Covert Park, Mount Bonnell, Austin Texas. (original) (raw)

In 1841, as the Austin Daily Bulletin reported on Dec. 13, �A large party of ladies and gentlemen incited by the fineness of the weather and making use of the vacant time during the temporary adjournment of Congress made an excursion on Saturday morning to Mount Bonnell and the country adjacent.�

The newspaper editor, in recounting the excursion, noted that his �editorial duties� had �precluded [him] from the pleasure of participation.�

But just about everyone else in town made the trip.

�The party consisted of 40 gentlemen and 10 ladies, who returned to town in formal array, the armed portion of the cavalcade in advance,� the Bulletin account continued. Vice President Edward Burleson had made the trip, along with the charge of a foreign nation (France), members of the republic�s Congress, �professional men and plain citizens, many of them temporary visitants�who will certainly go home with a vivid recollection of the sunny and variegated beauty of the scenery around Austin and the salubrutity of its atmosphere.�

The reason the excursionists had to have an armed escort was that Austin then constituted the farthest outpost of settlement on the Texas frontier. The Indians still had not accepted that Texas had declared itself a sovereign nation.

Despite the threat of Indians, the editor of the Bulletin obviously hated that he had missed the trip. �We wanted to scent the pure air of the mountains,� he waxed on, clearly needing some time out of the office, �to encircle with the heart�s vision the beauty of the scene, to look again over the dark blue peaks of which the memory of our boyhood still has some reminisces, and upon the river with its gentle current running far beneath, and the wood upon its borders, for we think it one of the pleasantest sights in nature to look down upon running water and the varied verdance of a forest.�

Those who did go, the editor continued, got the view and good groceries. �The viands which were carried out and partaken of by the Cypress spring in the valley, would to us have had an improved taste engendered by the pure air and the novelty and beauty of the scene�.�

All in all, the editor concluded, the excursion to Mount Bonnell had been �merry as a marriage bell.� Still lamenting that he had missed the outing, the editor philosophized, �We count such a day�s enjoyment, worth a year of common life, and reiterate our regret at not having been there.�

Sam Houston, just beginning his second term as president of the republic, had not been there either, but he had visited Mount Bonnell.

Houston once climbed the peak with Judge R. M. Williamson, a former Texas Ranger. The big general is supposed to have slapped Williamson on the back and proclaimed:
�Upon my soul, Williamson, this must be the very spot where Satan took our Savior to show and tempt him with the riches and beauties of this world.�

�

Mike Cox
"Texas Tales" October 3, 2004 Column
See Austin, Texas