Brushy
Creek Railroad Train Trestle
(at the Brushy Creek
Sports Park)
March 7, 2009
The
dedication of Historical PlaqueGranite For The State Capitol -
Brushy Creek Railroad Train Trestle Historical Marker Dedication
Granite for the State Capitol Marker Text
In the 1880s, the arrival of the railroad helped develop western Williamson County and contributed to the construction of a new state capitol. When quarried limestone proved deficient for the new statehouse, contractors chose granite from Burnet County outcroppings. The Austin and Northwestern
Railroad, which ran through this area and established Brueggerhoff (Cedar Park) and Leander, extended to the Granite Mountain quarry site in 1885. More than 4,000 flatcars passed through here in 1886-87, carrying the large blocks of pink granite to Austin. Three dozen blocks that tumbled of the tracks were left in the creek bed, since the state obtained its building stone free of charge. The Texas State Capitol was completed in 1888.(2008)
RAILROAD ROUTE FROM GRANITE MOUNTAIN TO THE CAPITOL
W hile the Austin and Northwestern line was being built, a dramatic event occurred, which was soon to affect the new line. The State Capitol in Austin caught fire and burned to the ground on November 9, 1881. When the new plans for another Capitol were accepted, they called for a limestone structure, the materials to be quarried southwest of Austin, but the stone proved unsatisfactory to the commission in charge of the job. The contractor proposed using granite from Indiana, but the commission insisted on the stone from Texas. George W. Lacy and W.H. Westfall offered granite from Granite Mountain near Marble Falls free of charge to the State of Texas. As soon as an agreement for the granite was reached on July 21, 1885, the State began building a railroad spur from Burnet, sixteen miles to Granite Mountain, finishing it December 1, 1885.
The "Lone Star Engine" pulled 15,700 flat carloads of granite from the quarry, through Grover, Liberty Hill. Leander, Walkerton, Whitestone, Cedar
Park, Rutledge, Cummings, and Rattan on their way to the Capitol.
Maps
GPS coordinates
Latitude 30.504208
Address : 2310 Brushy Creek Rd
The railroad was originally built as a narrow-gauge line, with 3 feet between the rails instead of the standard 4 feet - 8.5 inches. The line reached Burnet in 1882. It was extended to Granite Mountain in 1885 and began hauling pink granite to Austin for the Texas State Capitol building. The narrow-gauge line continued to serve a rugged
, remote area, otherwise difficult to travel.While the granite hauling job financially secured the troubled Northwestern Railroad, occasionally, an
entire train went into the ditch. Such a train wreck happened on the southwest corner of the Brushy Creek Recreational Park property, causing several massive blocks of granite to be dumped into the Brushy Creek. These stones never arrived in Austin to be used in the construction of the Texas State Capitol and remain intact and undisturbed just as they fell in the late 1880s.AUSTIN NORTHWESTERN TRAIN CROSSING THE BRUSHY CREEK TRAIL WITH GRANITE ROCKS ON TRESTLE (1886)
For Granite For The State Capitol
The Granite Industry of the 1880s
I . CONTEXT
Millions of years ago, a mass of rock emerged near present-day
Marble Falls in Burnet County. It was to become known as Granite Mountain. Approximately 8,000 B.C., plus or minus, Paleo Indians roamed the Brushy Creek area living alongside the year-round flowing creek. The abundant flora and fauna along Brushy Creek supplied the daily needs of the earliest human inhabitants of the area.In 1836 the first fort was built on the outskirts of present-day Cedar Park.
This fort was named Tumlinson, or Blockhouse Fort, after
John Tumlinson, Jr. Tumlinson was the leader of a 60 man, early Texas Ranger contingent to the area that established the fort, the first Anglo settlement in Williamson County. This group of Rangers included Noah Smithwick, who would later chronicle events of early Texas. [1]In the 1840s, the first pioneer families began settling the area around Cedar Park .
By 1856 a stagecoach line running from Austin to Lampasas would run through the area
where small communities such as Pond Springs, Buttercup, Running Brushy, Bagdad, and Liberty Hill were emerging in western Williamson County. [2]A Cedar Park city historical marker identifies the location of the 17-mile stagecoach marker found
alongside present-day US 183.The historical marker for the Stage Coach Marker reads as follows:
Stage Coach Marker
The 17-mile marker for the Austin to Lampasas Springs Stage Line was located at this site. Minus M. Long owned and operated the stage line from about 1856 until about 1877. The stage carried mail, passengers, and some freight, and the 65-mile trip took seven hours and cost $7.00. The stage made stops at Jollyville (Pond Springs), Buttercup, Running Brushy, Bagdad, Liberty Hill, and Burnet. A noon meal stop was made at Liberty Hill, and teams of horses were replaced at Running Brushy (near this site), Liberty Hill, and Burnet. In the early years, the stage made the trip to Lampasas twice a week. In later years, the stage traveled to Lampasas on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and back to Austin on Tuesday, Thursday and
Saturday. After 1877, the stage line changed the route so that it passed through Round Rock to points north of Austin. The post office system had to once again rely on a small wagon to deliver the mail to settlements between Austin and Bagdad.The Austin and Northwestern Railroad was constructed as a narrow-gauge railroad from Austin to Burnet in 1881-1882 to open western Williamson County to rail travel.
At that time, Running Brushy was renamed Brueggerhoff after one of the railroad owners. Profits were elusive until the decision was made to haul granite from Granite Mountain over it. The name of Brueggerhoff was changed to Cedar Park; it has been said because Brueggerhoff was difficult to pronounce and spell, in 1887 and incorporated as a City in 1973. This
rail line is soon to become the Leander to Austin Commuter rail line.In 1881 the Texas Capitol burned.
When the new and current Texas Capitol was being designed, it was thought that the
Capitol would be built of limestone taken fromOak Hill quarries.
However, it was determined that the limestone contained pyrite, which would discolor the
limestone over time. Nimrod Norton and his business partners, W.H. Westfall and G.W. Lacy, offered to donate to the State as much Texas Pink Granite (now marketed as Sunset Red Granite) from their Granite Mountain quarries as it needed to build the Capitol if the State paid the Austin and Northwestern Railroad to extend their line from Burnet to Granite Mountain; which it did. During 1886-1887, 4000 flatcars traveled from Marble Falls in Burnet County thru Williamson County and into Travis County via that rail line, bringing granite into Austin over narrow gauge rails. Williamson County and Cedar Park served as the conduit for the transport of the granite but did not benefit economically from it. A Cedar Park city historical marker has been erected at the Hill Country Flyer depot in Cedar Park.The Granite Industry of the 1880s
I . CONTEXT
Millions of years ago, a mass of rock emerged near present-day
Marble Falls in Burnet County. It was to become known as Granite Mountain. Approximately 8,000 B.C., plus or minus, Paleo Indians roamed the Brushy Creek area living alongside the year-round flowing creek. The abundant flora and fauna along Brushy Creek supplied the daily needs of the earliest human inhabitants of the area.In 1836 the first fort was built on the outskirts of present-day Cedar Park.
This fort was named Tumlinson, or Blockhouse Fort, after
John Tumlinson, Jr. Tumlinson was the leader of a 60 man, early Texas Ranger contingent to the area that established the fort, the first Anglo settlement in Williamson County. This group of Rangers included Noah Smithwick, who would later chronicle events of early Texas. [1]In the 1840s, the first pioneer families began settling the area around Cedar Park .
By 1856 a stagecoach line running from Austin to Lampasas would run through the area
where small communities such as Pond Springs, Buttercup, Running Brushy, Bagdad, and Liberty Hill were emerging in western Williamson County. [2]A Cedar Park city historical marker identifies the location of the 17-mile stagecoach marker found
alongside present-day US 183.The historical marker reads
as follows:Austin and Northwestern Railroad
The first railroad to tap the mineral-rich heart of the Hill Country, the A&NW’s narrow-gauge tracks were completed from Austin to Burnet in 1882. When the State Capitol, which burned in 1881, was being rebuilt, the State of Texas decided to bring granite for the new Capitol from Granite Mountain near Marble Falls, and it extended the railroad south to Granite Mountain. Between 1886 and 1888, approximately 4,000 flat cars of granite were pulled over this rail line. During this time, US mail and freight used the line as well as passenger trains, which made the four hour trip between Austin and Burnet for a passenger rate of about a penny per mile. In 1891, the line was acquired by the Houston and Texas Central Railroad, eventually part of the great Southern Pacific line. At that time, the line was standard-gauged and extended west to Llano. Twenty miles of track could be widened by 200 men in three hours. The line was extended north
to Lampasas in 1903. In 1929, a spur line was built to Texas Quarries, two miles west of Highway 183 in Cedar Park. Texas Quarries used the line to transport limestone blocks to provide building material for Gov. Ross Sterling’s home near.Houston, the old University Library, the Austin Post Office , and the trimmings for Herman Hospital in Houston.
Passenger service was discontinued in about 1937. In 1986, Southern Pacific sold the line to the City of Austin and it is now owned by Austin Capital Metro which serves the area with regular freight service. Excursion service is provided by the Austin Steam Train Association. Cedar Park is the home station of steam
locomotive No. 786 and the Hill Country Flyer.The subject of this historical marker application is the movement of the granite to build the Texas State Capitol.
Granite Mountain, located in Burnet County two miles west of
Marble Falls and then owned by N.L. Norton, W.H. Westfall, and G.W. Lacey signed a contract with the State of Texas in July 1885 to provide as much granite as it needed to build the State Capitol. Taylor, Babcock, and Company of Chicago eventually were assigned the job of constructing the Capitol. After several contract modifications, Taylor agreed to build the State Capitol provided the State furnish the granite free of charge, and furnish up to 1000 convicts to quarry the granite, with the contractor providing food, shelter, clothing, and guards.The quarrying and cutting and finishing of the granite swirled in controversy throughout the project.
At issue were the workers used to quarry, cut, and finish the granite. The State agreed to provide convict labor from its State penitentiaries, which was opposed by many of the public and the American Granite Cutters union. They contended that this undermined the job prospects of union members and other “free labor”, that is, not prisoners. Gus Wilke of Chicago who was selected as a project manager and throughout the project was the subject of court actions and protests over his use of the less expensive convict labor and later the Scotsmen he imported to do the final cutting and polishing of the granite. [3] The use of imported Scotsmen attracted national attention and was the first real test of the 1885
federal Alien Contract Labor Act. The court cases dragged on for years after the Capitol was completed.The granite, weighing in at 165 pounds per cubic foot according to Granite Mountain, was quarried by convict labor and rough cut by that labor.
It was then transported to Burnet at first by oxen and cart and later by railcar. By July 25, 1886, Wilke had 300 convicts working at Granite Mountain and 148, most of the Scottish stone cutters, working in Burnet to finish the stone. The stone was loaded on rail flatcars for the final trip into Austin. The largest block of granite transported was the cornerstone, weighing 18,000
pounds. It was transported to Burnet by fifteen oxen and then loaded onto a specially modified railcar for its trip into Austin.During this period the Austin and Northwestern Railroad was narrow gauge and was not built to today’s standards.
Occasionally
granite fell off the railcars and was left behind because there the granite was being given free of charge.One such incident, at the site of this proposed historical marker, is described in a paper written by Neil Krans then a student at Concordia High School
in 1959. It is based on interviews and letters of approximately 15 people. [4]One day during this time period, 18 flatcars carrying 36 blocks of granite, one block of granite over each truck , were making their way into Austin on a train being driven by Charlie Enlow.
Being that the trestle over Brushy Creek was on a curve followed by an upgrade, the prudent option was to break the train in two; taking nine cars over and coming back for the remaining nine cars. The other option was to take all 18 cars at once. According to Dr. Robert Shoen, President of the Austin Steam Train Association and train engineer, the trestle and rail tracks were not up to today’s standards. Today the track on the trestle is “super elevated” meaning that the plane of the track tilts down a few degrees towards the inside of
the curve. By tilting the track one can take the curve faster and would be less likely to lose the cars or contents to centrifugal force. At the time of the building of the Capitol, the track was probably not ‘super elevated.” It would then be possible for the cars to “bowstring”. That would mean that the heavy force of the pulling engine on one end of that car arc plus the weight of the cars at the opposite end of that car arc could make the cars in the middle try to assume a more linear configuration and pop off the track on the inside of the curve. The engineer of this train decided to take the all cars at once and all 18 cars left the tracks on the trestle and landed in the creek bed below. Workers removed the flatcars from the creek bed as they represented nearly half of the railroad rolling stock. However, the granite was left behind, where it remains to this day.History Center, Railroad vertical file
. Austin, TexasII. OVERVIEW
During 1886 and 1887, 4,000 flat cars of Sunset Red granite passed over a trestle over Brushy Creek on the Austin and Northwestern narrow gauge railroad bound for Austin to be used in the building of the Texas State Capitol. This trestle is located just south of Brushy Creek Road and just west of Parmer Lane. During approximately August 2007 a Cedar Park city park will open on the bluff south of
Brushy Creek Road overlooking the railroad trestle. In addition, a Williamson County hike and bike trail are being extended along the base of the bluff through the trestle area.III SIGNIFICANCE
The Texas State Capitol is an important historical structure in Texas. The building of this structure is a significant chapter in the history of the State. The event described in the overview, not only explains the presence of Sunset Red granite in the creek bed under the rail line trestle but opens a window on the building of the State Capitol. While Cedar Park and Williamson County gathered no direct economic benefit from the transport of the granite for the State Capitol
, its place in history will be enhanced and known to many by the installation of this historical markerIV DOCUMENTATION
- Lucille Latham White, “The Tumlinson's—Texas Rangers”, Old West, Winter, 1981
- Clara Stearns Scarbrough, Land of Good Water: A Williamson County History (Georgetown, Texas): Williamson County Sun Publishers. 1973)
- Austin History Center, Capitol vertical file. Austin, Texas 4.Neil Krans, Ten Years of 3’ gauge and Thereafter Concordia High School, 1959
- Lester Haines, “The Austin and Northwestern Rail Road Company”, Journal of Shortline Railroads, August, September, and October 1998.
- Southwestern Historical Quarterly Vol. XCV No. ,4 April 1992.