Granite for the State Capitol

Texas did not buy this stone. Wikipedia says the owners of Granite Mountain, George W. Lacy, Nimrod L. Norton and William H. Westfall, offered the granite free after the Capitol's planned Oak Hill limestone discolored with rust. Texas Highways says the owner hoped to spur railroad building, and that much of the quarry labor was prison labor. A 2.3-mile spur of the Austin and Northwestern carried the blocks, and 86 granite cutters came from Scotland. The Texas State Preservation Board confirms the owners donated all the sunset red granite. Some blocks that fell still lie where they dropped.

What the plaque says

Granite for the State Capitol In the 1880s, the arrival of the railroad helped develop western Williamson County and contributed to the construction of a new state capitol. When quarried limestone proved deficient for the new statehouse, contractors chose granite from Burnet County outcroppings. The Austin and Northwestern Railroad, which ran through this area and established Brueggerhoff (Cedar Park) and Leander, extended to the Granite Mountain quarry site in 1885. More than 4,000 flatcars passed through here in 1886-87, carrying the large blocks of pink granite to Austin. Three dozen blocks that tumbled of the tracks were left in the creekbed, since the state obtained its building stone free of charge. The Texas State Capitol was completed in 1888. (2008)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Round Rock — 5.5 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 — 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.
• Williamson County Courthouse — 11 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 — 13 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 Chopping in Central Texas — 1.7 mi
• Cedar Park Cemetery — 2.6 mi
• Cedar Park — 2.7 mi
• Site of a Block House — 4.2 mi