DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, north of Austin, there used to be a place that had just about everything a community could want — and a railroad to bring you right to it. This is the story of Waters Park.
It was a multi-ethnic community, sitting north of Austin back in the nineteenth century, and friend, it was no small thing. We're talking stores, a post office, schools, churches, a cotton gin, and homes. A whole life, right there.
But here's where the story gets a little bigger than you might expect. The Austin and Northwestern Railroad came through — and why did they come through? Granite.
They built a line right here to haul granite for the construction of the State Capitol building. Now that's some serious cargo with some serious purpose. But the railroad, being the entrepreneurial outfit it was, figured why stop at freight?
They went ahead and built a recreational park right there in Waters Park, and they ran excursion trains so folks could come on out and enjoy themselves. A resort, really. A favorite site for family outings.
You can almost picture it — families piling onto those trains, heading north, laughing, getting away from it all for a spell. The railroad that built a state brought the people along for the ride. Then came World War I, and after that, Waters Park began to decline.
The town that had buzzed with a cotton gin and Sunday church bells and train whistles slowly quieted. And Austin — the city just kept growing, the way cities do — until it surrounded the place entirely. Waters Park didn't vanish so much as it got folded into something larger.
But for a time, north of Austin, there was a community that welcomed everybody, built itself something to be proud of, and danced at the edge of history while granite rolled south to build a Capitol.
What the marker says
Waters Park was a multi-ethnic community located north of Austin in the 19th century. The Austin & Northwestern Railroad, which built a line through here to transport granite for construction of the State Capitol, built a recreational park in Waters Park, and ran excursion trains for customers. The resort was a favorite site for family outings. Waters Park included several stores, a post office, schools, churches, a cotton gin and homes. The town declined after World War I, and was later surrounded by the growing city of Austin. (1997)