Hutto, Texas

Everything Hutto is known for

2 songs mention this city 2 artists from here

Music in Hutto

Songs About Hutto

Hutto
Si Kahn
78%
"TITLE"
Texas Overture
Pere Ubu
52%
"If I lived in Hutto I'd nearly be home now"

Artists From Hutto

F
Fritz Hodde & The Fabulous Six
polka Pop: 10
D
Dylan Kenny
country Pop: 1

Rivers & Roads in Song near Hutto

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

Interstate 35 42 songs Texas Colorado River 6 songs

History of Hutto

Stop Trains, Hippo Loose in Hutto RoadyGoat

Hutto calls itself the Hippo Capital of Texas, and the reason is one of the best tall tales in Williamson County, so let's tell it honestly: it's a legend, not a documented event. As the story goes, in 1915 a circus train pulled up at the Hutto depot, and during the stop a hippopotamus got loose from its rail car and wallowed down into nearby Cottonwood Creek, just east of the tracks. Farmers and merchants gathered to watch crews try to pry the animal out of the mud. The depot agent supposedly wired the next towns down the line, Taylor and Round Rock about eight miles either way, with a message that became local scripture: stop trains, hippo loose in Hutto. Nobody has produced a newspaper clipping or circus record to prove it happened, and the chamber cheerfully admits as much. What's real is what came after: the school adopted the hippo as its mascot, and by 1923 it was printed on Hutto High graduation announcements. Hutto remains the only town in America that flies a hippo as its emblem. (Source: Hutto Area Chamber of Commerce; Community Impact.)

RoadyGoat →

Reinforcing a 1937 Riveted-Steel Gin Without Killing Its Bones RoadyGoat

The open-air pavilion at the Hutto Co-Op District is a genuine engineering puzzle solved in steel. The Co-Op was built starting in 1937 to gin and store the area's cotton and grain, two adjacent sheet-metal gin buildings framed in riveted structural steel, and it ran until 2003. When the city bought the 16-plus-acre site and chose to save the gins instead of scrapping them, architects and engineers faced a hard problem: how do you bring a 1930s riveted-steel frame up to modern building code, strong enough for crowds and wind loads, without burying the thin, elegant original structure in bulky reinforcement. Their answer was to selectively take apart both gin buildings, reuse the best steel, and stitch them into one roughly 7,800-square-foot open-air venue. A perforated stainless steel skin on the south face reflects harsh sun by day, glows with transparency at night, and floods the space with soft daylight. The restoration won a 2016 Best Public Improvement award from the Texas Downtown Association. It's old industrial bones, re-engineered to stand another century. (Source: Antenora Architects; Texas Downtown Association.)

RoadyGoat →

The Rancher Who Sold the Railroad Its Stop RoadyGoat

The town you're rolling into is named for a man who sold the railroad a place to stop. James Emory Hutto was an Alabama-born rancher who reached Williamson County around 1855 and ran cattle on the open Blackland prairie east of Round Rock. When the International-Great Northern Railroad pushed through in 1876, the first rail line in the county, it bought five acres from Hutto for a depot site, and the new station simply took his name. In 1877 the plat was filed, and within a year the spot had a depot, a post office, a general store, and a lumber business clustered along the tracks. Hutto himself didn't stay long; by 1885 he had moved on to Waco and the hardware trade. But the name stuck to the crossroads he'd left behind. Almost everything that followed here, the cotton, the gins, the immigrants, the hippo, grew up around those rails he sold a sliver of pasture to. A whole town, born from a cattleman cashing in five acres at the right moment. (Source: Handbook of Texas.)

RoadyGoat →

Major Robert McNutt

1812

Born May 1, 1795 Commanded the Texas forces at the Harrisburg Camp during the Battle of San Jacinto. Soldier in the War of 1812 Died August 31, 1853 His Wife Mary Jackson McNutt Born October 6, 1796 Died December 28, 1867 Erected by the State of Texas 1963

Historical Marker →

Hutto Hippos

1915

The town of Hutto adopted the hippopotamus as its mascot after a circus hippo allegedly escaped and lived in a local creek around 1915.

Shiloh-McCutcheon Cemetery

1848

The community of Shiloh dates from 1848, when both Nelson Morey and Josiah Talor established stores in this area. Shiloh spread along the banks of Brushy Creek near Wilbarger Crossing, which was later called Shiloh Crossing and Rogan Crossing. The community consisted of a school, a church, two stores and a few residents who lived along Brushy Creek. Shiloh-McCutcheon Cemetery sits on a park of the original grant of 1852 acres issued to the heirs of William Gatlin because of his participation in the Texas Army during the revolution of 1835-1836. The first recorded burial is that of Josiah Kuykendall, who became ill with smallpox after a traveler spent the night at his home. His brother and neighbor, Mark Kuykendall, came to care for Josiah during his illness, but became ill himself. Both brothers died from the disease and were buried in the cemetery in 1853. The property was not officially deeded as a cemetery until February 1890, when William Mccutcheon deeded land to three cemetery trustees, F.F. Farley, Green Randolf, and William Rogan. William Mccutcheon, his wife Elizabeth Jane, and six of their thirteen children are buried here. Through the years, the burial ground has also been known as Shiloh, Old Shiloh, or Mccutcheon Cemetery. Burials at the site include veterans of the Texas Revolution, Civil War, World War I and World War II. Due to the density of burials, interments are now restricted to the ashes of descendants of those already interred at the site. Historic Texas Cemetery – 1999

Historical Marker →

Fariss, Dolores

1940

Dolores Fariss was the bandleader of Dolores and the Bluebonnet Boys, a well-known country western band in Texas during the 1940s and 1950s. She performed on piano and was joined by her husband Lee who played drums and sang. Dolores, the daughter of Alfred and Judith Hanson, was born in Hutto, Texas, on April 18, 1912. She lived most of her life in the Govalle area of Austin, Texas, and graduated from Austin High School. While attending Nixon Clay Business School, she also played the piano in her father’s polka band. She met James Lee Fariss (born in Austin on December 9, 1907) in 1930 when she was playing in her father’s band. They were married on September 4, 1931, in First Baptist Church in San Marcos. They had two sons. Her husband Lee worked with his brother-in-law and father-in-law in their construction company. Dolores organized her band in the 1940s, and she and Lee played one of their first shows in 1946 at the Elm Grove outside of Austin. Together they toured Central Texas, performed on radio , and became the house band for many years at the Skyline Club . Their bandmates, at various times, included Joe Castle, Aubrey Cox, Claude Hallmark, Sonny Raines, Jimmie Grabowski, and others. In addition to her skilled performances, she was a gifted composer. She wrote and released a number of recordings on the 4 Star, Lasso, and Macy’s labels. These songs included “Austin Waltz,” “My Bonnie Blue Eyes,” “The Fiesta Waltz,” “I Don’t Care,” and “A Broken Heart.” Dolores and Lee stopped playing professionally in 1955. She then worked as a dietician for the Del Valley School District until her retirement in the late 1970s. Dolores Fariss died on April 9, 1993. Her husband Lee died on July 9, 1998. Dolores Fariss was honored with induction into the Austin Music Memorial in 2011.

Tsha Handbook →

Hutto, TX

1876

Hutto is on the Missouri Pacific Railroad at the intersection of State Highway 79 and Farm Road 1660, near Cottonwood Creek seven miles east of Round Rock in south central Williamson County. The International-Great Northern Railroad, the first railroad in Williamson County, reached the site of Hutto in 1876 and purchased five acres of land for Hutto Station from James Emory Hutto, a local rancher. The following year the community, which soon changed its name to Hutto, had a railroad depot, a post office, a general store, and a lumber business. By 1884 Hutto had 200 inhabitants, a school, three churches, and five gins and shipped cotton and grain. A bank and a hotel opened in the early 1890s, and the population reached 700 in 1896, when Hutto was described as an "important cotton market" by the Texas State Gazetteer . Many of the inhabitants and the local farmers were German, Danish, or Swedish immigrants, and the town had a Swedish church in 1896. In the 1890s Hutto had two weekly papers, the Church Helper and the Hutto Enterprise . After reaching a peak population of 900 in 1928, Hutto was hard-hit by the Great Depression and the decline of the cotton industry. By 1931 the population had fallen to 538. The town was incorporated in 1940, when it had 579 inhabitants. In the 1960s the population dropped to 400, and the town had nine businesses in 1970. The community revived over the next two decades and had 842 inhabitants and seventeen businesses in 1988. In 1990 the population was 630. By 2000 the population had almost doubled to 1,250.

Tsha Handbook →

Baylor Bus Crash of 1927

1927

On the afternoon of January 22, 1927, the Baylor Basketball team traveled from Baylor University in Waco to the University of Texas at Austin for a basketball game. Carrying a total of twenty-two team members, coaching staff, and others, the bus, driven by Joe Potter, a Baylor football team member who had driven busses for Baylor athletic teams before, headed south on Highway No. 2. The weather was rainy. When the bus crossed the railroad tracks in Round Rock, Texas, the vehicle was struck by a north-bound passenger train known as a "Sunshine Special" of the International-Great Northern Railroad. Potter had turned onto the train tracks without realizing that the train would collide with the bus. He did not have time to either accelerate across the tracks nor turn the bus to avoid collision. According to a report in Baylor's Daily Lariat later that day, "the train hit the right rear wheel and telescoped and completely demolished the bus...." Various accounts stated that the train was traveling between 50 to 70 mph, while fogged windows, a "string of boxcars on a siding," and a small house near the tracks obstructed the view of the bus driver. Several players, including John Riley Kane , jumped out of the bus before the collision, but ultimately ten were killed. Newspaper accounts differ as to whether eight or six lost their lives on impact; some reports stated that two of the victims died at a Taylor hospital. Two other injured players died en route to a hospital in nearby Georgetown. Several others were critically injured, while approximately six men, including Coach Ralph Wolf, were slightly injured. The president of the university, Samuel Palmer Brooks , immediately issued a statement that included: "The heart of Baylor University is torn to shreds at this moment. The awful tragedy that brought death and injury to so many of our noble boys overcomes us all." During the week that followed, funerals and memorials took place in Waco and across Texas. More than 3,000 people attended a memorial service at Baylor University, and a mayoral proclamation called for Waco businesses to close during the event. The day after the accident, Waco Times-Herald reporter Jack Hawkins coined the term "Immortal Ten" for the young men who died. The names of the dead were Jack Castellaw; Sam Dillow; Merle Dudley; Ivey Foster Jr.; Robert R. Hailey; James Clyde "Abe" Kelley; Robert L. Hannah, Jr.; Willis E. Murray; James S. Walker; and William P. Winchester. Within a day of the accident, Texas House Speaker Robert Lee Bobbitt called for legislation requiring "automatic safety devices at all crossings." The Texas legislature subsequently introduced a bill to construct overpasses or underpasses at all places where state highways intersect with railroads. As a result of the legislature's actions, the crossing over U. S. Highway 81 (the successor to Highway No. 2) through Round Rock became the first railroad overpass in Texas in 1935. One of the survivors-Wesley Bradshaw, who was a former member of the team and traveled as a guest of Coach Wolf-filed a lawsuit against the International-Great Northern Railroad later in 1927 for the injuries he sustained in the crash. Findings during the trial included statements that the bus traveled in excess of 20 mph, and the driver failed to bring the bus to a complete stop before proceeding to drive over the tracks. Ultimately the suit resulted in a mistrial. Bradshaw was paid $6,500 by the railroad and agreed to not file any further suits against I-GNR but to cooperate with the railroad "in the prosecution of any such action or actions against Baylor University...." Litigation took place into the 1930s. The memory of the Immortal Ten has been preserved as an important part of the history of Baylor University. Every year, during homecoming activities, Baylor holds a memorial ceremony, and freshmen are told the story of the 1927 bus crash. A key moment includes the story of Clyde "Abe" Kelley. Newspaper reports in th

Tsha Handbook → · 7.0 mi away

Things to Do in Hutto

food 21.8 mi away
Franklin Barbecue

Legendary Austin BBQ with 2-3 hour waits. Obama waited in line here.
historical 21.8 mi away
Texas State Capitol

The Texas Capitol in Austin is taller than the US Capitol in Washington -- three hundred and eight feet to two hundred and eighty-eight -- because Texas wanted…
historical 22.3 mi away
Antone's Nightclub

Clifford Antone was a kid from Port Arthur who loved the blues so much he opened a club on East Sixth Street in 1975 and spent the next thirty years flying…
quirky 22.7 mi away
Congress Avenue Bridge Bats

When Austin rebuilt the Congress Avenue Bridge in 1980 the new design accidentally created perfect crevices for Mexican free-tailed bats. By the mid-1990s one…
nature 23.4 mi away
Barton Springs

Barton Springs is the main outflow of the Edwards Aquifer right in the middle of Austin. Thirty-one million gallons of sixty-eight-degree water pour out of a…
food 8.3 mi away
Round Rock Donuts

Texas-sized golden donuts from a bakery dating to the 1920s — the giant 'Round Rock Donut' has drawn dawn lines and a Man v. Food cameo.
food 8.4 mi away
Louie Mueller Barbecue

Taylor's legendary BBQ since 1949. The soot-blackened walls tell the story.
nature 9.7 mi away
Inner Space Cavern

Texas Highway Department drillers punched into this cave in 1963 while testing the ground for an Interstate 35 overpass in Georgetown. The drill bit dropped…
day trip
Day Trip to Hutto 🦛 FULL EPISODE (S15 E9)

Featured on The Daytripper — a full-episode local travel guide.

Everything Near Hutto

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

Explore Hutto on the Map
All music from Texas → · Browse more cities