Name: Mustang Ridge, Texas
Address: Mustang Ridge, TX

The Superhighway that Reshaped the Prairie RoadyGoat

Look around at the massive warehouses and construction cranes. None of this would be here without a huge piece of transportation engineering: State Highway 130. By the late 1990s, Interstate 35 through Austin was hopelessly clogged. The engineering solution was to build a massive bypass. SH 130 was designed to divert long-haul truck traffic around the city, creating a faster corridor from San Antonio up towards Waco. Planners routed it east of Austin, through what was then cheap, undeveloped farmland. The result was a state-of-the-art toll road with the highest speed limit in the nation—85 miles per hour on its southern sections. But its true impact was unlocking thousands of acres of land for development. It created a new economic gravity, pulling in logistics centers and manufacturers like Tesla, and completely re-engineering the economy of small towns like Mustang Ridge.

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Mustang Ridge, TX RoadyGoat

In 1985, Mustang Ridge was incorporated into a city by Alton Brooks Laws Jr and Charles Laws. Alton Brooks Laws was elected as the first mayor, municipal judge, and state magistrate of the city. Charles Laws, however, became a source of public controversy when he referred to a proposed detention facility as 'a holding pen for wetbacks' on a public agenda.

Mustang Ridge, TX RoadyGoat

Mustang Ridge, even with Austin breathing down its neck, has mostly held onto that slower pace it's known for. But the last few years, you could feel things shifting, especially when Tesla decided to build its Gigafactory just north of town. Suddenly, all that blackland prairie soil, once good for little more than grazing, became prime real estate. It wasn't just the factory itself, but the ripple effect. The increase in traffic along 130, the new housing developments popping up like wildflowers after a good rain, the way folks started talking about "opportunity" and "growth" at the gas station. Of course, not everyone saw it as progress. Longtime residents, folks whose families had been here since before the town was even incorporated back in '85, worried about losing that rural charm, the quiet nights broken only by the coyotes down by the Colorado River. They remembered the floods of the early 1900s and wondered if all this new construction would put more pressure on the existing infrastructure. Even though it brought more jobs, the change felt like a trade-off. It's hard to say where Mustang Ridge will land, balancing its past with this new, electrified future.

Creedmoor, TX

1880

Creedmoor is at the intersection of Farm roads 1327 and 1625, fifteen miles southeast of Austin in southern Travis County. Though in the 1850s the site had general stores, a grocery, a meat market, a drugstore, a barbershop, a blacksmith shop, and an ice cream parlor, the name Creedmoor did not appear until the establishment of the community's post office in 1880. Some sources say the town was originally called Willow Springs; others say it was first called Creekmoor but was renamed Creedmoor by settlers who wanted the name to express their faith. Dr. Jacob T. Wilhite , once the country's foremost authority on rabies and the founder and director of the Pasteur Institute at the Austin State Hospital , was born in Creedmoor. The town's population grew from twenty in 1896 to 150 by 1915. In 1921 a cyclone destroyed its four-room school and one of the local gins. The town suffered a drought in 1925. A 1946 map showed Creedmoor with a school, two churches, seven businesses, and more than thirty dwellings. In the 1950s it had two gins, and cotton was still a major local industry. Under threat of annexation by Austin in 1982, Creedmoor became the ninth community in Travis County to incorporate. In 1990 Creedmoor reported a population of 194, a store, a post office, and the San Francisco Catholic Church. The population in 2000 was 211, with three businesses.

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Harris Cemetery

1851

Sidon H. Harris and his family arrived in Texas in 1851, and moved to this vicinity in 1856. Harris and his wife, amanda, bought two parcels of land, and this family cemetery was begun when Sidon died in 1861. Two Harris children were buried here in 1862, followed by Amanda in 1866. Descendants later sold the land, with the understanding that the cemetery would be maintained. Destruction of the cemetery in 1984 led to the replacement of the original grave markers. The cemetery reflects the history of an early Caldwell County family. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986

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Martin Church of Goforth

1874

This church was started in 1874 to serve the pioneer settlers of the cotton-producing area around the Goforth community. Worship services were conducted for members representing various denominations. Land at this site was deeded to the church in 1901 by Joseph Martin (1828-1905), his wife Susan (1842-1907), and T. J. (1839-1905) and Matilda Warwick (1837-1904). For years the facility was used for a community Christmas Eve celebration. Weekly services were discontinued in 1945 after the population of Goforth declined, but an annual homecoming is held here each June.

Historical Marker → · 4.8 mi away

Dr. Jacob Tally Wilhite

1903

(April 3, 1875 - January 27, 1927) Born on a farm near this site, Jacob Tally Wilhite received his early education in the public schools of the Willow Springs community. He attended the University of Texas in Austin and taught school in Bastrop County before continuing his studies at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Wilhite earned his medical degree in 1903 and served an internship at John Sealy Hospital in Galveston. That same year, he became assistant to the director of the State Lunatic Asylum (now Austin State Hospital). During his tenure there, he began studying rabies and its treatment. The State Legislature appropriated funds for his research in 1904 and Wilhite became director of the new institution, called the Pasteur Institute of Austin, in 1905. Wilhite's research soon led him to the discovery of a stain to detect rabies in body tissue. He became a leading authority on the disease and was known throughout the world. In 1927 the State Legislature again appropriated funds for the Pasteur Institute for the construction of a new facility at 5th and Trinity streets. Dr. Wilhite contracted influenza and died before its completion, and the building was dedicated in his honor. (1991)

Historical Marker → · 5.0 mi away

Club 21

1893

The German migration to Texas during the mid-1800s helped shape the Lone Star State’s cultural identity in many ways, which included the introduction of German dance halls. In the twenty-first century some of these dance halls have remained popular gathering places, especially in Central Texas. Although most no longer offer traditional German music , they are quite active in featuring other popular genres of Texas music, such as country , Tejano, blues , and zydeco . Located just off State Highway 21 in Uhland, Texas, between Bastrop and San Marcos, Club 21 was one of Texas’s oldest such halls. Constructed by August Garbrecht about 1893 near the Old Spanish Trail ( Old San Antonio Road ), the club originally served as a saloon and community center for local German settlers. By 1912 the saloon had been expanded to include a dance hall. In 1933 a four-lane, nine-pin bowling alley was added, although it was no longer in use by 2000; that space served as a storage room. In the 1930s the dance hall served a dual role. During the day it provided a gymnasium for local school children, but at night it remained a popular venue for music and dancing./p> William Ilse, the dance hall’s last owner, inherited the club in 1989 from his mother, Martha Ilse, who came into possession of the hall from the Garbrecht family in 1964. In the mid-1990s the dance hall was expanded to help accommodate the large crowds who came for the annual Old Spanish Trail celebration. Perhaps the most impressive feature of Club 21 was its dance hall area. Covering the large dance floor was a high ceiling which was supported by a series of curved wooden trusses. In order to achieve the arched shape of the wood, the original builders bent the wooden beams by soaking them in a nearby creek. Club 21’s walls also were decorated with a variety of old farming implements, cow skulls, and neon beer signs. A special section of the wall contained autographed photos from many of the artists who performed at the club, including Jimmy Vaughan, Tish Hinojosa, and Reckless Kelly. Several humorous signs also decorated the club, such as one on the stage that said, “If you can’t sing good, sing loud,” and another near the entrance stated, “Hippies use the side door.” Club 21 not only hosted many well-known musicians, but it was also featured in films and television. Country singer Keith Whitley taped music videos there, and Hollywood directors filmed scenes from the club in such movies as Resurrection (1980), The New Guy (2002), and A Lone Star State of Mind (2002). Beer companies made television commercials for Bud Lite and Coors at the club. In the early 2000s Club 21 still featured live music on weekends and remained a popular gathering place for people in the Central Texas area and continued to draw large crowds for dancing, festivals, and local community events. In the early morning hours of October 24, 2010, Club 21 caught fire, the result of an automobile accident at the scene, and burned to the ground. With no fire insurance for the establishment, there were no funds to rebuild the club, though in 2011 attempts were being made to secure donations for a building fund. Some preliminary construction of a new hall took place in 2012, but due to limited funds, progress stalled.

Tsha Handbook → · 7.8 mi away

Antioch Colony, TX

1859

Antioch Colony is a rural African-American community located off Farm roads 967 and 1626 within a mile northwest of Buda in eastern Hays County. On February 1, 1859, Joseph F. Rowley, who had emigrated with his family from California to Texas, purchased 490 acres near Onion Creek. After the Civil War he sold tracts to former slaves for the purpose of establishing a farming settlement. Many of the freedmen came from Missouri. They founded Antioch Colony, named for the Turkish city, in 1870 and 1871. Ten to fifteen families lived in the community, also known as Black Colony, in the early 1870s. Settlers included the Bunton, Champ, Harper, Beard, Taylor, and Kavanaugh families. Farmers raised corn and other grains, cotton, and sugar cane, and mule-powered mills processed corn, bran, and produced sorghum molasses. On July 15, 1874, Elias and Clarisa Bunton donated land for a school. Residents constructed a two-story building that soon served fifty-seven students as part of their own district—Antioch School District 5. The structure also hosted meetings of a Masonic Lodge and Eastern Star. Citizens established the African Methodist Church and the Antioch Cemetery. Antioch Colony remained an active farming community into the 1930s and 1940s. Social life centered around the school and church, which had some seventy to eighty members. By the mid-1950s, however, most residents had moved away in search of better jobs. Ironically, after this time, Antioch Colony finally received telephone and electrical service. The community became almost a ghost town of ramshackle structures and overgrown homesteads. In the late 1970s a few former residents returned to the area and bought back the land of their ancestors. Winnie Martha Moyer, a descendant of the Harper family, returned and was soon joined by other family members. This slow rebirth of the colony continued throughout the 1990s. LeeDell Bunton, a great-great grandson of one of the founders, bought back part of his family land. In 1997 residents established the Antioch Community Church, and in 1999 approximately 300 people attended the first Antioch Colony reunion. Local residents continued to maintain Antioch Cemetery located on Old Black Colony Road. By 2000 some twenty people, members of three extended families, lived in Antioch Colony. All were descendants of early settlers.

Tsha Handbook → · 9.4 mi away

Mustang Ridge, Texas

Music in Mustang Ridge

Songs About Mustang Ridge

Artists From Mustang Ridge

Rivers & Roads in Song near Mustang Ridge

History of Mustang Ridge

The Superhighway that Reshaped the Prairie RoadyGoat

Mustang Ridge, TX RoadyGoat

Mustang Ridge, TX RoadyGoat

Creedmoor, TX

Harris Cemetery

Martin Church of Goforth

Dr. Jacob Tally Wilhite

Club 21

Antioch Colony, TX

Things to Do in Mustang Ridge

Everything Near Mustang Ridge