Shoal Creek Greenbelt Trail: Saving a Bit of the "Comanche Trail" in Austin

Collins in writing of the history of the Rosedale neighborhood in Austin, tells a story related to her by Janet Long Fish, daughter of Walter E. Long. Janet Long Fish in 1952 pioneered work on a walking trail along 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". That walking trail today is the Shoal Creek Greenbelt Trail maintained by Austin Parks and Recreation. This story also appears in Images of America: Austin's Pemberton Heights, p. 12, saying "In 1952, Janet Long Fish .. decided the Comanche trail alongside Shoal Creek should be preserved as a walking path .."

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", the trail up to Mount Bonnell and beyond, northwest by Bull Creek and eventually to Comanche Peak which is situated out by Lake Travis [Sitton]

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. 

References, Notes

Elizabeth A. Cash and Suzanne B. Deaderick, Austin's Pemberton Heights (Images of America), 2012

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

Sitton, Thad, Oral history transcript of interview with Janet Long Fish. July 20, 2000. Austin History Center.

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