Saturday, April 4, 2015
Wagon Ruts on Bull Creek?
The photo here shows what are probably old wagon ruts in the bedrock at one of the many Bull Creek crossings of the road that would become Lakewood Drive, then largely be replaced by Loop 360. Unfortunately, the construction of a sewer line which the city ran in Bull Creek caused the matching tracks to be covered by concrete.
Compare with the old wagon ruts near the crossing of Brushy Creek by the Round Rock, in Round Rock, Texas
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The tracks at Brushy Creek are more defined. I do not believe these are "wagon" tracks created in our era. Any records about what the Native Americans had to say about them?
ReplyDeleteHi Margaret! Yeah, the ruts in Round Rock on Brushy Creek are excellent. We know we have wagon ruts on Bull Creek; Clementine Walden Jackson references them (Walden Home in the Valley, Walden Jackson, Clementine, Austin, Texas Jackson, 1966), as does an archeological report on the old Walden mill. One of the difficulties w/ Bull Creek is distinguishing wagon ruts from what was created during Loop 360 construction and the sewage work where they laid sewer lines in the creek (see Austin History Center articles on that topic). Jackson says many of the ruts created on Bull Creek were from traffic coming to and from the mill (see another post about the mill). And we also have references to ruts created in other sections of Bull Creek when the creek bed used to be part of the road.
ReplyDeleteI do believe I have seen them either at the Guadalupe or Frio right near the river, in limestone.
DeleteIt would take tremendous weight and constant use for a wagon cart to make these. Its almost as if someone was riding around the world in a cart while the rock was still settling
I completely agree with you on that. There's no way that a wagon made those marks. The ground would have to been moist, then instantly hardened before anyone else came through with another wagon.
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