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Austin : The Basics“We are marching through a beautiful country – its face presents a scene of grandeur and magnificence rarely, if ever witnessed. It is the most beautiful and sublime scene. Rome itself with all its famous hills could not surpass the natural scenery of Waterloo.”
So wrote Indian fighter James Jones in a letter to then President of the Republic of Texas, Mirabeau Lamar. The year was 1839, and the three and a half year old republic was in search of a worthy site to build their capitol. In April of that year Lamar moved the Capitol to Waterloo and renamed it Austin, in honor of Stephen F. Austin, the Father of Texas. For a decade after, Texas politicians still battled over keeping the capitol in Austin. Once Texas became part of the United States, the battle was over and the capitol, now the state capitol was forever bound to the little hamlet once called Waterloo. Since then many things have changed in and around our dear city. But the words first used to describe it, a scene of grandeur and magnificence, of beauty sublime - those words still apply. |
