Editing Austin, Texas (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Austin, Texas}}
{{For timeline|Timeline of Austin, Texas}}
Austin, Travis County and Williamson County have been the site of human habitation since at least 9200 BC. The area's earliest known inhabitants lived during the late [[Pleistocene]] (Ice Age) and are linked to the [[Clovis culture]] around 9200 BC (over 11,200 years ago), based on evidence found throughout the area and documented at the much-studied [[Gault (archaeological site)|Gault Site]], midway between [[Georgetown, Texas|Georgetown]] and [[Fort Cavazos]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 15, 2010 |title=Handbook of Texas Online, "Gault Site" entry |url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/bbgya |access-date=July 18, 2010 |doi=<!-- Texas+State+History+Association --> |archive-date=July 10, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710065631/http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/bbgya |url-status=live }}</ref>{{failed verification|date=September 2020}}

When settlers arrived from Europe, the [[Tonkawa]] tribe inhabited the area. The [[Comanche]]s and [[Lipan Apache people|Lipan Apaches]] were also known to travel through the area.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What Native American tribe was most common in the area? |url=http://www.cityofaustin.org/library/ahc/faq5.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060929131032/http://www.cityofaustin.org/library/ahc/faq5.htm|archive-date=29 September 2006|url-status=dead|access-date=September 20, 2007 |website=Austin City Connection |publisher=City of Austin}}</ref> Spanish colonists, including the [[Isidro de Espinosa|Espinosa]]-[[Antonio de Olivares|Olivares]]-[[Pedro de Aguirre|Aguirre]] expedition, traveled through the area, though few permanent settlements were created for some time.<ref name="HOT: Hays Co" /> In 1730, three [[Catholic missions]] from [[East Texas]] were combined and reestablished as one mission on the south side of the Colorado River, in what is now [[Zilker Park]], in Austin. The mission was in this area for only about seven months, then was moved to [[San Antonio de Béxar]] and split into three missions.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ryan |first=Steven |date=June 9, 2010 |title=Austin, Catholic Diocese of |url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ica02 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710003436/http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ica02 |archive-date=July 10, 2011 |access-date=May 28, 2011 |website=Handbook of Texas Online |publisher=Texas State Historical Association}}</ref>

During the 1830s, pioneers began to settle the area in central Austin along the [[Colorado River (Texas)|Colorado River]]. Spanish forts were established in what are now [[Bastrop, Texas|Bastrop]] and [[San Marcos, Texas|San Marcos]].<ref name="HOT: Hays Co" /><ref name="HOT: Bastrop" /> Following [[History of Mexico#Independence era (1808–1829)|Mexico's independence]], new settlements were established in [[Central Texas]].<ref name="HOT: Bastrop" /><ref>{{Handbook of Texas|name=Fayette County|id=hcf03|retrieved=Feb 17, 2010|author=Garrett, Daphne Dalton}} Texas State Historical Association.</ref><ref name="HOT:Travis Co" />

[[File:Texas capitol goddess 1888.jpg|thumb|Statue of the Goddess of Liberty on the [[Texas State Capitol]] grounds, prior to installation atop the rotunda]]

In 1835–1836, Texans fought and won [[Texas Revolution|independence from Mexico]]. Texas thus became an independent country with its own president, congress, and monetary system. In 1839, the Texas Congress formed a commission to seek a site for the new capital of the [[Republic of Texas]] to replace [[Houston]].<ref name="HOT: Austin" /> When he was Vice President of Texas, [[Mirabeau B. Lamar]] had visited the area during a [[American bison|buffalo]]-hunting expedition between 1837 and 1838. He advised the commissioners to consider the area on the north bank of the [[Colorado River (Texas)|Colorado River]] (near the present-day [[Congress Avenue Bridge]]), noting the area's hills, waterways, and pleasant surroundings.<ref name="Patoski 2010" /> It was seen as a convenient crossroads for trade routes between [[Santa Fe, New Mexico|Santa Fe]] and [[Galveston Bay]], as well as routes between Northern Mexico and the [[Red River of the South|Red River]].<ref name="Erlichman 2006" /> In 1839, the site was chosen, and briefly incorporated under the name "Waterloo".<ref>{{Handbook of Texas|name=Waterloo, Texas|id=hvw13|retrieved=February 17, 2010}} Texas State Historical Association.</ref> Shortly afterward, the name was changed to Austin in honor of [[Stephen F. Austin]], the "Father of Texas" and the republic's first secretary of state.

The city grew throughout the 19th century and became a center for government and education with the construction of the [[Texas State Capitol]] and the [[University of Texas at Austin]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=History Lesson |url=http://www.austintexas.org/travel_trade/why_austin/historyheritage |access-date=July 28, 2008 |publisher=Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau |archive-date=May 1, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120501122959/http://www.austintexas.org/travel_trade/why_austin/historyheritage |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Austin old capital.png|thumb|Second capitol building in Austin]]

[[Edwin Waller]] was picked by Lamar to survey the village and draft a plan laying out the new capital.<ref name="HOT: Austin" /> The original site was narrowed to {{convert|640|acres|-1|abbr=on}} that fronted the Colorado River between two creeks, [[Shoal Creek, Austin, Texas|Shoal Creek]] and [[Waller Creek]], which was later named in his honor. Waller and a team of surveyors developed Austin's first [[city plan]], commonly known as the [[Waller Plan]], dividing the site into a 14-block grid plan bisected by a broad north–south thoroughfare, Congress Avenue, running up from the river to Capital Square, where the new Texas State Capitol was to be constructed. A temporary one-story capitol was erected on the corner of Colorado and 8th Streets. On August 1, 1839, the first auction of 217 out of 306 lots total was held.<ref name="HOT: Austin" /><ref name="Erlichman 2006" /> The Waller Plan designed and surveyed now forms the basis of downtown Austin.

In 1840, a series of conflicts between the [[Texas Ranger Division|Texas Rangers]] and the [[Comanche]]s, known as the [[Council House Fight]] and the [[Battle of Plum Creek]], pushed the Comanches westward, mostly ending conflicts in Central Texas.<ref>{{Handbook of Texas|name=Plum Creek, Battle of|id=btp04|retrieved=February 17, 2010}} Texas State Historical Association.</ref> Settlement in the area began to expand quickly. Travis County was established in 1840, and the surrounding counties were mostly established within the next two decades.<ref name="HOT:Travis Co" />

Initially, the new capital thrived but Lamar's political enemy, [[Sam Houston]], used two Mexican army incursions to [[San Antonio]] as an excuse to move the government. Sam Houston fought bitterly against Lamar's decision to establish the capital in such a remote wilderness. The men and women who traveled mainly from Houston to conduct government business were intensely disappointed as well. By 1840, the population had risen to 856, nearly half of whom fled Austin when Congress recessed.<ref>{{Cite web |title=City of Austin Community Inventory Report |url=http://www.imagineaustin.net/inventory-historic.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100309084740/http://www.imagineaustin.net/inventory-historic.htm |archive-date=March 9, 2010 |access-date=December 11, 2009 |publisher=Austin City Connection}}</ref> The resident [[African American]] population listed in January of this same year was 176.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Austin Treasures: First Year Firsts: 1839. |url=http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/ahc/begin/firsts.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020109140428/http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/ahc/begin/firsts.htm |archive-date=January 9, 2002 |access-date=April 18, 2011 |publisher=Austin City Connections}}</ref> The fear of Austin's proximity to the Indians and Mexico, which still considered Texas a part of their land, created an immense motive for Sam Houston, the first and third President of the Republic of Texas, to relocate the capital once again in 1841. Upon threats of Mexican troops in Texas, Houston raided the Land Office to transfer all official documents to Houston for safe keeping in what was later known as the [[Archive War]], but the people of Austin would not allow this unaccompanied decision to be executed. The documents stayed, but the capital would temporarily move from Austin to Houston to [[Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas|Washington-on-the-Brazos]]. Without the governmental body, Austin's population declined to a low of only a few hundred people throughout the early 1840s. The voting by the fourth President of the Republic, [[Anson Jones]], and Congress, who reconvened in Austin in 1845, settled the issue to keep Austin the seat of government, as well as annex the Republic of Texas into the United States.

In 1860, 38% of Travis County residents were [[slavery in the United States|slaves]].<ref>{{Cite news |year=1961 |title=Map Showing the Distribution of the Slave Population of the Southern States of the United States |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/opinion/FULLFRAMEmap.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/opinion/FULLFRAMEmap.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |access-date=December 13, 2010}}</ref> In 1861, with the outbreak of the [[American Civil War]], voters in Austin and other Central Texas communities voted against secession.<ref name="HOT: Bastrop" /><ref name="HOT: Austin" /> However, as the war progressed and fears of attack by [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] forces increased, Austin contributed hundreds of men to the [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] forces. The African American population of Austin swelled dramatically after the enforcement of the [[Emancipation Proclamation]] in Texas by [[Union Army|Union]] General [[Gordon Granger]] at [[Galveston, Texas|Galveston]], in an event commemorated as [[Juneteenth]]. Black communities such as [[Wheatville, Austin|Wheatville]], Pleasant Hill, and Clarksville were established, with Clarksville being the oldest surviving freedomtown ‒ the original post-Civil War settlements founded by former African-American slaves ‒ west of the [[Mississippi River]].<ref name="HOT: Austin" /> In 1870, blacks made up 36.5% of Austin's population.<ref name="census" />

[[File:Old map-Austin-1873-sm.jpg|thumb|An 1873 illustration of [[Edwin Waller]]'s layout for Austin]]

The postwar period saw dramatic population and economic growth. The opening of the [[Houston and Texas Central Railway]] (H&TC) in 1871<ref>[http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txrober2/HOTBHOUSTONTEXASCENTRAL.htm Roots Web], retrieved July 13, 2010 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100509220634/http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txrober2/HOTBHOUSTONTEXASCENTRAL.htm |date=May 9, 2010}}</ref> turned Austin into the major trading center for the region, with the ability to transport both cotton and cattle. The [[Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad|Missouri, Kansas & Texas]] (MKT) line followed close behind.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Texas Transportation Museum |url=http://www.txtransportationmuseum.org/MKT.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930190607/http://www.txtransportationmuseum.org/MKT.htm |archive-date=September 30, 2011 |access-date=September 15, 2014 |website=Txtransportationmuseum.org/}}</ref> Austin was also the terminus of the southernmost leg of the [[Chisholm Trail]], and "drovers" pushed cattle north to the railroad.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Martin |first=Don |title=Austin |date=2009 |publisher=[[Arcadia Publishing]] |isbn=978-0-7385-7067-9 |location=Chicago, Illinois |page=31}}</ref> Cotton was one of the few crops produced locally for export, and a [[cotton gin]] engine was located downtown near the trains for "ginning" cotton of its seeds and turning the product into bales for shipment.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of the Cotton gin (postcard images) |url=http://www.texasescapes.com/Cotton/Cotton-Gins-In-Texas-3.htm |access-date=September 15, 2014 |website=Texasescapes.com |archive-date=June 28, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140628083602/http://www.texasescapes.com/Cotton/Cotton-Gins-In-Texas-3.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> However, as other new railroads were built through the region in the 1870s, Austin began to lose its primacy in trade to the surrounding communities.<ref name="HOT: Austin" /> In addition, the areas east of Austin took over cattle and cotton production from Austin, especially in towns like [[Hutto, Texas|Hutto]] and [[Taylor, Texas|Taylor]] that sit over the [[Texas blackland prairies|blackland prairie]], with its deep, rich soils for producing cotton and hay.<ref>Martin (2009), p. 30.</ref><ref>{{Handbook of Texas|id=hes02|title=San Marcos, Texas|retrieved=Feb 17, 2010|author=Greene, Daniel P.}} Texas State Historical Association.</ref>

In September 1881, Austin public schools held their first classes. The same year, Tillotson Collegiate and Normal Institute (now part of [[Huston–Tillotson University]]) opened its doors. The [[University of Texas at Austin|University of Texas]] held its first classes in 1883, although classes had been held in the original wooden state capitol for four years before.<ref>Martin (2009), p. 84.</ref>

During the 1880s, Austin gained new prominence as the [[Texas State Capitol|state capitol building]] was completed in 1888 and claimed as the seventh largest building in the world.<ref name="HOT: Austin" /> In the late 19th century, Austin expanded its city limits to more than three times its former area, and the first granite dam was built on the Colorado River to power a new street car line and the new "[[Moonlight tower|moon towers]]".<ref name="HOT: Austin" /> The first dam washed away in a flood on April 7, 1900.<ref>Martin (2009), p. 107.</ref>

In the late 1920s and 1930s, Austin implemented the [[1928 Austin city plan]] through a series of civic development and beautification projects that created much of the city's infrastructure and many of its parks. In addition, the state legislature established the [[Lower Colorado River Authority]] (LCRA) that, along with the city of Austin, created the system of dams along the Colorado River to form the [[Texas Highland Lakes|Highland Lakes]]. These projects were enabled in large part because the [[Public Works Administration]] provided Austin with greater funding for municipal construction projects than other Texas cities.<ref name="HOT: Austin" />

During the early 20th century, a three-way system of social segregation emerged in Austin, with Anglos, African Americans and Mexicans being separated by custom or law in most aspects of life, including housing, health care, and education. Deed restrictions also played an important role in [[residential segregation in the United States|residential segregation]]. After 1935 most housing deeds prohibited African Americans (and sometimes other nonwhite groups) from using land.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tretter |first=Eliot |title=Shadows of a Sunbelt City - The Environment, Racism, and the Knowledge Economy in Austin |date=2016 |publisher=The University of Georgia Press |isbn=978-0-8203-4489-8 |page=126}}</ref> Combined with the system of segregated public services, racial segregation increased in Austin during the first half of the twentieth century, with African Americans and Mexicans experiencing high levels of discrimination and social marginalization.<ref>McDonald, Jason (2012). ''Racial Dynamics in Early Twentieth-Century Austin, Texas''. Lexington Books. ISBN/9780739170977</ref>

In 1940, the destroyed granite dam on the Colorado River was finally replaced by a hollow concrete dam<ref>Martin (2009). p. 111.</ref> that formed Lake McDonald (now called [[Lake Austin]]) and which has withstood all floods since. In addition, the much larger Mansfield Dam was built by the LCRA upstream of Austin to form Lake Travis, a flood-control reservoir.<ref>Martin (2009), p. 112.</ref>

In the early 20th century, the [[Texas Oil Boom]] took hold, creating tremendous economic opportunities in Southeast Texas and North Texas. The growth generated by this boom largely passed by Austin at first, with the city slipping from fourth largest to tenth largest in Texas between 1880 and 1920.<ref name="HOT: Austin" />

After a severe lull in economic growth from the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]], Austin resumed its steady development. Following the mid-20th century, Austin became established as one of Texas' major metropolitan centers. In 1970, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Austin's population as 14.5% Hispanic, 11.9% black, and 73.4% non-Hispanic white.<ref name="census" /> In the late 20th century, Austin emerged as an important high tech center for [[semiconductor]]s and software. The [[University of Texas at Austin]] emerged as a major university.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Austin in Texas |url=http://www.writeonaustin.org/ |access-date=April 16, 2010 |publisher=Writeonaustin.com |archive-date=June 28, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140628105213/http://www.writeonaustin.org/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The 1970s saw Austin's emergence in the national music scene, with local artists such as [[Willie Nelson]], [[Asleep at the Wheel]], and [[Stevie Ray Vaughan]] and iconic music venues such as the [[Armadillo World Headquarters]]. Over time, the long-running television program ''Austin City Limits'', its namesake Austin City Limits Festival, and the [[South by Southwest]] music festival solidified the city's place in the music industry.<ref name="austin history" />