Site of a Block House

The plaque names the builder and the burning; the Handbook of Texas supplies the garrison. John J. Tumlinson Jr. took a company of sixty Rangers into this country under a captain's commission from the provisional government, with orders to patrol the settlements. They built a small fort on the headwaters of Brushy Creek in 1836. When news came that Santa Anna had invaded, the company left to fight him. Noah Smithwick, one of the original Rangers, rode past on a scouting trip in 1837 and found it burned by Indians, as the Handbook puts it.

What the plaque says

Site of a Block House Built by Texas Rangers under Captain John J. Tumlinson in 1836. Destroyed by Indians in 1837. This was the first white man's post in Williamson County.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Round Rock — 9.2 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 — 10 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 — 12 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.
• Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge: Doeskin Ranch — 15 mi
  A free federal refuge north of Lake Travis kept for two songbirds that need old juniper and oak, with trails at the Doeskin Ranch unit near Bertram.

More markers nearby

• Cedar Park — 1.9 mi
• Norton Moses Lodge No. 336, A.F. & A.M. — 1.9 mi
• Leander Schools — 2.3 mi
• Leander — 2.5 mi