| Marker Text |
At Austin’s founding in 1839, Native American groups already living here included Apache, Waco (a branch of the Wichita) and Tonkawa. The dominant tribe was called Comanche; they called themselves Numunuu ("the people"). They controlled much of Central Texas since the mid 1700s, and their Comancheria homeland included much of what became Texas and the Southern Plains. Austin's early history is inseparable from the history of the Penateka Comanche, the southernmost band who ranged along the Colorado River watershed from its headwaters through the Hill Country and into Central Texas.
Rising more than 500 feet above the historic river level, Comanche Peak was part of an intricate network for transportation, communication and resources. Trails from here connected to other trails and geographical features of importance to the Comanche: fords at Santa Monica Springs and Shoal Creek; the pass at Mount Bonnell, and springs such as Seiders, Barton, Manchaca and Hamilton Pool. Segments of these historic trails at the base of Comanche Peak align with local roads such as Comanche Trail and Old Burnet Road that connected Austin to Burnet's Hamilton Creek, a favored Comanche campsite. Peaks such as Comanche Peak were utilized by the Comanche for navigation, surveillance and signaling.
The Comanche continued to travel their extensive trail network regionally and locally as Austin began to grow in population. Just south of the peak, a canyon named Defeat Hollow recalls a circa 1870 skirmish between about a dozen Comanche and Joel Arthur Harris, an early Hudson Bend settler. As the only peak in Travis County named for an American Indian group, Comanche Peak’s location helps us better understand the Comanche geography of Travis County and their trail system into Austin along the Colorado River. (2021) |
