Sam Bass' Death Site

The plaque ends with the shooting; the road to it began with a letter. Jim Murphy, one of Bass's own party, turned informer and wrote to Major John B. Jones of the Frontier Battalion while the gang rode south to rob a small bank in Round Rock. The Handbook of Texas says the gun battle came on July 19, 1878. The next morning Bass was found helpless in a pasture north of town and brought back. He died on July 21, his twenty-seventh birthday, and was buried in Round Rock.

What the plaque says

Sam Bass' Death Site An uneducated Indiana orphan who drifted to Texas as a youth, Sam Bass won fame racing his swift "Denton Mare," gambling, and robbing trains. A rich haul in Nebraska was followed by months of reckless spending. Bass liked to shower gold on people who fed or harbored him while he eluded law officers. In July 1878 he came to Round Rock to rob a bank, and was shot by Texas Rangers. Gallant to the last, refusing to name guilty partners, he became a hero to 19th century balladeers. His celebrated grave is situated in old Round Rock Cemetery. (1981)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Round Rock — 0.7 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 — 6.9 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 — 8.9 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

• Otto Reinke Building — steps away
• Round Rock — steps away
• In Memory of The Pioneer Builders — 0.6 mi
• Trinity Lutheran College — 0.7 mi