Hanna Springs

Elizabeth Scott, whose family once owned these springs, also designed the plan of the Lampasas town square when the town of Burleson was laid out in July 1855; at the time most of its 500 to 600 people lived in tents and wagons. A post office opened in 1857. The town incorporated on April 21, 1873, chiefly to get a law keeping livestock off the public square. When the railroad arrived in 1882, Lampasas boomed to an estimated 3,500 people, and many lived in tents because buildings could not go up fast enough.

What the plaque says

Hanna Springs "Hopping John" Burleson received a headright Grant for 1280 acres of land, including this site, in 1838. He first viewed the bubbling springs in 1847. "Hopping John" transferred the property to his cousin, John Burleson, in 1854. Later that year, John Burleson transferred the deed to his two daughters. One daughter, Elizabeth Scott, and her husband George erected a hotel near the springs, which became known as Scott's White Sulphur Springs. The Scotts laid out the town of Lampasas in the summer of 1855. The springs became a popular recreation site, touted for the healing properties of the many minerals contained in the water. In 1863 the Scotts sold their property to William H. Storm and Thomas J. Moore; Storm sold the springs property to John L. Hanna and his sister Isabella Hanna in 1867. John Hanna's management heightened the popularity of the springs, and the hotel and springs became known as Hanna Springs. Health seekers flocked to Hanna's resort for years. When John Hanna died in Illinois in 1878, his property was sold by his heirs. The Hanna Pavilion, later called Hanna Opera House, was built soon after John Hanna's death. It wa large enough to host the State Democratic Convention in 1892. Will Campbell bought the property in 1904. Mrs. Campbell had the pavilion torn down and erected a smaller bath house in 1907. The property was known as Crystal Springs in the 1920s, after which its popularity waned. By the 1940s the public was no longer using the springs and the park became overgrown with brush. The property was donated to the city for public use in 1994. (1999)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hancock Springs Park — 1.0 mi
  Lampasas's city park on Sulphur Creek, with a spring-fed swimming pool that holds about 69 degrees all year, the walls of the old bathhouse and a golf course.
• Colorado Bend State Park — 18 mi
  Old ranch country on the Colorado above Lake Buchanan, where a spring-fed creek drops 70 feet over fern-covered travertine at Gorman Falls.
• Inks Lake State Park — 26 mi
  A state park on a constant-level lake of the Colorado, between Buchanan and Inks dams, with pink granite and gneiss at the water and CCC work along Park Road 4.
• Inks Dam National Fish Hatchery — 27 mi
  A free federal hatchery below Inks Dam on the Colorado, with thirty production ponds that draw birds and a look at how fish are raised from egg to harvest.

More markers nearby

• First Public School in Lampasas — 0.2 mi
• Texas Bankers Association — 0.2 mi
• Hanna Springs — 0.2 mi
• Lampasas County, C.S.A. — 0.2 mi