Yegua Creek

The thick timber along the Yegua gave outlaws cover. Several bands of cattle rustlers and horse thieves worked freely in the heavily forested south and west of the county during Reconstruction, along the creek and its tributaries, and the Handbook of Texas says the notorious Sam Bass gang reportedly lived there for a time. The creek later became the line between Burleson and its neighbors. When Lee County was formed in 1874, Burleson lost its land beyond East Yegua Creek, about 31 percent of its area.

What the plaque says

Yegua Creek In 1690 the Spanish gave the name "San Francisco" to this 62-mile Brazos River tributary; but on an 1822 map, Stephen F. Austin, "Father of Texas", marked it "Yegua", Spanish for "mare". Mustang mares and foals then grazed among the Indians on the timbered creek. In 1826, colonist John P. Coles built a mill on the stream. A measure signed in 1837 by Texas President Sam Houston made the Yegua a county boundary. Floods often devastated the area until Lake Somerville harnessed Yegua's waters in 1967. Now a recreation area, the lake and creek benefit crops, wild life, and vacationers. (1976)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 9.4 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 13 mi
  Two park units on an 11,000-acre lake between Austin and College Station, joined by a thirteen-mile trailway for hikers, cyclists and riders with primitive camps along the way.
• George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum — 21 mi
  The library of the forty-first president on the Texas A&M campus, opened in 1997, where George and Barbara Bush and their daughter Robin are buried in a family plot on the grounds.
• Round Top and Festival Hill — 21 mi
  A German village on the old La Bahía Road, named for a house tower, with an 1867 stone church, a Fourth of July kept since 1851 and a concert hall a pianist built without blueprints.

More markers nearby

• Site of the Somerville Harvey House — 1.7 mi
• 1906 Reunion of Hood's Texas Brigade — 1.7 mi
• Somerville — 1.7 mi
• Thomas J. Gary — 1.8 mi