You are here: Home >> Leander-Cedar Park >> History >> First structure in county a blockhouse fort

First structure in county a blockhouse fort

Attention: open in a new window.

Written by Jim Dawson Thursday, 07 September 2006

This oak tree, alive until the late ‘60s, was the lookout tree for the Rangers at the fort.

The first structure in what is now Williamson County was a ‘blockhouse’ fort located near the present day neighborhood of Blockhouse Creek near US 183 in Leander.

As settlers began to homestead farther away from the protection of Stephen F. Austin’s colony and into traditional Indian hunting grounds, the Texas Rangers with Captain J.J. Tumlinson in command, were ordered to build a fortress near Brushy Creek.

The Tumlinson company’s headquarters was a blockhouse, constructed by the Rangers in the autumn of 1835 at the request of Major Robert M.Williamson (for whom Williamson County was later named), their commanding officer. The fort was located near Brushy Creek for strategic reasons: the creek provided plenty of spring water for the Rangers, and the bluffs to the north and south provided protection from Indian attack. Also known as Tumlinson’s Fort, it was constructed of native timber and housed about sixty soldiers whose duties were to protect the settlers in the area from the Comanches.

The Comanches, having obtained horses from the Spanish, had become the most feared warriors of the Plains, and were extending their territorial boundaries to the south. They claimed this territory as their own at the same time as settlers began claiming it for themselves.

The Ranger company remained in the fort for about two months until March, 1836, when they received word that the Mexican Army, under command of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, had invaded Texas. The Rangers abandoned the fort to go fight, but they were too late to help the defenders at the Alamo and arrived at San Jacinto after the final battle of the war with Mexico.

The fort remained deserted until it was burned by the Comanches in 1838 and was never rebuilt. Until the late 1960s a large oak tree remained at the site, which the Rangers used as a lookout post. Still visible on the tree were the steps that were cut out by the men.

In 1936, the state recognized the structure with a Texas Centennial Marker which can be seen at the entrance to the Blockhouse subdivision on US 183.