Population in 2000 - 8,002

Estimate of Population in 2007 - 12,000

Square miles in the city - Approximately 10 sq. mi.

Relics and Red Men

(The following is an excerpt from LAKEWAY, THE FIRST 25 YEARS, by Byron D. Varner)

"During the 1967 construction of their house at 221 Corinthian, Bob and Betty Crocker discovered an unusual indentation in the shoreline at the rear of their lot.  Experts authenticated it as a dinosaur print.  It was visible only when the lake was below the 681 foot level.

Archaeologists frequently find relics of ages past in the area, such as the remains of a prehistoric woman near Cedar Park and a mastodon skeleton in downtown Austin in the 1980's. 

Construction excavators unearthed the mastodon skeleton during site work for a new office building on Congress Avenue.  Experts patiently removed the fossil, expensively delaying the construction job for several weeks.

A shallow ocean covered the Texas hills millions of years ago and left limestone deposits containing varied forms of ancient plants, animals and marine life.  Evidence of this geological evolution are the gastropods and molluscan fossils found along street banks and gullies of Lakeway after a heavy rain.

Relics of a more recent age, beginning aboaut 3,000 BC are inconspicuous to the untrained eye, but plentiful nevertheless.  These are rocks charred from campfires, flint weapons, and tools, bones, and the opened shells of mollucks.  They are vestiges of the people who occupied the Hill Country and Lakeway from early times until white settlers arrived here in the 1800s.

Whether of ancient days or more recent times, these native people are called Indians and their former campsites are known as Indian mounds.

Many Indians occupied the area from the present Inn site along Lakeway Drive to Comet Street and along both sides of Comet.  A clump of trees in the front yard of 304 Lakeway Drive is a well-defined Indian mound.

Many other mound areas include Challenger Drive, Edgewater Cove, Hurst Creek, and World of Tennis Boulevard. 

Indians native to this area in recent times were the Tonkawas, who made pottery and used the abundant supply of flint to shape arrow points and tools.  Bands of marauding Commanches from the High Plains and Apaches and Mescaleros from the San Angelo area eventually drove the Tonkawas away.

The same environment that enticed the white settlers - temperate climate, abundant wildlife and streams - attracted the Indians to the Hill Country. The Colorado River's serpentine course through the limestone canyons was a beauty of nature to red men and white men alike."

Pioneering Families

(Excerpts from LAKEWAY, THE FIRST 25 YEARS by Byron D. Varner)

From Page 6, ...."German Immigrant John Henry Lohmann landed in Galveston with a wife and four small children during the winter of 1842.  They made their way northward by ox cart, stopped briefly at Hornsby Bend, then settled on a tract of land on a hill overlooking the small community of Austin.  Lohmann called the place Ridgetop, but it is better known today as the site of the University of Texas. 

Lohmann established the first dairy in Travis County in 1845.  His herd of 11 cows supplied enough milk for the entire Austin community, which included about 35 primitive dwellings and a rude capitol building. 

John continued the operation until 1861, when he homesteaded a fertile site along the river about 17 miles northwest of Austin and built a large stone house and five tenant cabins. 

He also built and maintained a private road to a shallow river crossing, or ford.  According to Lohmann the crossing at normal river level was 'up to a horse's belly, but a man could jump across it during a drought.  In time the access became known as Lohmann's Ford Road but the name was somethow changed through local usage and one 'n' dropped from his name.  Today it is shown on local maps as Lohman's Crossing Road.

Lohmann's Ford was one of the several such accesses that enabled pioneer families to cross the Colorado River, socialize with friends in neighboring communities and grind their corn at Anderson Mill.

The Hudson Family settled here in 1854 on land near the Colorado River bend which bears their name.  The 1860 census recorded a Wiley Hudson, his wife Catherine and their children.  It also listed a household headed by his father, James Hudson.  The Hudsons acquired 4 of the 25 original surveys made on the 4,000 acre Hudson Bend tract.

Another prominent area name is Stewart.  Benjamin K. Stewart came here by covered wagon from Tennessee in 1850.  He purchased 1,500 acres of river-front land at Hurst Creek inlet and built a homestead on the site now known as Vinyard Bay.  In addition to his ranching operation, Ben served in the militia and fought Indians.  Many of his descendants live in the Austin area today.

Bee Cave's name was the result of an oddity.  In the 1870's Carl Beck operated a store on Highway 71.  A swarm of bees built a nest under the eave there and, as it grew in size, gradually took on the appearance of a cave.  People passing by stopped to marvel at the grottesque "bee cave" until the oddity became the name of the location.  Some researchers claim that the building known as Buck's Place today was part of Beck's original store.

The two main communities in 1900 were Bee Cave and Teck.  The name for Teck also came about as an oddity.  Its original name was Eck Community, after Leonard Eck who operated a general store.  The original Eck community school was a one-room building on Eck Community Road (now Kollmeyer). 

When Eck applied for a post office for his store, postal authorities required a name with at least four letters.  Leonard solved the dilemma by adding the letter "T" to Eck and everything became Teck instead of Eck."

"By 1971, Lakeway had emerged from a sleepy little town that came alive during the spring and summer months, to a year-round community for active and retired residents.  People who purchased lots here in the 1960s began building homes in the 1970s, along with others who were just discovering Lakeway. 

With the community already well established, the new developer devoted his time and money to new amenities, subdivision expansion and promotion.

Municipal needs were more important to the growing number of permanent residents, however.  They had security patrols but no police.  The only local police were sheriff's deputies patrolling a wide area of Travis County and seldom available for immediate response. 

Emergency medical service consisted of a journey in one's own vehicle or by private ambulance to a distant hospital.  Lakeway's streets belonged to Travis County and maintenance was the responsibility of a county commissioner.

 ... A committee was formed to study the feasibility and desirability of forming  an incorporated town.  This would give permanent residents municipal services and a government free from developer control.

The electorate approved incorporation on Juy 13, 1974, by a margin of 243 to 85, and selected Newt Herndon as mayor and Jim Gribble and Bob Derby as commissioners, with terms expiring on April 5, 1975.  The new government operated from offices in the Tejas Country Store building on Lakeway Drive.

With no income during the first year or so, the Village government would not have been able to operate without the generosity of local citizens whose financial contributions met the basic needs until the new administration assessed and collected taxes. 

Residents also contributed equipment, rent-free space and other tangibles.  Some individuals paid for street improvements and similar public works in areas abutting their own properties.

As Texas celebrated its 150th birthday in 1986, local officials buried a time capsule at the Village Hall, as one of many events in conjunction with the special anniversary.  The capsule contained various Lakeway artifacts and will be opened in March 2036.

The average age of Lakeway's residents dropped below 60 for the first time in 1987, attributable to the influx of families with school-age children moving here to take advantage of a new and expanding school district - Lake Travis ISD."