The falls for which the town was named were called "Great Falls" or the "Marble Falls" as early as 1817.

A man ahead of his time was Colonel Charles J. Todd. In 1851 he bought a good portion of the land along the river for $80. In 1854 "Todd's village" was to be a thriving community in a beautiful place, but few people saw Toddÿs vision. The land went unsold for want of buyers and the county auctioned the land for taxes in 1880.

Adam Johnson also saw the falls in 1854 and wanted to build an industrial showplace, channeling the waters of the Colorado into a riverside plant. Johnson enlisted in the Confederate army during the Civil War and was blinded for life, but not before becoming a General.

In 1886 the now blind Johnson bought a good deal of land ? including the all-important falls. The Texas Mining and Improvement Company was chartered in June 1887 and Johnson and nine investors put the first lots up for sale in July of 1887.

A timeline of significant events in the history of Marble Falls

1871: the legislature authorizes the building of a dam near Marble Falls but it fails to materialize.

1881: State Capitol in Austin burns ? a replacement is planed and granite is the preferred building material.

1885: Adam Johnson grants right-of-way across 7 miles of his property ? letting a railroad spur be built from Burnet. The quarry donates the stone for free and the spur allows it to be hauled to Austin.

1887: The townÿs first newspaper The Nutshell is published.

1889: The Austin and NW Railroad builds extension to Marble Falls from Granite Mountain.

1890: the community had a weekly newspaper and an estimated 400 to 600 residents.

1892: Marble Falls Alliance University was chartered.

1895: a huge building is built, but funding runs out when the time comes to buy machinery.

1907: First city officials are elected.

1908: Independent School District is formed.

1917: Birdie Crosby Harwood is elected as the first woman mayor in the United States.

1920s: Paved roads and electric lights came in then 1920s.

1925: a dam was built to supply power to the Marble Falls Textile Mills Company ? Johnsonÿs company.

1940: the population was just over 1,000.

1950s: A dam forms Lake Marble Falls, but destroys the natural falls.

Marble Falls Attractions Granite Mountain ? RM 1431 on the road to Burnett just North of town. From a roadside park (with the nicest picnic tables in the world) you can observe the quarrying of the same pink granite that was used in the construction of the state capitol building. Lake LBJ: (formerly Granite Shoals Lake) 6,375 acres of water with high bluffs and granite outcroppings Lake Marble Falls Dead Man's Hole ("Texas Tales'' Column by Mike Cox) The expression "he just dropped out of sight" had both figurative and literal meaning in Burnet County during and after the Civil War. Common belief held that folks who disappeared in that area often ended up at the bottom of a 150-plus-deep foot limestone fissure south of Marble Falls aptly named "Dead Man's Hole."

Scenic Drives RM 1431 SW to Lago Vista, and NW to Kingsland, winding road with views of Highland Lakes RM 2147 along the SW shore of Lake Marble Falls Hwy 71 from Austin to Llano, South of Marble Falls (between Austin and Llano, go North on Hwy 281 about 4 miles to Lake Marble Falls and Historic Downtown Marble Falls)

Marble Falls Tourist Information