Cedar Park

The town has worn three names. The spring at the head of Cluck Creek gave the settlement Running Brushy. When the Austin and Northwestern Railroad crossed the Cluck land in 1882, the company renamed the stop Brueggerhoff, after a partner of one of its officials, the Handbook says. In 1887 Emmett Cluck, son of George and Harriet, chose Cedar Park for the parklike setting around his home. An 1892 deed for a lot beside the tracks required a park and a building for plants. Quarrying limestone was a main business of the town from the 1890s until about 1970.

What the plaque says

Cedar Park In 1873, George and Harriet (Standefer) Cluck purchased a large amount of land in this area, which they found to be rich in cedar trees and limestone. Their ranch and home became the central point around which the Cedar Park community developed. A post office was established in 1874 and was named Running Brushy. Harriet Cluck served as an early postmistress. When the railroad came through Running Brushy in 1882, the community's name was changed to Bruggerhoff to honor a railroad official. Five years later, the current name was adopted. Cedar Park was the scene of much growth and activity during the latter years of the nineteenth century. A community school and church building was constructed, and by 1892, a landscaped park had appeared along the rail line. George Cluck noticed the increasing popularity of barbed wire and opened a cedar yard in which he made and sold cedar posts. Cedar Park did not see much growth during the first part of the twentieth century, and by 1960 nearly all traces of the earlier community had disappeared. During the 1970s, however, the growth of Austin led to a population increase in this area, also, and the city of Cedar Park was incorporated in 1973. (1985)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Round Rock — 8.0 mi
  A table-shaped stone in Brushy Creek gave Round Rock its name in 1854; the Chisholm Trail crossed the creek near it, and Old Town stayed behind when the railroad pulled the town east.
• Inner Space Cavern — 10 mi
  A Georgetown cave found in 1963 when highway engineers drilled test holes, holding Pleistocene fossils and 72-degree rooms that visitors reach by an artificial tunnel.
• Williamson County Courthouse — 12 mi
  The fifth Williamson County courthouse, a Beaux Arts building by C. H. Page, rises over a Georgetown square of more than 50 Victorian-era buildings.
• Mount Bonnell — 14 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.

More markers nearby

• Cedar Park Cemetery — 0.7 mi
• Site of a Block House — 1.9 mi
• Granite for the State Capitol — 2.7 mi
• Cedar Chopping in Central Texas — 3.1 mi