Austin

Sister cities

• Saltillo
• Angers
• Antalya
• Maseru
• Koblenz
• Lima
• Edmonton
• Taichung
• London Borough of Hackney
• Ōita-shi

History

Austin, Travis County and Williamson County have been the site of human habitation since at least 9200 BC. The area's earliest known inhabitants lived during the late Pleistocene (Ice Age) and are linked to the Clovis culture around 9200 BC (over 11,200 years ago), based on evidence found throughout the area and documented at the much-studied Gault Site, midway between Georgetown and Fort Hood. Excavations at the French Legation in downtown Austin revealed a site utilized during the Archaic period of North America, about 5,000 years ago. Artifacts dating to the Paleo-Indians period show possible use as early as 9,000 years ago. Spanish colonists traveled through the area, though few permanent settlements were created for some time. The Espinosa-Olivares-Aguirre expedition of 1709 reached the Colorado River near today's Austin hoping to meet with the Tejas Indians (Hasinai). It was met by members of a number of Indigenous Peoples: Yojuan (AKA Yojuane), Simomo, and Tusonibi. Guides for the expedition included Indigenous Peoples they had encountered just previously living near San Pedro Springs: Chaularame, Payaya, Sana, Sijame, and Siupan. With orders not to cross the Colorado the expedition returned to Mexico. In 1730, three Catholic missions from East Texas were combined and reestablished as one mission on the south side of the Colorado River, in what is now Zilker Park, in Austin. The mission was in this area for only about seven months, then was moved to San Antonio de Béxar and split into three missions. Many of the Indigenous Peoples the Spanish met on early expeditions, for example the Payaya, are classified as Coahuiltecan. Today Coahuiltecan descendants include Austin's Barton Springs among the four springs part of their creation story dating to prehistoric…

Geography

Austin, the southernmost state capital of the contiguous 48 states, is located in Central Texas on the Colorado River. Austin is northwest of Houston, south of Dallas, and northeast of San Antonio. Austin occupies a total area of . Approximately of this area is water. To help control this runoff and to generate hydroelectric power, the Lower Colorado River Authority operates a series of dams that form the Texas Highland Lakes. The lakes also provide venues for boating, swimming, and other forms of recreation within several parks on the lake shores. Austin is located at the intersection of four major ecological regions, and is consequently a temperate-to-hot green oasis with a highly variable climate having some characteristics of the desert, the tropics, and a wetter climate. The area is very diverse ecologically and biologically, and is home to a variety of animals and plants. The soils of Austin range from shallow, gravelly clay loams over limestone in the western outskirts to deep, fine sandy loams, silty clay loams, silty clays or clays in the city's eastern part. Some of the clays have pronounced shrink-swell properties and are difficult to work under most moisture conditions. Many of Austin's soils, especially the clay-rich types, are slightly to moderately alkaline and have free calcium carbonate. Austin's skyline historically was modest, dominated by the Texas State Capitol and the University of Texas Main Building. However, since the 2000s, many new high-rise towers have been constructed. Austin is currently undergoing a skyscraper boom, which includes recent construction on new office, hotel and residential buildings. Downtown's buildings are somewhat spread out, partly due to a set of zoning restrictions that preserve the view of the Texas State…

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  69,374
• Carolina Wren

  Thryothorus ludovicianus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  55,107
• White-winged Dove

  Zenaida asiatica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  51,699
• Carolina Chickadee

  Poecile carolinensis (Audubon, 1834) · Aves
  47,135
• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  43,903
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  40,329
• Lesser Goldfinch

  Spinus psaltria (Say, 1822) · Aves
  33,475
• Great-tailed Grackle

  Quiscalus mexicanus (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  32,698

Largest nearby schools

• WESTLAKE H S
  High · AUSTIN · 2,825 students · 14.2:1 ratio
• BOWIE H S
  High · AUSTIN · 2,782 students · 19.1:1 ratio
• VANDEGRIFT H S
  High · AUSTIN · 2,658 students · 16.2:1 ratio
• AUSTIN H S
  High · AUSTIN · 2,317 students · 20.1:1 ratio
• ANDERSON H S
  High · AUSTIN · 2,210 students · 18.7:1 ratio
• MCCALLUM H S
  High · AUSTIN · 1,824 students · 18.8:1 ratio
• JOHN B CONNALLY H S
  High · AUSTIN · 1,663 students · 13.5:1 ratio
• NAVARRO EARLY COLLEGE H S
  High · AUSTIN · 1,649 students · 16.8:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 2.9 — 2017-10-20
  5 km W of Flatonia, Texas
• M 2.9 — 2015-09-03
  7 km NNE of Leander, Texas