Waters Park

The community, first called Summers' Grove, grew on land Silas B. and Parthenia A. Summers bought in 1872 at Walnut Creek. The Austin and Northwestern opened picnic grounds there in July 1882, with a baseball field, swimming pool, gazebo and concession stands, and excursion trains ran from Austin on Sundays. Granite blocks still lying along the right of way testify to frequent derailments nearby. A post office called Watters operated from 1883 to 1905. In 1902 a local company formed to exploit oil seeping into Walnut Creek, apparently without finding it in paying amounts.

What the plaque says

Waters Park was a multi-ethnic community located north of Austin in the 19th century. The Austin & Northwestern Railroad, which built a line through here to transport granite for construction of the State Capitol, built a recreational park in Waters Park, and ran excursion trains for customers. The resort was a favorite site for family outings. Waters Park included several stores, a post office, schools, churches, a cotton gin and homes. The town declined after World War I, and was later surrounded by the growing city of Austin. (1997)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mount Bonnell — 7.6 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.
• LBJ Presidential Library — 9.0 mi
  A ten-story travertine archive on the University of Texas campus holding 45 million pages from a presidency of civil rights laws, the War on Poverty and Vietnam.
• Harry Ransom Center — 9.3 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 — 9.5 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

• The Gault Homestead — 2.6 mi
• Texas Newspapers, C.S.A. — 3.3 mi
• Fiskville — 4.0 mi
• Balcones Fault Aids Colonization of Texas — 4.1 mi