Belton

History

Belton and Bell County have been the site of human habitation since at least 6000 BCE. Evidence of early inhabitants, including campsites, kitchen middens and burial mounds from the late prehistoric era have been discovered in the Stillhouse Hollow Lake and Belton Lake areas. The earliest identifiable inhabitants were the Tonkawa, who traditionally followed buffalo by foot. Belton was also home to the Lipan Apache, Wacos, Nadaco, Kiowas and Comanche. By the 1840s most tribes had been pushed out by settlements, but skirmishes with the Comanche continued until the early 1870s. Belton was first settled 1850 and named Nolanville, taking the name of nearby Nolan Springs which were named after the Texan explorer Philip Nolan. In 1851, it changed its name to Belton after being named the county seat of newly created Bell County named after Peter Hansborough Bell, the Governor of Texas at that time. In 1860, the population was 300, the largest in the county. During the run up to the civil war, Belton had a large pro-Union minority. A Whig Party anti-secession newspaper called "The Independent" was published there and the city voted overwhelmingly for Sam Houston for governor, who was strongly against Texas secession. Nonetheless, in 1861 Bell County voted for secession and many residents fought in the Confederate Army. After the civil war, Belton experienced unrest. Several pro-union sympathizers were lynched in 1866 and Federal troops were called in to protect the Federal Judge serving in the city. After Reconstruction, the city, close to a major feeder of the Chisholm Trail, served as growing business center for the region. In 1868, Martha McWhirter, a prominent figure in Belton's non-sectarian Union Sunday School, created the Woman's Commonwealth, the only Texas women's…

Geography

Belton is located north of Austin, south of Dallas, and west of Houston. It is near the center of Bell County at the point where the Blackland Prairie, characterized by level ground and deep fertile soil, and the Edwards Plateau, characterized by its many springs, hills, and steep canyons, meet. Its elevation is approximately . It is bordered to the northeast by the Leon River, across which is the city of Temple. Nolan Creek, a tributary of the Leon, runs through the center of Belton. It is also southeast of Belton Lake and northeast of Stillhouse Hollow Lake with both touching its city limits. The city limits extend south along Interstate 35 across the Lampasas River nearly to Salado, and abuts the Temple city limits at the Leon River. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 5.08%, is water.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  7,046
• Carolina Chickadee

  Poecile carolinensis (Audubon, 1834) · Aves
  5,589
• Turkey Vulture

  Cathartes aura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  4,705
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  4,570
• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  4,526
• Carolina Wren

  Thryothorus ludovicianus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  4,487
• Black Vulture

  Coragyps atratus (Bechstein, 1793) · Aves
  3,876
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,860

Most recent

• M 2.9 — 2015-09-03
  7 km NNE of Leander, Texas
• M 2.7 — 2007-09-15
  11 km ENE of Milano, Texas