History of the capital of the greatest nation in America
1–11–17, Brian
We all know and love the great city of Austin. I was drinking a Shiner in a bar on the top floor of my hotel, and found peace looking out over my hometown’s majestic skyline illuminated by a classic Texas sunset. I thought to myself, “How can a city grow into such an amazing place, while places like Dallas, Charlotte, Cleveland, etc. are still so lame?” So I decided to learn a bit about my city’s past.
Austin was founded around 1836. Originally, it was called Waterloo, Texas. At this time, Texas was its own nation. In 1839, President Mirabeau Lamar visited Waterloo and decided it would replace Houston as the capital of the Republic of Texas (gg Houston). At the same time, he decided to rename the city in honor of Stephen F. Austin, the Father of Texas, who died in December 1836. He earned his title by moving to Texas from Missouri along with 300 families from across the US. At that time, Texas was part of Mexico. SFA negotiated treaties with American Indians and worked with the Mexican government to encourage Americans to move to the area.
Texas is a state of mind. Texas is an obsession. Above all, Texas is a nation in every sense of the word. — John Steinbeck
The capital had been Houston because President Sam Houston moved it there from somewhere else in Texas. Houston had another term as president after Lamar, during which he tried to move the capital back to Houston. When he ordered certain documents transferred to Houston, the citizens of Austin refused. He sent soldiers, and the people of Austin fought them off because the highest ranking military officer in Austin convinced the residents that moving the papers back to Houston would make their real estate value plummet. Houston seems like a real narcissist to me. Named a city after himself (keep in mind that Austin was named in honor of SFA after he died) and then bent over backwards to try to make it the capital. When Austin refused to hand over the papers, he threw a tantrum and held a vote. The vote backfired, and Houston was forced to let Austin remain the capital. Waco also had a bid for capital city (lol bye). Texas joined the US in 1845 as the 28th state. In 1861, Texas voted to secede from the Union. Even at that time, Travis County (where Austin is) was already the blueberry in the tomato soup, voting to remain part of the Union. Since the end of the civil war, Austin has been crushing it. Austin was impacted much less than the rest of the country through the Great Depression (population grew and enrollment at UT doubled) and the 08 recession (what recession?). We all know it’s growing fast right now. When I was born in 1994, the Austin metro area had about 900 thousand residents. Now, it has over 2 million
Other interesting tidbits:
Austin is home to the largest urban Mexican bat population in North America (1.5 million bats) that fly out every night from March to August at sunset and eat bugs all night.
March 8th is Leslie Day. It’s not named after Leslie Rice, but a homeless guy named Leslie that ran for mayor 3 times and eventually died in 2012. Whenever he was sick in the hospital, it was on the nightly news.
Austin was home to the world’s first serial killer — The Servant Girl Annihilator. He killed a bunch of women, most of them black, in the mid 1880s. Many people believe this man fled to the UK where he became known as Jack the Ripper.
Austin celebrates Eeyore’s birthday.
The Texas Capital is the only state capital that is taller than the US Capital.
Austin is the largest city without a professional sports team (I bet we get one within a decade).
The only Formula 1 race in America is in Austin
Two of my four best friends were raised in Austin :)
