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Official Website
The county was established in 1840 and is named in honor of William Barret Travis, the commander of the Republic of Texas forces at the Battle of the Alamo. It is located along the Balcones Fault, the boundary between the Edwards Plateau to the west and the Blackland Prairie to the east.
In 1821 Mexico won its independence from Spain, and the new government enacted laws encouraging colonists to settle the Texas frontier by granting them land and reduced taxation. Over the next decade, thousands of foreign immigrants (primarily from the United States) moved into Texas; in particular, American empresario Stephen F. Austin established one of his colonies near what is now Bastrop, Texas (in future Travis County) in 1827. Josiah and Mathias Wilbarger, Reuben Hornsby, Jacob M. Harrell, and John F. Webber were early settlers who moved into the area in the early 1830s.
In 1839 the site was officially chosen as the republic's new capital and given the name Waterloo, Texas; shortly thereafter the city's name was changed to Austin in honor of Stephen F. Austin. A new county was also established the following year, of which Austin would be the seat; the county was named Travis County, after William B. Travis. Though the Republic's capital moved briefly back to Houston during the events surrounding the Texas Archive War, by 1845 Austin was again the capital, and it became the capital of the new State of Texas when Texas was annexed by the United States later that year.
In 1861 Travis County was one of the few Texas counties to vote against secession from the Union. Since the majority of the state did favor secession, Travis County then became a part of the Confederacy for the duration of the Civil War. After the Confederacy's defeat, Texas was fully readmitted to the Union in 1870.
From the end of the Civil War to the early twenty-first century, Travis County has experienced steady, rapid population growth (averaging more than a 36% increase every decade from 1870 to 2010), driven largely by the growth of Austin and its suburbs; it is now the fifth most populous county in Texas.
Adjacent Counties
Cities
- Austin (County Seat, Capital City, part)
- Bee Cave
- Cedar Park (part)
- Creedmoor
- Elgin (part)
- Jonestown
- Lago Vista
- Lakeway
- Leander (part)
- Manor
- Mustang Ridge (part)
- Pflugerville (part)
- Rollingwood
- Round Rock (part)
- Sunset Valley
- West Lake Hills
Other Communities
Anderson Mill | Barton Creek | Bluff Springs | Cele | Del Valle | Elroy | Garfield | Hornsby Bend | Hudson Bend | Jollyville | Kimbro | Littig | Lost Creek | Lund | Manchaca | Marshall Ford | McNeil | Nameless | New Sweden | Onion Creek | Pilot Knob | Shady Holly | Steiner Ranch | Wells Branch | Windemere
Cemeteries
Links
National Register of Historic Places
Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge (part)