Georgetown, Texas

Everything Georgetown is known for

1 song mention this city 4 artists from here

Georgetown, Texas, known as the "Red Poppy Capital of Texas," also has a notable connection to music. Several artists call Georgetown home, including pop artist Conan Gray and country artists Keith Gattis, Elle Townley, and Parker Jensen. The city's musical presence is further highlighted in songs like "long walk back" by Junior Brown and "the interstate 35 waltz" by Garret T. Capps & Justin Boyd.

Georgetown embraces the artistry of Central Texas, offering a variety of music performances around town. Live music can be found at various venues, and the city also hosts the Texas Bach Festival and features performances by the Central Texas Philharmonic.

Music in Georgetown

Rivers & Roads in Song near Georgetown

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Georgetown.

History of Georgetown

Round Rock, TX RoadyGoat

Round Rock feels like such a modern boomtown, it's easy to forget the deep roots that run beneath the surface. The Chisholm Trail carved its path right through here, turning a simple creek crossing by the big round rock into a vital trading post. You can still walk a preserved section of that trail today, imagining the cattle drives of the late 1800s. But the past isn't just about dusty trails. Round Rock earned a place in legend when outlaw Sam Bass met his end here in a blaze of gunfire back in '78. Of course, Round Rock's story doesn't end with cowboys and outlaws. More recently, the city has become a hub of innovation, thanks in no small part to Dell's massive global headquarters. And it's also been home to some larger-than-life personalities.

8.6 mi away

Round Rock, TX RoadyGoat

Round Rock exists because of two things: a rock and a trail. The massive, smooth limestone boulder sitting in Brushy Creek gave the place its name, of course, but it was the Chisholm Trail that truly put it on the map. That trail, driving cattle north from Texas, needed reliable crossings, and Brushy Creek offered one. Round Rock became a natural gathering point, a place to rest, resupply, and do business. You can still see preserved sections of that trail today, a tangible link to the town's origins as a vital trading post. It wasn't just cowboys and cattle, though; the area's natural beauty, with landmarks like Old Baldy watching over the landscape, drew people looking for a fresh start. Today, you might think of Round Rock as a tech hub, the place where Dell set up its global headquarters. And that's certainly a big part of the story. But ask a local why Round Rock is different from, say, Georgetown just up the road, and they'll tell you it’s more than just jobs. It's that sense of community, a feeling rooted in that old trading post spirit. Sure, people come for the opportunities, but they stay because Round Rock, at its heart, still feels like a place where you can put down roots, just like those early settlers did along the Chisholm Trail.

8.6 mi away

Round Rock, TX RoadyGoat

Round Rock's story is etched in the land itself, from the limestone of Old Baldy to the waters of Brushy Creek. The namesake rock, a landmark in the creek, witnessed the passage of countless cattle drives along the Chisholm Trail. That trail wasn't just a path for commerce; it was a cultural artery, bringing drovers, cowboys, and settlers from diverse backgrounds to this central Texas crossroads. While the native peoples were gradually displaced, the legacy of the cattle drives persisted. The echo of those early days still rings in the city’s spirit. The preserved section of the Chisholm Trail serves as a tangible reminder of Round Rock's origins as a trading post. Though the Spanish language, once common among the vaqueros who worked the cattle, has faded over time as English became the dominant tongue, the traditions of hard work and community resilience, forged on the dusty trail, have endured.

8.6 mi away

Whiteley, Eli Lamar

1944

Eli Lamar Whiteley, World War II Medal of Honor recipient, was born near Liberty Hill, Williamson County, Texas on December 10, 1913, the second son of farmers Eli Whiteley and Ruth (Hunt) Whiteley. As a youngster growing up on a farm, young Eli helped his father tend to the livestock (Angora goats and turkeys) and the crops, mostly cotton and grains. While a high school student, he participated in the Future Farmers of America and was active in sports and played football and ran track. A member of the debate club, Whiteley also participated in public speaking. He graduated from Georgetown High School on May 21, 1932. With a desire to study civil engineering and willingness to work to finance his way through school, Whiteley applied to Texas A&M for the fall term in 1932. When his father was informed by the assistant registrar that his son needed additional course work at a junior college and would only be admitted on probation, Whiteley sought employment in order to save money for school. Since job prospects in Central Texas during the Great Depression were slim, Whiteley took odd jobs wherever he could on ranches, gas stations, as a waiter, and building rock fences. His most rewarding employment was his three years with the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA). After working for six years, Whiteley, wanting to major in agriculture, applied again to Texas A&M in 1938 and was accepted at the age of twenty-four. For his military science requirement, he selected the cavalry. Determined to finish college quickly, he also worked his way through school to cover costs and took two jobs-one at a Humpty Dumpty grocery store and one in a café. Whiteley took heavy course loads and attended summer sessions for three years and graduated with a B.S. degree in agriculture on August 30, 1941. Unfortunately, he failed to finish the required ROTC courses that would have led to an army officer's commission. After graduation, he departed for graduate school at North Carolina State College in Raleigh. Whiteley's plans changed with the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He informed the draft board in Brazos County to insert his name for the next call. On April 12, 1942, Whitley was drafted into the United States Army and assigned to basic training at Camp Wolters, Texas. He was then ordered to attend a three-week noncommissioned officers course that he finished on September 19 and subsequently was selected for officers training at the Infantry Officers Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia. Whiteley completed the course and earned a commission as a second lieutenant. He then returned to Camp Wolters to serve as a training officer. After completing the Infantry Officers Advanced Course in Fort Benning, Georgia, in 1944 and another assignment as a training officer at Camp Wolters, Whiteley was ordered to Europe and arrived in England in mid-November. On November 19, he was assigned as a rifle-platoon leader in Company L, Fifteenth Infantry Regiment, Third Infantry Division in France. When Whiteley joined his new unit, the Fifteenth were fighting the Germans in the Vosges Mountains of Alsace in eastern France. As the Allies moved closer to the Rhine River and Germany, the enemy provided a hostile reception. On December 23, the Fifteenth Infantry attacked German positions in Bennwihr and Sigolsheim. Efforts to remove the enemy in Bennwihr proved costly for Whitley's unit. Company L had entered the dangerous fighting with 125 men and had only fifty-six when the fighting ended that day. German defenders proved more difficult to remove from Sigolsheim. On December 26, Lieutenant Whitley distinguished himself as he led his platoon in "savage house-to-house fighting." Making use of a submachine gun, grenades, and a bazooka, Whiteley aggressively attacked three houses, lost an eye, suffered severe wounds, and "killed 9 Germans, captured 23 more and spearheaded an attack which cracked the core of enemy resistance in a vital area

Tsha Handbook → · 4.4 mi away

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

1973

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a 1974 independent horror film created by Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel. The story follows a group of friends who, while visiting an old family home in rural Texas, fall prey to a cannibalistic family, with only one survivor escaping the ordeal. Among the killers is Leatherface, a former butcher and intellectually-impaired man who wears masks made of human skin and uses a chainsaw as his signature weapon. The film was the first installment in a long-lasting franchise and remains the most successful (by return on investment) in the series. Produced on a modest budget of around $140,000 and featuring mostly unknown actors from Texas, the film became a major commercial success, grossing more than $30 million domestically. Despite its limited onscreen violence, the film was banned in several countries. The British Board of Film Censors, which initially banned the film in Britain, relented in 1999, and admitted that "there is no explicit sexual element in the film, and relatively little visible violence. The film is widely regarded as one of the most influential horror movies of all time, established a cult following among horror fans, and influenced generations of filmmakers, particularly in the slasher subgenre. The film is also credited with pioneering the use of power tools as movie murder weapons and portraying killers as masked, remorseless murderers. Leatherface has become a popular culture icon, and the film is recognized as a horror classic. Hooper and Henkel struggled to find investors to help finance the film. In 1973 Warren Edward Skaaren , head of the Texas Film Commission , met with potential backers to discuss the project. He played a major role in securing $60,000 in initial funding, $40,000 of which came from Texas Tech University Vice President Bill Parsley. Parsley's attorney, Robert Kuhn, contributed $9,000, while Henkel's sister Katherine, a college student at the time, invested $1,000. Another $10,000 came from Richard Saenz, a client of one of Kuhn's associates. Before the title was finalized, several other names were considered for the film. It was initially intended to be called Saturn in Retrograde , a reference to the script's astrological themes, which were muted in the final film. This was followed by the proposed title Head Cheese , which alluded to the film's cannibalistic elements. It was then changed to Stalking Leatherface and later shortened to simply Leatherface . A week before principal photography began, the final title was settled as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre . Skaaren claimed to have originated the film's title. "Chain Saw" was written as two words in the original title, as registered with the United States Copyright Office, while later installments in the franchise spelled it as one word. The film was shot on 16mm and blown up to 35mm. The cast was mostly comprised of unknowns (save for John Henry Faulk in a small role). It included Marilyn Burns as survivor Sally Hardesty, Edwin Neal as the hitchhiker, and Gunnar Hansen as Leatherface. The film marked the debut of John Larroquette, who went on to a lengthy career in television. The movie was primarily filmed at a farmhouse in rural Williamson County, which served as the home of Leatherface and his family. In 1998 the house was relocated to Kingsland, where it operated as a restaurant. The cemetery featured in the opening scene is the Bagdad Cemetery in Leander, and The Gas Station is located in Bastrop and serves as a restaurant. The dirt road featured in the film's final scene is situated in Round Rock and is now surrounded by modern development. Many of these locations have become popular tourism sites for horror movie enthusiasts. Due to the film's limited budget, the cast and crew faced difficult working conditions and a lack of accommodations. The cast wore the same clothes for all of their scenes, and the directors scavenged the area for animal remains to decorate the set. Larroquette, who provided the

Tsha Handbook → · 4.4 mi away

Site of Marshall-Carver High School

1913

The first school for African American students in Georgetown was established in the early 20th century. Called "The Colored School," the institution served grades 1 through 8 and provided the only local educational opportunities for African Americans. The school's principal, Mr. S. C. Marshall, was an outspoken advocate of higher education. A scholar himself, he persuaded the school board to allow him to provide classes through the high school level. He named the new program "The Georgetown Colored High School," and the first student enrolled in 1913. A new high school building was erected in 1923 due to increasing enrollment. When Marshall left the school in 1930, it was renamed Marshall School in his honor. The name was changed to George Washington Carver in the 1940s. In 1962, the parents of seventeen Carver students who had been denied admission to Georgetown's white schools filed a lawsuit in U. S. District Court to force integration. The court ordered the Georgetown Independent School District to integrate one grade level per year beginning with the first grad.e Partial integration began in the fall of 1964. Convinced that gradual integration would not benefit their children, African American parents appealed the decision to the Fifth Circuit Court which upheld the lower court's verdict. Proponents of full and immediate integration engaged in a letter-writing campaign to the U. S. Attorney General, the U. S. Department of Health, education and Welfare, and the Federal Assistance Program urging another review of the case. In the fall of 1965, the Georgetown School Board agreed to a plan to complete integration of the school system by September 1967. The Carver School was permanently closed due to integration. (1999)

Inner Space Cavern

1963

Discovered in 1963 on land of W. W. Laubach by core-drilling team, Texas Highway Department. Exploration begain in November 1963 and continues to present. Carved by water from Edwards limestone, cave lies along the Balcones Fault and is estimated to be 100 million years old. 95 percent of formations are still growing. Cave was apparently open during late Pleistocene (20,000 - 45,000 years ago), for bones of many extinct mammals have been found in debris cones filling former natural entrances. Remains of sabre-toothed cats and mammoths are represented. (1973)

Chalk, Whitfield

1840

Whitfield Chalk, millwright and soldier, was born on April 4, 1811, in Hertford County, North Carolina, the son of Rev. William Roscoe and Mary Elizabeth (Williams) Chalk. In 1823 the family moved to Maury County, Tennessee, from where Chalk immigrated to Texas in 1839. En route, all of his fellow steamboat passengers died of cholera; Chalk and the captain alone survived. Chalk first settled in Nashville, Milam County, but sometime later moved to the frontier community of Georgetown. His military service to the Republic of Texas is said to have been nearly continuous after his arrival in the new country. He participated in the battle of Plum Creek on August 12, 1840, and the battle of Salado Creek on September 18, 1842. When the Somervell expedition was organized to retaliate against the raids of Mexican generals Rafael Vásquez and Adrián Woll in 1842, Chalk was elected a lieutenant in Capt. John G. W. Pierson 's company, the Milam Mounted Riflemen. When Col. Alexander Somervell ordered the disbanding of the expedition after the seizure of Laredo, Chalk chose instead to remain with the volunteers who elected William S. Fisher as their new commander and crossed the Rio Grande on the Mier expedition . Fisher's men exhausted their supplies of food, water, and ammunition at the battle of Mier on Christmas Day 1842, and were forced to surrender to the forces of Gen. Pedro Ampudia . Chalk and William St. Clair, however, hid under a pile of sugarcane and became the only two Texans to escape capture. They then made their way out of the town in the dark and joined the small force of men under George B. Erath that had been left north of the Rio Grande. Together they returned to Texas after Fisher and the rest of his men were marched off to captivity in Mexico City. For his role in the fighting in 1842 Chalk was ultimately awarded $402.50 and 320 acres of bounty land in Milam County. He returned to Georgetown, where, on August 5, 1844, he was elected major of the Second Regiment of the First Militia Brigade. After two years he resigned the commission. During the Mexican War Chalk served as a private in Capt. Shapley P. Ross 's company of Texas Rangers , assigned to the defense of the frontier between the Little River and the San Gabriel River against Indian raids. On August 9, 1847, Chalk married Mary Elizabeth Fleming. His brother, Rev. John Wesley Chalk, performed the ceremony. In 1848 Chalk was elected sheriff of Williamson County, and at the same time another brother, Ira Ellis Chalk, was elected district clerk. In 1850 Chalk was living in Milam County, where he was employed as a millwright. At the time he owned $3,000 in real estate. Ten years later he had moved to Belton, where he and Ira Chalk founded a lumber and grist mill on Salado Creek near Salado. By that time he owned $3,600 in real estate and some $400 in personal property. In 1870 a special act of the state legislature awarded veterans' benefits to Chalk as a survivor of the Mier expedition, and in 1873 he joined the Texas Veterans Association . That same year he moved his family to Kempner in Lampasas County. In December 1881 a nephew, Ellis Chalk, was charged with the murder of a deputy sheriff in Belton. Whitfield Chalk died at his Lampasas County home on May 18, 1902. On Texas Independence Day, 1944, a marker was erected at his grave, with full military honors from the United States government. He had nine children.

John Berry, Frontiersman

1827

(1786-1866) A native of Kentucky and veteran of the War of 1812, John Berry moved in 1816 to Indiana. In 1827 he brought his family to the Atascosito District of Texas. Mexico awarded him lots in Liberty and Mina (Bastrop) when those towns were founded. Berry's oldest sons, Joseph (1811-1842), John Bate (1813-1891), and Andrew Jackson (1816-1899), served in the Republic of Texas Army. All three were Texas Rangers before and after the War for Independence (1836) and in the Battle of Plum Creek (1840). Joseph was the first casualty in the Mier Expedition (1842), and John Bate was in Perote Prison for a year. A Williamson County pioneer, John Berry settled three miles northeast of Georgetown in 1846. He built a blacksmith and gun shop and a spring-driven grist mill near Berry Creek. Berry had 18 children by his three wives: Betsy Smeathers (d. 1818), daughter of pioneer Texan William Smeathers (Smothers); Gracie Treat (d. 1830); and Hannah Devore (1812-1904). Five sons and three sons-in-law served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War (1861-1865). Berry died at age 80 and was buried near his home. His descendants include a great-grandson, Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in American history. (1978)

Historical Marker → · 4.2 mi away

Things to Do in Georgetown

Sports in Georgetown

🏆 STATE CHAMPIONS Class 5A · Baseball · 2022

Georgetown Eagles — 2022 UIL 5A Baseball State Champions

Most recent: 2022 5A

Georgetown High School, a Class 5A powerhouse in the heart of Texas, has a proud baseball tradition. The Eagles secured a UIL State Championship in 2022, marking a significant achievement for the program. This success on the diamond reflects the consistent effort and talent nurtured within the community.

The Georgetown baseball program has also been a springboard for several athletes who have gone on to play professionally or at major collegiate levels. Notable alumni include Taylor Jungmann, Corey Knebel, and Andrew McKirahan, all of whom honed their skills on the Georgetown fields before moving on to higher levels of competition.

State titles
2022
Most recent
2022
Class
5A
Key Players
  • Taylor Jungmann, professional baseball player
  • Corey Knebel, All-Star MLB player
  • Andrew McKirahan, professional baseball player
The moment

The 2022 5A UIL State Championship stands as a high point in Georgetown High School baseball history.

Everything Near Georgetown

354 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

Explore Georgetown on the Map