Granite for the State Capitol
Cedar Park, Williamson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In the 1880s, the arrival of the railroad helped develop western Williamson County and contributed to the construction of a new state capitol. When quarried limestone proved deficient for the new statehouse, contractors chose granite from Burnet County outcroppings. The Austin and Northwestern Railroad, which ran through this area and established Brueggerhoff (Cedar Park) and Leander, extended to the Granite Mountain quarry site in 1885. More than 4,000 flatcars passed through here in 1886-87, carrying the large blocks of pink granite to Austin. Three dozen blocks that tumbled of the tracks were left in the creekbed, since the state obtained its building stone free of charge. The Texas State Capitol was completed in 1888. (2008)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When quarried limestone proved unsuitable for the new Texas Capitol in the 1880s, builders turned to pink granite from Burnet County's Granite Mountain. The Austin and Northwestern Railroad, which had opened up western Williamson County and founded Brueggerhoff (Cedar Park) and Leander, extended a line to the quarry in 1885. More than 4,000 flatcars of granite rolled through this area in 1886–87 toward Austin—so many that three dozen blocks tumbled into the creekbed were simply left behind, since the state got its stone free of charge, and the Capitol was finished in 1888.
Why it matters
The granite hauled along these tracks built the largest state capitol in the nation, a monument to Gilded Age Texas ambition and the railroad that made it possible.
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Related events
- · Construction of the Texas State Capitol
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Cedar Chopping in Central Texas
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After Texas won independence in 1836, settlers drawn by timber and Brushy Creek's water carved farms and ranches from the land that became Williamson County in 1848. Beyond cotton and livestock, families harvested the ashe juniper they called cedar—cutting fence posts, roof shingles, telephone poles, and charcoal, and shipping cedar rail ties once four rail lines crossed the county. The itinerant 'cedar choppers' who moved camp to camp, including one leased here in 1905–08, became a defining local trade well into the twentieth century.
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