recognize as such.

1895 USGS Survey of Austin

The Geologic Atlas of the United States is a set of 227 folios published by the U.S. Geological Survey between 1894 and 1945. Austin / Travis County was lucky enough to be one of the cities surveyed preserving forever a look at an Austin that was (USGS Geologic Atlas of the United States, Austin, Texas, Folio #76).

While published in 1902, the survey was actually done in the years 1895-96, when Austin was only 56 years old. Many of the small communities, place names and roads from that period no longer exist, or have lost their separate identities as they were swallowed by the larger urbanization of Austin.

That Spicewood Springs and the community that was growing up around it were included on this historical snapshot of Austin to me speaks to their historical significance. Not even Barton Springs of all places was called out on this map!

2014 Indian Marker Trees

As I understand it, one of the “environmental” impacts of the Austin Oaks rezoning is the loss of some 15 heritage trees (>24” diameter) and 45% of the protected trees (19” – 24”diameter). Let me say that there is the possibility that it is not just an environmental loss, but has the potential for being a historic loss as well.

For several years I’ve been working with the Texas Historical Tree Coalition (THTC), based out of Dallas on evaluating several trees up and down the MOPAC corridor (remember this is Brown’s old “Indian Trail Going North”), including trees on Camp Mabry, a tree in my neighborhood near Far West and West Rim, a tree on Mopac Service Rd, near the tracks just south of 183, and yes, Spicewood Springs. Several of these trees are potentially what are called “Indian Marker Trees”, trees “culturally modified” by probably Comanche as sign posts marking the spot of, or direction to, important resources (water, crossings, trails, camps, etc.).

In April of 2014, in conjunction with the Society of American Archeology which was held in Austin, I did a tour for an elder for the Comanche nation, along with an archeologist here in Austin, and several reps from the THTC of several of these trees. One of the spots we visited was Spicewood Springs.

Then in August of 2014 a team from THTC spent the day in Austin visiting and doing further inspection and measurement of the trees. As a prerequisite to inspection of the trees by the team, THTC gets permission from the land owners. Of all the locations for which the team requested permission – including Camp Mabry, which actually provided us with two of their archeologist/historians to help out – Austin Oaks was the only one that said they didn’t want THTC to inspect their trees for historical relevance as possible Indian Marker Trees! As with the history marker, I was perplexed as to why they would not want someone to determine if they might possibly own a rare, historically significant Indian Marker Tree. Once I learned about the intent to pursue rezoning, it made perfect sense. Having historic trees on the property would have been detrimental to the rezoning.

Are there IMT’s on the Austin Oaks property? I don’t know. But certainly cutting down heritage and protected trees runs the risk that we further obliterate the history of Spicewood Springs.

Think about Austin’s Treaty Oak. Stephen F. Austin, the “father of Texas,” negotiated a boundary treaty with Indians under that oak. But Treaty Oak was just one of a grove of 24+ trees known as the Comanche Council Oaks. Wouldn’t it be grand to have that grove of oaks still in the city today.