Community of Jonah

The land under Jonah began as a paper promise. The Handbook of Texas says the Nashville colony contract of 1825 let the Texas Association bring settlers into an area that included present Williamson County, but it gave no land title. Austin and Williams took the area over in 1831 and issued not one title to settlers while selling permits to distant speculators; the resulting suits delayed settling Central Texas for years. In 1834 the contract passed to Sterling C. Robertson, and the area became Robertson's colony. The wagon train from Arkansas arrived in 1851.

What the plaque says

Community of Jonah On 1820s land grant to Nashville Colony. Settled 1851 by wagon train from Arkansas, and called Water Valley. In 1884, repeated ill-luck in selecting an acceptable name for post office led to renaming the town Jonah. This was site of famed grist mill, 1865 - 1912. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Williamson County Courthouse — 8.0 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.
• Inner Space Cavern — 8.9 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.
• The Round Rock — 12 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.
• Mount Bonnell — 26 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

• Jonah Cemetery — 1.5 mi
• Mankins Crossing — 2.4 mi
• The Double File Trail — 2.9 mi
• Texan Santa Fe Expedition — 2.9 mi