Travis County is located in Central Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,290,188. It is the fifth-most populous county in Texas. Its county seat and most populous city is Austin, the state's capital. The county was established in 1840 and is named in honor of William Barret Travis, the commander of the Republic of Texas forces at the Battle of the Alamo. Travis County is part of the Austin–Round Rock–Georgetown metropolitan area. It is located along the Balcones Fault, the boundary between the Edwards Plateau to the west and the Blackland Prairie to the east.
History
Prehistoric Texas
Early inhabitants of Central Texas date to between 12,000 to 22,000 years ago as evidenced by the discovery of sites like Leanderthal Lady ("Leanne") at the Wilson-Leonard site near Leander, Texas.
Another two of the oldest Paleo-Indian archeological sites in Texas, the Levi Rock Shelter and Smith Rock Shelter, are in southwest and southeast Travis County, respectively.
In downtown Austin, archeological excavations have revealed that the hilltop where the French Legation now sits was utilized during the Archaic period (North America), possibly 5,000 years ago. Even earlier artifacts dating to the Paleo-Indians period show that humans may have used the area as early as 9,000 years ago.
Continuous occupation of Travis County continues into the Toyah Phase represented by sites like the Toyah Bluff Site in southeast Travis County along Onion Creek. The Toyah Phase is the last widespread prehistoric pattern prior to the arrival of Europeans.
Spanish period
The region (along with all of modern Texas) was claimed by the Spanish Empire in the 1600s, but at the time no attempt was made to settle the area (or even to explore it fully).
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Reference material for this entry is drawn from the open encyclopedic record, including Wikipedia , available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license. Images are credited individually beside each photo.
In 1691 Domingo Terán de los Ríos was instructed to make a tour of Spanish Texas with the goal of establishing missions among the Tejas (Hasinai), keep records of "geography, natives, and products" and investigate rumors of foreign settlements on the coast (the French). Terán's entrada took them through Travis County crossing the Colorado River near what would later be called the Montopolis ford, which today is part of El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail.
In 1709 Captain Pedro de Aguirre led an expedition with Fathers Antonio de Olivares and Isidro de Espinosa (Espinosa-Olivares-Aguirre Expedition) from San Juan Bautista Mission along the Rio Grande River in Mexico into Travis County hoping to meet with the Tejas Indians (Hasinai). They reached the south bank the Colorado River in or near Austin in April, but found the Tejas were not there. They were however visited by members of a number of Indigenous Peoples: Yojuan (AKA Yojuane), Simomo, and Tusonibi. Guides for the Spanish included Indigenous Peoples they had encountered just previously living near San Pedro Springs: Chaularame, Payaya, Sana, Sijame, and Siupan. With orders not to cross the Colorado the expedition returned to Mexico.
In 1730 Franciscan friars, who were given responsibility for all the Texas missions, made the decision to relocate three missions, La Purísima Concepción, San Francisco de los Neches, and San José de los Nazonis, to a site by the Colorado River near Barton Springs. The friars found conditions undesirable and relocated to the San Antonio River within a year of their arrival.
El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail runs through Travis County crossing the Colorado River just east of the Montopolis Bridge.
Mexican period
In 1821 Mexico won its independence from Spain, and the new government enacted laws encouraging colonists to settle the Texas frontier by granting them land and reduced taxation. Over the next decade, thousands of foreign immigrants (primarily from the United States) moved into Texas; in particular, American empresario Stephen F. Austin established one of his colonies, known as Austin's "Little Colony", consisting of 100 families near what is now Bastrop, Texas in 1827. Josiah and Mathias Wilbarger, Reuben Hornsby (namesake of Hornsby Bend, Travis County, Texas), Jacob M. Harrell, Noah Smithwick, and John F. Webber (namesake of Webberville, Travis County, Texas) were early settlers who moved to the Bastrop area in the early 1830s. Webber and Reubon Hornsby would later move west and form the settlements of Webberville and Hornsby Bend respectively.
Republic of Texas period
In 1836 Texas declared and won its independence from Mexico, forming the Republic of Texas. That same year, 1836, before Austin was founded, Fort Colorado, AKA Fort Coleman, was established in then Bastrop County, later to be Travis County, to secure and expand the Republic of Texas’ control over Native American territory. It was strategically located on the main road to what would later be Austin from Bastrop, Texas, Webberville, Texas and Hornsby Bend, Texas, what Barkley called the "Path of the Pioneers", today's Webberville Road, also known as FM 969. It was this path Vice President Lamar would later take to Waterloo in 1838 for the buffalo hunt which eventually led to Austin as the capital of Texas. Lamar stopped at the fort to procure an escort of rangers. Fort Colorado was also strategically placed near a trade route utilized by Native Americans since prehistory that the Spanish would later adopt, El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail. The site of Fort Colorado is located on today's Travis Audubon Blair Woods Preserve and is a part of the historic trail.
While there were skirmishes between Anglo-Texans and Native Americans, there were also attempts at peace. In 1837 a band of Penateka Comanche (Nʉmʉnʉʉ) approached Fort Colorado to seek a treaty of peace. Texas Ranger and historian Noah Smithwick, stationed at the fort, lived with the Comanche as emissary for many months where he “was made the recipient of every attention known to their code of hospitality”. This is the only known peace treaty initiated from inside Travis County. The treaty was unfortunately never ratified by Texas.
Historically recorded tribes in Travis County at this time were Comanche, Lipan Apache, Tonkawa, Waco (a branch of the Wichita), and others. Tribes such as the ethnographically well-known Comanche, Lipan Apache, Waco (Wichita branch), and even the Tonkawa migrated into Texas, of which Travis County is a part, just before or during the early European contact period. The expansion of the Spanish into what is now Travis County, establishing missions, traveling El Camino Real de los Tejas, and introducing European diseases, along with the migration of other Native American tribes to the area, particularly the Lipan Apache who in turn were retreating from Comanche expansion, displaced tribes that were indigenous to the area since before European contact, like the Coahuiltecans.
After Texas Vice President Mirabeau B. Lamar visited central Texas during a buffalo-hunting expedition between 1837 and 1838, he proposed that the republic's capital (then located in Houston) be relocated to a site on the north bank of the Colorado River. Edward Burleson had surveyed the planned townsite of Waterloo, near the mouth of Shoal Creek on the Colorado River, in 1838; it was incorporated January 1839. By April of that year the site selection commission had selected Waterloo to be the new capital. A bill previously passed by Congress in May, 1838, specified that any site selected as the new capital would be named Austin, after the late Stephen F. Austin; hence Waterloo upon selection as the capital was renamed Austin.
A new county was also established the following year, of which Austin would be the seat; the county was named Travis County, after William B. Travis, commander of the Alamo. Travis County was originally a part of Bastrop County; many old land records from the time of Mexican Texas for Travis County were originally filed with the Bastrop County Clerk's Office. Later a number of other counties were carved from the original boundaries of Travis County: Callahan (1858), Coleman (1858), Comal (1846), Gillespie (1848), Hays (1848), Burnet (1852), Brown (1856), Lampasas (1856), Eastland (1858), Runnels (1858), and Taylor (1858).
In the years following the battle of San Jacinto in 1836, Mexican leaders periodically threatened to renew hostilities against Texas. March 5, 1842, at the direction of Antonio López de Santa Anna, a force of 700 men under Ráfael Vásquez (general) marched into Texas and seized San Antonio. Forewarned of the Mexican advance, most residents had already evacuated allowing Vasquez to enter the town unopposed. Fearing a subsequent attack on Austin (which never came), many residents left Austin and President Houston moved the capital to Houston on March 13, 1842; it was then moved to Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas September of that same year. It was during this period the Texas Archive War took place. The capital was moved once more, back to Austin, in 1845.
Civil War and Reconstruction
In 1861 Travis County was one of the few Texas counties to vote against secession from the Union. Since the majority of the state did favor secession, Travis County then became a part of the Confederacy for the duration of the Civil War.
After secession, life became difficult for those in Travis County that continued to support the Union. Governor Sam Houston refused to take the oath of loyalty to the Confederate States of America and was forced to step-down as Governor. Some, like prominent lawyer and businessman, Josiah Fisk, namesake of Fiskville and brother of Greenleaf Fisk, opted to leave Texas when threatened with conscription. Others like former Texas Ranger Richard Lincoln Preece mounted guerilla resistance against the Confederacy from inside Travis County, eventually being forced to leave Texas via Mexico to join the U.S. Army. Barkley describes hangings and attempted hangings in Travis County of persons remaining loyal to the Union.
During the Civil War a number of forts, or fortifications, were built in Austin anticipating Union attack (which never occurred). One of the better documented of these located on South Congress was Fort Magruder.
Among shortages experienced in Travis County during the Civil War was timely news from newspapers. Some newspapermen closed shop and enlisted when the war began. Other newspapers were forced to close due to lack of ink and paper available only through Mexico or the Gulf Coast which was blockaded by Union forces. In Travis County the "State Gazette" (Austin) kept a pony express rider at the Brenham, Texas railhead to bring in Houston papers with news only 18 hours old.
During the Civil War, the Tonkawa massacre of 1862 took place on a reservation in Indian Territory (modern-day Oklahoma). It was an attack by a number of pro-Union Native American tribes on the Tonkawa who supported the Confederacy; the massacre led to near extermination of the tribe. After the massacre, by the summer of 1863, some Tonkawa began drifting south into Texas, some returning to the Austin area, then a fortified Confederate city. At the end of the Civil War, Austin was surrendered to the United States and occupied by Union troops. By 1867 the United States ordered the removal of the Tonkawa from Austin. The Indian Papers document the escorted removal of 135 Tonkawa from Austin to Jacksboro, Texas, March 3, 1867 to April 18, 1867, for eventual resettlement on a reservation near Fort Griffin in Shackelford County, Texas that same year.
Following the end of the Civil War Texas opened two facilities in Austin, one intended to care for disabled and indigent Confederate Veterans (men), opened in 1884, and a Confederate women's home for wives and widows of Confederate Veterans opened in 1908. In addition, Texas opened the Confederate section of the Texas State Cemetery to accommodate the burial of both Veterans, and wives and widows of Veterans.
Reconstruction began with the end of the Civil War lasting from 1865 to 1870. As the capital of Texas, Austin played a central role in administration of Reconstruction policies and programs. U.S. Army troops were stationed in Austin to enforce new laws and protect African Americans.
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, better known as The Freedmen’s Bureau, was administered from Austin helping formerly enslaved people with labor contracts, education, and legal disputes.
During Reconstruction Travis County saw the formation of many Freedom colonies by enslaved African Americans.
After Reconstruction the first Railroad to enter Travis County was the Houston and Texas Central Railway arriving in Austin December 25, 1871, making the city the westernmost rail terminus in Texas. With the arrival of the railroad materials like milled lumber became readily available ushering in a building boom and making Austin a trading center. A second railroad soon followed, the International–Great Northern, reaching Austin in 1876. Several lumberyards appear on the 1887 Birdseye Map of Austin near the rail freight yard.
20th century
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) was established in 1879. In the early years of the USGS its survey work was hampered by lack of funds and as late as the 1920s nearly 60% of the US was still unmapped. Travis County was fortunate to be one of the first areas mapped producing what is known as the "1902 Austin folio" (surveyed 1895-1896, published 1902). Although referred to as the "Austin quadrangle" it covers all of Travis County. In addition to the map produced, the USGS produced written reports including the "culture" of Travis County at the turn of the 20th century.
Quoting the USGS: "The Austin quadrangle has a comparatively dense population, but nine-tenths of its inhabitants are found on the Coastal Plain, east of the Balcones scarp, the Edwards Plateau country to the west being but sparsely populated. The densest rural population is found in the White Rock and Taylor prairies and the Colorado bottoms, nearly the entire areas of which are devoted to the cultivation of cotton, with some minor crops. The few people inhabiting the Edwards Plateau are engaged in raising cattle and cutting cedar timber from the hills to supply the city of Austin with fuel. Occasionally farmers cultivate small areas of alluvial soil in the valleys of this district."
Towns cited: "Austin, the capital of the State, occupies both banks of the Colorado near the center of the quadrangle. It is a city of 30,000 inhabitants and contains many handsome public buildings, including the capitol and university. Manor, about 12 miles northeast of Austin, is a prosperous rural village of about 5000 inhabitants. McNeil, Manchaca, and Buda are small towns along the line of the International and Great Northern Railroad. The other towns on the map, such as Oak Hill, Watters, Pflugerville, Sprinkle, Bluff Springs, New Sweden, and Fiskville, are small villages with one or more stores and a few houses."
Railroads: International and Great Northern Railroad; Houston and Texas Central Railway; Austin and Northwestern Railroad branch of the Houston and Texas Central Railway.
Roads of the time are categorized as "county roads of the first order, which lead from Austin to the neighboring county seats; lanes leading from the main highways to small communities or farms; and country roads, originally made by wood cutters, which meander through the region of the Edwards Plateau ... Three substantial bridges span the Colorado, the westernmost of which is devoted solely to railway traffic, and the others, at Austin and Montopolis, Austin, Texas, to vehicles."
The USGS descriptions concludes with a note that applies to Travis County to this day: "It is interesting to note on the map how the courses of the principal railways and highways are governed by the geologic structure."
1936 was the Centennial of Texas' independence from Mexico. In celebration the Texas Legislature created the Commission of Control for Texas Centennial Celebrations. Of about 600 historical markers erected statewide Travis County received about 50 of the 1936 Centennial markers. Unfortunately most Centennial markers, being a product of their time, focus on the "Anglo Texan" view of the last 100 years overlooking the diverse experiences of Native Americans, African Americans, and Mexican Americans in Texas.
In addition to markers, Travis County celebrated the Centennial by publishing The Defender 1936, a yearbook of Travis County rural public schools, compiled by the students and staff of the schools represented in the book. The Defender is a valuable primary source for genealogists, researchers, educators and students of Travis County history. The 348-page book contains hundreds of names of students, teachers, principals, trustees, etc. There is history of each school and photos of people and school buildings. Having been out of print since 1936, copies of The Defender 1936 are hard to access. Fortunately the book has been scanned and published on-line through the University of North Texas’ Portal to Texas History. The Defender 1936 unfortunately does not include the many African American and Mexican American schools that were in Travis County at that time. The Travis County Engineering Department did however produce road maps in 1932 with names and locations of all these schools.
From the end of the Civil War to the early twenty-first century, Travis County has experienced steady, rapid population growth (averaging more than a 36% increase every decade from 1870 to 2010), driven largely by the growth of Austin and its suburbs; it is now the fifth most populous county in Texas, after Harris (Houston), Dallas, Tarrant (Fort Worth) and Bexar (San Antonio) counties.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,023 square miles (2,650 km2), of which 990 square miles (2,600 km2) is land and 33 square miles (85 km2) (3.2% of the territory) is water. Travis County is located in the southern part of central Texas, between San Antonio and Dallas–Fort Worth. The county's geographical center lies two miles northwest of downtown Austin at 30°18' north latitude and 97°45' west longitude.
Travis County straddles the Balcones Fault, the boundary between the Edwards Plateau to the west and the Texas Coastal Plain to the east. The western part of the county is characterized by the karst topography of the Texas Hill Country, while the eastern part exhibits the fertile plains and farmlands of the Blackland Prairie. The Colorado River meanders through the county from west to east, forming a series of man-made lakes (Lake Travis, Lake Austin, and Lady Bird Lake).
Springs
The limestone karst geology of the western and southwestern parts of Travis County gives rise to numerous caverns and springs, some of which have provided shelter and water for humans in the region for thousands of years. Notable springs in the county include Barton Springs, Deep Eddy and Hamilton Pool.
Adjacent counties
Williamson County (north)
Bastrop County (southeast)
Caldwell County (south)
Hays County (southwest)
Blanco County (west)
Burnet County (northwest)
Protected areas
Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge (part)
Demographics
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 1,290,188, with a median age of 33.9 years; 21.2% of residents were under the age of 18 and 10.3% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 101.5 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 100.6 males age 18 and over.
