Bastrop County (Master)

Bastrop County Historical Markers

NUMBER OF MARKERS IN COUNTY- 149

Have - 129 Need - 20

Bastrop County is named for Felipe Enrique Neri, Baron de Bastrop who worked with Stephen F. Austin to obtain land grants. The county seat is the town of Bastrop.
We started taking pictures of historical markers in 2005 and Bastrop County was one of the first countys we targeted to try and capture of all that counties markers. This has not proved to be as easy as it sounds. We live in Round Rock so it's easier to do the necessary repeat visits. In fact, for many people living in this area, Bastrop County has become an extension of greater Austin, luckily it has retained a small small-town feel. Elgin is the biggest city in Bastrop County through Bastrop has the majority of markers. This is largely due to having numeruos gorgeous old houses many of which are also on the National Register for Historic Places.
One of our first trips to Bastrop we stayed in the bed and breakfast that was perfectly situated to walk to many of the above-mentioned homes. It was an extremely windy and a somewhat wet weekend. In our experience, bed-and-breakfasts tend to be hit or miss, this one was a miss. The lower level of the house was the guest quarters, the owners lived on the second story with five large dogs, so despite the Glade plug-ins in every room, the house had an underlying smell of wet dog. The remote for the tv in our bedroom did not work and on Sunday morning we actually had to go to another bed-and-breakfast for breakfast. This was the beginning of our relationship with Bastrop County. It was a successful visit for the markers in the town even though until recently I hadn't realized I had confused the names of the houses with medallions only, which was an embarrassing discovery. We weren't as organized back then as we are now.
Bastrop County has proved challenging. It has a lot of markers on private property, these as I have said before take time and research to gain permission to visit. Texas law says that owners must give the general public access to cemeteries that are on their properties and we have found most landowners are more than likely to grant access even without this law, that is if you can find discover who the said owner is and if the cemetery is actually still accessible. The owner of the land on which the William B. Standifer marker stands however will not only not grant access, the neighbors from who's property the marker is visible are so concerned about causing friction that they also reluctantly declined.
I have yet to see a picture of the Jonathan Burleson marker and have yet to visit the Blakely Cemetery to look for the small pink granite marker. It was actually in Bastrop County that we were introduced to the small pink granite memorial markers which in a large cemetery can be incredibly difficult to spot, thus it took several visits to Fairview Cemetery before we located Jesse Haldeman and Campbell Taylor.

Two markers that have been confirmed missing are the markers for Elgin and the Site of and Early Fort of Bastrop County. I have written to the historical commission of Bastrop to see if there are any plans to reinstate these markers but I don't believe there are as they have been gone for many years. The one marker that is still a mystery, in that I have no more information to its existence than when we first started looking for it over ten years ago, is for the Sayers-Walton Ranch House. So if anyone knows anything about this property we would love to hear from you.
There is work to do, in that there a couple of new markers, an Old pink granite, San Antonio Road, and a couple of old markers still to capture, and a visit to the Old Rock Store in McDade is in order because the medallion and plate are inside the museum. It's not a hardship to revisit this county because there are several great restaurants and while becoming more built up it still feels like you are in the county.

March 31st, 2018- There is no real new information regarding the markers we still need. I did discover I had some errors and some missing pictures, so I am glad I looked through the county. I did notice the second Elgin marker has been dropped from the Texas historic atlas, so my guess is no plans to replace this marker.

August 9th, 2020 - We ran down to Bastrop to capture the Confederate Monument before it is removed. We are trying to represent as complete a list of historical markers as possible.

January 21st, 2025- We were on our way to Houston to spend some time with Steve's dad and had plan to capture a few marker in Colorado County. Just prior to cutting through Smithville Steve asked if there was anything new there I remembered the we stilled needed West End Park, so we stopped and captured it.
On view the county has quite a number of markers on private property the majority of which we have documented by with numerous trips and many emails asking for permission. As it stands right now there are several new markers only a few of which are up. The pink granite grave marker for John Herron is now accessible, previously it in the middle of a cornfield and I suppose it still is but now is has a very nice pathway to the cemetery. The Sayers-Walton Ranch House remains the biggest mystery as to its location but saying this I have also not seen a photo of Jonathan Burleson's gravesite. The Jefferson Davis Highway marker has been removed and placed in storage due to its connection to the Confederacy. Finishing on a positive note the Rock Front Salloon medallion and Plate is back on the building.