Object Type: Folder
In Folder: AF Subjects
Barton Creek is a tributary that feeds the Colorado River as it flows through the Texas Hill Country. The creek passes through some of the more scenic areas in Greater Austin, surrounded in many parts by a greenbelt of protected lands that serves as a habitat for many indigenous species of flora and fauna. The creek passes through Barton Creek Greenbelt and is fed by Barton Springs.
Hamilton Creek rises near the foot of Potato Hill five miles northwest of Burnet in west central Burnet County (at 30°49' N, 98°16' W) and runs south for twenty-two miles to its mouth on the Colorado River, four miles east of Marble Falls (at 30°34' N, 98°13' W). The stream, which is intermittent in its upper reaches, was probably named for Jonathan Hamilton, the original grantee of the land where it rises. The area terrain is flat to rolling with local escarpments, surfaced by shallow, stony, clay and sandy loams. Local vegetation consists primarily of oak, juniper, cacti, and grasses.
Onion Creek is a small tributary stream of the Colorado River in Texas. It begins 12 mi (19 km) southeast of Johnson City, Blanco County, Texas, and flows approximately 79 mi (127 km) eastward into the Colorado River, 2 mi (3.2 km) northwest of Garfield in Travis County, Texas. Onion Creek is the source of the waterfalls in McKinney Falls State Park.
Shoal Creek is the largest of Austin’s north urban watersheds, encompassing approximately 8,000 acres (12.9 square miles). About 27% of the watershed is over the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone. Arrowheads and other artifacts indicate that Native Americans occupied the Shoal Creek watershed 11,400 years ago. Shoal Creek was named by Edwin Waller, and its mouth roughly marked the western city limits of Austin in the original 1839 Waller Plan of the city. Shoal Creek has ecological issues in common with most urban creeks: reduced vegetation, elevated streambank erosion, and impaired water quality. Nevertheless, the wildlife in and along the creek is varied because Austin itself is located at the intersection of four major ecological regions, and is very diverse ecologically and biologically.
