Balcones Fault Aids Colonization of Texas

The Balcones Escarpment is a fault zone several miles wide, made of several faults that mostly dip and drop to the east. It curves across Texas from Del Rio to the Red River, standing about 1,000 feet high near Del Rio and about 300 feet between San Antonio and Austin. It formed under strain in the Tertiary, when the land near the Gulf sank and the interior rose moderately, and it divides the Edwards Plateau from the Coastal Plains. Where the faults break water-bearing rock, artesian pressure forces water to the surface at Barton, San Marcos and Comal springs.

What the plaque says

Balcones Fault Aids Colonization of Texas Curving through the center of Texas form Hill County south and west to Uvalde County is the rugged escarpment-fault called Balcones. The abundance of natural resources associated with this geologic formation affected the pattern of colonization in Texas. The numerous springs and wooded hills of the escarpment and adjacent fertile prairies attracted Indian tribes and Spanish colonists before the area was permanently settled by Anglo-American pioneers. Spanish explorer Bernardo de Miranda in 1756 named the formation "Los Balcones", meaning "balconies". Part of El Camino Real, the "King's Highway", skirted the fault line. Spanish missions and presidios were located at springs near San Antonio, Austin, and elsewhere, but many Spanish settlements disappeared before 1800. Anglo-Americans led by Stephen F. Austin began to settle near the Balcones escarpment before 1830. Through their courage and determination, early pioneer settlements grew into the towns and cities that today dot the fault line. The town of Austin, with its combination of beauty and natural resources, was chosen capital of the independent Republic of Texas, which became the 28th state of the United States. (1976)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mount Bonnell — 4.4 mi
  Austin's old lookout over the Colorado, named by an 1838 traveler, picnicked on by George and Libbie Custer, and reached by a 1939 flight of about 100 limestone steps.
• Harry Ransom Center — 7.1 mi
  The University of Texas archive where a Gutenberg Bible and the earliest surviving camera photograph are always on view, free, beside the papers of Watergate and the movies.
• LBJ Presidential Library — 7.2 mi
  A ten-story travertine archive on the University of Texas campus holding 45 million pages from a presidency of civil rights laws, the War on Poverty and Vietnam.
• Bullock Texas State History Museum — 7.4 mi
  The state's history museum at the head of Congress Avenue, built around the hull of La Salle's ship La Belle, raised from Matagorda Bay with 1.8 million artifacts.

More markers nearby

• First Presbyterian Church of Austin — 1.2 mi
• Texas Newspapers, C.S.A. — 1.7 mi
• Waters Park — 4.1 mi
• Mount Bonnell — 4.4 mi