Austin, Texas -- Winter 2025 Stuff you might not have known even if you live here. Amaze your friends! Mystify your enemies! --- Inside cover Image: A grackle mid-screech. --- Inside facing Image: A gnome reading a guidebook. It's Winter in Austin, when the ebb and flow of tourists and festival-goers recedes for a moment, leaving room for the curious natives to explore things a little. H. sapiens austinensis is naturally adapting to its winter mode -- huddled under a heat lamp on a patio, with a drink in one hand, and a vape that looks more like a little computer than a nicotine delivery system, in the other. In this issue's pages you'll find interesting factoids for the curious downtown Austinite -- or off-season visitor -- decidedly devoid of stops on Dirty Sixth. We'll take a haunted walk down Shoal Creek, ponder the contrasts of Clarksville, and consider the legacy of the moon towers. There's also a quick look at some local businesses, and a round-up of Austin's sister cities. Take a breath, here at low tide, and ponder the cool stuff around you! - Buttons the Gnome Winter, 2025 --- Shoal Creek Ghost Tour (D.I.Y. Edition) You already know Shoal Creek for its packs of healthy-living humans running the trail. But it has a morbid and terrible past, too, which means -- ghosts. Seiders Springs, roughly between thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth, is where an ill-fated gentleman by the name of Gideon White decided to settle in 1842, despite warnings that it was Comanche territory. A plaque marks the spot where he was killed, and it's said that he and a Comanche warrior haunt the location, fighting to this day. General Custer's forces were camped along the creek in 1865 when a Cholera outbreak killed more than forty soldiers. Their hastily buried remains were later exhumed ... but not all of them. Many bodies remain unaccounted for at unknown locations along the trail. In 1894, the writer O. Henry started a gold rush in Pease Park (around fifteenth) when he started digging holes looking for $3m in buried treasure. He fled when he heard screaming, but others continued to search the area, digging large holes throughout the location. --- What's with Waterloo While many notable Texas towns were originally train stations and post offices, Waterloo was simply an 1835 settlement of four families living roughly where the modern-day Congress bridge lands on the north bank of the Colorado River. It was an 1838 visit by the soon-to-be third president of the Republic of Texas -- Mirabeau Lamar -- that led to the proposal that it be built-up as the Capital of the republic. Image: A simple tent. While legend has it that Steve Austin negotiated at the treaty oak to take the land, the town's name was actually decided by an act of the nascent republic's Congress. By law, the Capital city -- wherever they chose to put it -- was to be renamed Austin. Austin's first railroad station had to wait until 1871, when the Houston and Texas Central Railway would run along what is now Fifth street. (Donn's Depot, anyone?) Image: A box car with a neon "Open" sign on the side. --- Clarksville's Contradictions You may know the official story, purchased by James Clark, the area was the oldest surviving freedman's community west of the Mississippi. Its vision: a place where formerly enslaved people could re-unite, free to direct their own lives. Image: a plow stuck in the ground. Ironically it was bordered by Governor Pease's plantation ... who "gave" the land to his former slaves, hoping they would stay in the area and work it with only slightly modified economics. The Sweet Home Baptist Church -- originally organized in the home of Mary Smith on the Haskell homestead -- has been rebuilt three times. The 1928 Austin master plan sought to "encourage" residents to move to the East side, by making public services only available there. They didn't even have electric street lights. Clarksville is "bottomland" which basically means all water (and waste) flow into it. It sometimes flooded with the run-off from more affluent neighbors. Image: A sewer pipe pouring out. In 1968, residents fought (unsuccessfully) to prevent the MoPac freeway from plowing straight through their community. Its concrete and asphalt were in contrast to Clarksville's lack of paved streets even into the 1970s. Image: a train locomotive with the word "MoPac" on its front. In the mid-1970s, Clarksville was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Developers moved in and began flipping houses. The Clarksville Natural Grocer was founded in 1978. In 1980 it merged with SaferWay to become Whole Foods. The first horseman of gentrification saddled up. Image: an electric street lamp. By the 2000s, only 2.1% of the former freedmen's town identified as Black. The Clarksville Community Development Corporation keeps the story alive today. --- Moon Tower Mayhem "Well actually ..." the technical name is "moonlight tower." Image: a full moon. Austin is the only town still operating these nineteenth century marvels. Like so much vinyl, ours were pre-owned. (Purchased off Detroit.) Thirty-one of these suckers were installed in 1895, ostensibly in reaction to Austin's first serial killer a decade earlier. Today, seventeen still stand, with only six in their original location. (And the existence of the Rainey Street killer runs counter to the argument that they are a deterrent to crime.) It took until 2024 to get them all changed over to LEDs. The one in Zilker Park gets turned into an xmas tree every year. Image: A floodlight bulb. "Party at the moon tower!" They never burn out because UFOs refuel them. They're all mapped. Image: a beer keg lying on its side on the ground. --- Business Backstories You go past them all the time, but how much do you actually know about local business? Amy Simmons of Amy's Ice Creams was pre-med at Tufts when she set out on her own. Now she has fourteen locations. (Each with a photo booth, by the way.) Image: an ice cream cone with a single scoop in it. It's called Alamo Drafthouse because they wanted to alphabetize before all the other theaters in the phonebook, including AMC. Torchy's founder was a corporate chef at Enron (and then Dell) before starting his own thing. They got their devil mascot after an "epiphany" when a customer's feedback described them as "damn good." Kendra Scott really did start with $500 and a spare bedroom, then turned it into a $1 billion business. What have you done with your life? Aaron Franklin was first written up by a journalist from Marfa (in the Big Bend Sentinel) while feeding friends at a backyard party. Chuy's gained fame in 2001 when George W. Bush's twin daughters were cited for trying to use a fake ID there. Tacodeli was co-founded by a burned-out IT consultant after the Y2K panic passed. Image: an ID card sitting next to a margarita with salt. --- Elevator Tycoon The Capitol building was the tallest building in Austin for eighty years (until the 1960s). Image: a construction crane. The official bird of Austin is the crane. The Capitol View Corridor law requires that the Capitol building be completely visible from four key locations. It's why some downtown buildings are randomly shorter than their high-rise neighbors. The top of the Jenga Building (Independent) didn't originally light up. That was only added after public outcry about it being ugly. None of the architects of the Frost Bank Tower have any connection to Rice University or its Owl mascot. The owl is a symbol of the Illuminati. The Sail Building ("Block 185," technically) was supposed to house Google employees, but is currently empty. Every floor has a terrace that shades the one below it. The Waterline (that monster over by Rainey) is now Texas' tallest building. The hotel portion of it will be the first phase to open. Image: a concrete mixing truck. --- Sisters Image: a directional sign with ten different arrows pointing in various directions. Saltillo, Mexico, is Austin's oldest sister city (1968) and was the original capital of Texas, when it was Mexican. Maseru, Lesotho, is the site of Africa's largest hydroelectric plant. Koblenz, Germany, created a dual degree with UT and a local university. Adelaide, Australia, received a bronze statue of a longhorn that sits in their Mayor's office, today. Angers, France, is just an hour an a half from Paris by high-speed rail. Taichung, Taiwan, exchanges students with Anderson High School. Chiang Mai, Thailand, has over 300 temples. Lima, Peru, is a place. Gwangmyeong, South Korea, sends exchange students to ACC. Oita, Japan, is famous for its wild Japanese macaques. Limerick, Ireland, is the latest addition, in 2024. Antalya, Turkey, enabled ACC to teach Turkish classes. Pune, India, is a "friend" city ... the first step towards becoming an actual sister city. --- Back Cover Scrollable, printable, accessible, and back issues available online. Image: pair of cowboy boots, one stading, the other on its side.