Hudson Bend

Wiley Hudson came to the bend from Arkansas. Its farmers crossed the Colorado at three fords, Marshall Ford, Watkins Ford and Sylvester Ford, and the Hudson Bend school was eventually consolidated into nearby Teck School. In the 1940s developers S. C. McIntosh, Hugh Webb and Jesse James laid out the first subdivisions, Hudson Bend Colony No. 1 and No. 2, as marinas and lodges grew along the new lake. A volunteer fire department and a garden club followed in the 1950s. By 2000 Hudson Bend had 2,369 residents, many of them retirees and Austin commuters.

What the plaque says

Hudson Bend In 1854 Wiley Hudson (b.1825) and his family settled on the bend of Colorado River that was named for him. The 1860 census showed four families living in this vicinity, including Wiley Hudson with his wife Catherine and eight children, as well as a household headed by his father James. During the Civil War (1861-1865), Wiley Hudson, his two chaplain brothers and others relatives took up arms for the Confederacy. Three rivers fords enabled the pioneers to cross the Colorado to grind their corn at Anderson mill and to socialize with families living in nearby settlements such as round mountain and nameless. Maps of the 1890s show a church and school at Hudson Bend. Of the 24 original surveys made on the 4,000-acre tract called Hudson Bend, four were acquired by the Hudson family. Many descendants still live in the area. After completion of Mansfield Dam in the 1940s, the waters of Lake Travis flooded about half of the acreage. The cemetery was relocated at Teck. Ranches amid the cedar and live oaks and farms along the river bottom were replaced by subdivisions and recreational areas. A new Hudson Bend community grew up along the lake shores with a number of active civic organizations. (1978)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mount Bonnell — 11 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.
• Barton Springs Pool — 14 mi
  A three-acre pool in the bed of Barton Creek, fed by the fourth-largest spring in Texas at 68 to 70 degrees, and shared with an endangered salamander found almost nowhere else.
• Harry Ransom Center — 14 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.
• Bullock Texas State History Museum — 14 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

• Anderson's Mill — 3.6 mi
• Lohmans Crossing — 3.6 mi
• Community of Nameless — 8.2 mi
• Balcones Fault Aids Colonization of Texas — 9.6 mi